The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1921-01-20


rife. inst today Blacktail had seen
his doe fall bleeding when this same
sound, only louder. spoke from a
covert from which Bert Cranston had
poached her-and he left the lick in
one bound.
Terrified though he was by the rifle
shot, still Whisperfoot sprang. But
the distance was too far His out
stretched paw hummed down four
feet behind Blacktail's flank. Then
forgetting everything but his anger
and disappointment, the great cougar
opened his mouth and howled.
The long night was almost done
when he got sight of further game.
Once flock of grouse exploded with
roar of wings from 8 thicket; but
they had been wakened by the first
whisper of dawn In the wind, and he
really had no chance at them. Soon
after this, the moon set.
The larger creatures of the forest
are almost as helpless in absolute
darkness as human beings. It is very
well to talk of seeing in the dark, but
from the nature of things even verti-
cal pupils may only respond to light.
No owl or bat can see in absolute
darkness. 1t became increasingly like
~ that Whisperfoot would have to re-
tire to mis- lair without any meal
whatever.
But still he remained, hoping
against hope. Aftar a futile fifteen
minutes of watching a trail, he heard
doe feeding on a hillside. Its foot
fall was not so heavy as the sturdy
tramp of a buck, and besides, the
bucks would be higher on the ridges
this time of morning. He began a eau
tious advance toward it.
For the first fifty yards the hunt
was in his favor. He came up wind,
and the brush made a perfect cover.
But the doe unfortunately was stand
ing full twenty yards farther, in an
open glade. Under ordinary circum-
stances, Whispertoot would. not have
made an attack. A cougar can rum
swiftly, but a deck is light itself. The
big cat would have preferred to finger,
mOtiOnless thing in the xhickets,
hoping some other member Of the deer
herd to which the Goe must have be"
lOnged would come into his ambush.
But the hunt wal: late, and Whisper
foot was very, very angry. Too many
times this night he had missed his
kill. In desperation, he leapcd from
the thicket, and charged the DEER
In spite Of the preponderant odds
against him, the charge was almost a
success. He went fully half the dis
lance between them before che deer
perceived him. Then she leaped.
There seemed to be no interlude Of
time between the instant that she be-
held the dim, tawny figure in the air
and that in which her long legs pushed
out in a spring. But she didn't leap
straight ahead. SHE knew enough OF
the cougars to know that the great
cat would certainty aim for her head
and neck in the same way that duck
hunter leads a fast-fying duck-hOp-
ing to intercept her leap. Even as her
feet left the ground she seemed to
whipped down in vain. Then, cutting
back in front, she raced down wind.
It is usually tile most unmitigated
folly for cougar to chase deer
against which lie has missed his |
stroke; and it is also quite fatal to his
dignity. And Whoever doubts for a
minute that the larger creatures have |
no dignity, and tn at it is not very dear |
to them, simply Knows nothing about |
the ways of AMIR gals. They cling to |
it to the death. But tonight one dis.
appointment after another had cruln-
bled, as the rains crumble leaves, the
xyocfiU0 Of Whfcnorfn0fSc cnlf-onn~
troll. Snarling H. fury, he bounded
after the doe.
She was lost 10 sight at once In
the darkness, but for fully thirty yards
he raced in her pursuit. If he had
stopped to think, it would have been
one of the really great surprises Of
his life to hear the sudden, unmis-
taxable stir and movement of a large,
living creature not fifteen feet distant
in the thicket.
He didn't stop to think at all. He
didn't puzzle on the extreme unlikell-
hood of doe hating in her flight from
a cougar. It is doubtful whether, In
the thickets, he had any perceptions
of the creature other than it's move
ments He was running down wind,
so it is certain that he didn't smell it
If he saw it at all, it was just as
shadow, sufficiently large to be that
of deer. It was moving. crawling as
Wool the bear sometimes crawled,
seemingly to get out Of his path. And
leaped straight at it.
It was a perfect shot. He landed
high on its shoulders. His head dashed
down, and the white teeth closed. All
the long life Of his rae he had known
that pungent essence that flowed forth.
His senses perceived it, a message
shot along his nerves to his brain. And
then he opened his, mouth in high,
carrying sQueal OF utter, AFFECT