Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-04-09
CHAPTER iv--continued.

-I4
He called once to aennox, snatched
the shotgun that still stood where he
had placed 1t In the corner OF the
room. and FASTENED to the corral. The
mare whickered plaintively when he
took her from her food.
When Snowbird first heard the step
in the thickets beside her, she halted
bravely and held her lantern high. She
understood at last. The very extremity
of the beams found reflection in two
very curious circles of greenish fire:
fire that was old upon the world be-
fore man ever rubbed two sticks to-
getber to strike a fame. OF course
the dim rays had simply been reflect
ed on the eyes of some great beast of
prey.
She identified it at once. Only the
eyes of the felines, with vertical pu-
pills. have this identical greenish glare.
The eyes of the wolves glow In the
darkness, but the circles are usually
bright points. OF course 1t was cou-
gar.
She didn't cry out again. Realizing
at last the reality of her peril, her
long training In the mountains came
TO her aid. That did not mean she
was not truly and terribly afraid. The
beast was hunting her. She couldn't
doubt this fact. Curiosity might make
lion follow her, but 1t would never
beget such a wild light of madness In
his eyes as this she had just seen. She
simply clamped down all her moral
strength on her rising hysteria and
looked her situation in the face. Her
nand flew instinctively to her side,
and the pistol leaped in the lantern
light.
But the eyes had already blinked
out before she could raise the weapon.
she shot twice. The echoes r0ared
pack. unbelievably loud In the silence,
and then abruptly died; and the only
sound was a rustling of leaves as the
cougar crouched. She sobbed once,
then hurried on.
She was afraid to listen at first. She
wanted to believe that her pistol fire
would frighten the animal from her
trail. She knew, under ordinary con-
ditions, that 1t would. If he still fol-
lowed, 1t could mean but one thing
that some rnheard-of incident had oc
Cured to destroy his fear of men. IT
would mean that he had knowingly set
upon her trail and was hunting her
with all the age-old remorselessness
that is the code Of the mountains
For little while all was silence.
Then out of the hush the thickets sud- |
denly crashed and shook on the oppo-
site side of the trail. She fred blind
ly into the thicket. Then she caught |
herself with sob. But two shells |
remained in her pistol, and they must |
be saved for the test.
Whisperfoot the cougar remember
ing the lessons Of his youth, turned
from the trail when he had first heard
Snowbirds step, He had crouched
and let her pass. She was walking
into the wind; and as she was at the
closest point a message had blown
back to him.
The hair went straight on his Shout
ders and along his spine. His blood,
running cold an instant before from
fear, made a great leap In his veins.
A picture came in his dark mind: the
chase for a deer when the moon had
set. the stir of a living thing that
broke twigs in the thickets, and the
leap he had made There had been
blood, that night-the wildness and the
madness and the exultation of the kill.
OF course there had been terror first,
but the terror had soon departed and
left something lying warm and still
in the thickets. It was the same game
that walked his trail in front-game
that died easily and yet, In vague
way he did not understand the
noblest game Of all. 1t was living
flesh. to tear with talon and fang.
All his training, all the instincts i'm
bued in him by thousand generations
of cougars who knew this greatest
fear, we're simply obliterated by the
sudden violence Of his hunting-mad-
ness. He had tasted this blood once,
and it could never be forgotten. The
flame leaped In his eyes. And then he
began the stalk.
A cougar, trying TO creep silently
on Its game. does not move quickly. It
simply steas, as serpent steals
through the grass. Whlsperfoot stalked
for a period of five minutes to learn
that the prey was farther away from
him at every step.
He trotted forward until he came
close. and again he stalked. Again he
found after a few minutes of silent
through the thlckets, that he
had lost distance Evidently this
game did not feed slowly, like the
deer. 1t was to be a chase, then