New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1921-01-28

darkness. II became increasingly like
~ that WhisperfOot world have to re-
tire to his lair without any meal
whatever.
But still he remained, hoping
against hope. After "A futile fifteen
minutes of watching a trail, he heard
a doe feeding on a hillside. Its foot
fall vas not so heavy us the sturdy
tramp Of a buck, and besides, the
bucks would be higher on the ridges
this time of morning. He began Il eau
tious advance toward 1t.
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 a full twenty yards farther, in an
open glade. Under ordinary clrcum-
stances, Whisperfoot would not have
made an attack. A cougar can run
swiftly, but a deer is light itself. The
big cat would have preferred to linger,
a motionless thing In the ~thicketS,
hoping some other member of the deer
herd to which the doe must have be-
longed would come into his ambush.
But the hunt was late, and Whisper
foot was very, very angry. Too many
times this night he had missed his
kill. In desperation, he leaped from
the thicket and charged the deer.
In spite Of the pr%eponderant odds
nuaftGt Is,, tIn ,, ,,rno nlnnnCt ~
success. He went fully half the dis
lance between them before the 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
cut would certainly aim for her head
and neck in the same way that a duck
hunter leads "A fast-fying duck-hop-
ing to intercept her leap. Even as her
feet left the ground she seemed to
whirl in the air, and the deadly talons
whipped down in vain. Then, cutting
back In front, she raced down wind.
1t Is usually the most unmitigated
folly for n cougar 10 chase a deer
against which he 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 that 1t Is not very dear
to them, simply knows nothing about
the ways of animals. They cling to
II 10 the death. But tonight n dis
appointment after another had crum-
bled, as the rains crumhle leaves. the
last vestlge of Whisperfoot's self-con-
troll. Snarling in fury, he bounded
after the doe.
She was lost to sight Mt once In
the darkness. but for fully thirty yards
stopped TO think, II would have been
one of the really great surprises of
his life to hear the sudden, unmis-
taxable stir and movement of n 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 unllkeli-
hood of Il doe halting In her flight from
n cougar. II Is doubtful whether. In
the thickets, he had any perceptions
ments. He was running down wind.
II Is certain that he didn't smell II.
II he saw II at all, 1t was just as a
shadow, sufficiently large to be that
of n deer. II was moving, crawling as
Wool the bear sometimes crawled,
seemingly to get out of his path. And
Whisperfoot leaped straight at 1t.
II was a perfect shot. He landed
high on It's shoulders. His head dashed
down, and the white teeth closed. All
that pungent essence that flowed forth.
His senses perceived II, a message
along his nerves to his brain. And
then he opened his mouth In a high,
f%ar-carrying squeal OF utter, abject
He sprang n full fifteen feet back
into the thickets; then c%rouched. The
hair stood still nj his shoulders, his
were barred; he was prepared
10 fight to the death. He didn't under
He only knew the worst single
of his life. II was not a doe
hat he had attacked in the darkness.
L was not Urson the porcupine, or
wen Wool. II was that imperial mas
.er of all things. nan himself. I'm
inowlng, he had attacked Landy Hill
lreth. lying wounded from Cranston's
,ullet beside the trail. Word of the
ring would never reach the set
after all.