Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-06-24

| his doe fall bleeding when TINS 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 rife
shot, still whisperfoot sprang. But
the distance was too far. His out
stretched paw hummed down four
feet behind Blacktalrs 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 a flock of grouse exploded with
a roar Of wings from fhieket; 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. 1t 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 10 his lair without any meal
whatever.
But still he remained, hoping
against hope. After futile fifteen
minutes of watching trail, he heard
doe feeding on a hillside. It's foot
fall was not so heavy as the sturdy
tramp of buck, and besides the
bucks would be higher on the ridges
this time of morning. He began eau
tious advance toward IT,
For the first fifty yards the hunt
was In his favor. He came up wind,
and the brush made perfect cover.
But the doe unfortunately was stand
Ing full twenty yards farther in an
open glade. Under ordinary circum-
stances, Whisperfoot would not have
made an attack. A cougar can run
swiftly, but q deer is light itself. The
big cat would have preferred to linger,
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 preponderant odds
against him, the charge was almost a
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 i'm which her long legs pushed
| out in spring. But she didn't leap
| straight ahead. She knew enough of
| the cougars to know that the great
| cat would certainly aim for her head
and neck in the same way that duck
| hunter leads fast-flying duckT-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 cougar to chase deer
against which he has missed his
stroke; and 1t Is also quite fatal TO his
dignity. And whoever doubts for a
minute that the larger creatures have
no dignity, and that II Is not very dear
to them, simply knows nothing about
the ways of animals. They cling to
Ii to the death. But tonight one dis
appointment after another had crum-
bled as the rains crumble leaves, the
last vestige 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
he raced in her pursuit. II he had
stopped to think, 1t would have been
one of the really great surprises OF
his life to hear the sudden, unmis-
taxable stir and movement of 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 doe hating in her flight from
cougar. 1t 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 IL is certain that he didn't smell 1t
IL be saw 1t Mt all, 1t was just as 0
shadow. sufficiently large to be thai
of deer. II was moving, crawling a:
Wool the bear sometimes crawied
seemingly TO get out of his path. Ant
Whisperfoot leaped straight at 1t.
1t was a perfect shot. He landed
T high on its shoulders. His head lashet
down, and the white teeth closed. Al
the long life of his race he had known
that pungent essence that flowed forth
His senses perceived 1t. messag,
shot along his nerves TO his brain. Ant
then he opened his mouth in high
far-carrying squeal of utter, abjec
terror
He sprang a full fifteen feet bach
into the thlekets; then crouched TIL,
hair stood still at his shoulders, hi,