Western field . he canonbed, he glanced at one side of the trail andsaw there the huge five-toed mark of ..lemountain lion. Far too skilled in the craftof the outdoors was this old cat to followin the trail the man had made, but wherethe thick underbrush came down close tothe tracks of the boots he had leaped backand forth across the trail until more opencountry was reached, and in one such placeas this the man saw the track of his hunterof the night before. And then, Deing moreor less of an idler, and by no means hur-ried in his work on the prospect hole, he / 40 WESTERN FIELD took to followi
Western field . he canonbed, he glanced at one side of the trail andsaw there the huge five-toed mark of ..lemountain lion. Far too skilled in the craftof the outdoors was this old cat to followin the trail the man had made, but wherethe thick underbrush came down close tothe tracks of the boots he had leaped backand forth across the trail until more opencountry was reached, and in one such placeas this the man saw the track of his hunterof the night before. And then, Deing moreor less of an idler, and by no means hur-ried in his work on the prospect hole, he / 40 WESTERN FIELD took to following the track, noiseless yet per-sistent as the cat which had once trailed he well knew, the footprints of the ani-mal were quite fresh, and as he walked,besides watching the plain trail ahead ofhim, his eyes wandered down the wall ofthe forest, exploring every dark corner, try-ing to see behind every fallen log, lest heremight lurk the cat, a more sinister purposein his heart than had been there the night. before. But as the forenoon woreon and he found no waiting graybody hidden in the underbrush, hegave more attention to the trail andthe making of it. Soon to him itwas an open book and soon he sawhow the cat had followed straightback on its own trail when he hadleft it at the edge of the clearingwhere his cabin stood. Then, fin-ally, he came to the place under therocky ledge where the first trailended, but even here there wasnothing save the marks on the faceof the boulder where the lionsgreat claws had gathered togetheras he leaped down into the trail tofollow the unsuspecting one home-ward. Against this the cat had reared itself, anddrawing its claws downward, scarred thebark repeatedly with its sharp nails. Alwaysthe cuts were downward, telling to all theworld that the greatest of the cat tribe hadpassed that way. A grizzly, rising on hismighty hams, would have marked the treetrunk crosswise, and no other cat couldreach so high as this, though many a lynxhad tried,
Size: 2198px × 1137px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectsports, bookyear1902
