lone took his rifle and went out to look for deer. But there
appeared to be none at hand. He came across many lion tracks and saw,
with apprehension, where one had taken Wildfire's trail. Wildfire had
grazed up the canyon, keeping on and on, and he was likely to go miles
in a night. Slone reflected that as small as were his own chances of
getting Wildfire, they were still better than those of a mountain-lion.
Wildfire was the most cunning of all animals--a wild stallion; his
speed and endurance were incomparable; his scent as keen as those
animals that relied wholly upon scent to warn them of danger, and as
for sight, it was Slone's belief that no hoofed creature, except the
mountain-sheep used to high altitudes, could see as far as a wild horse.

It bothered Slone a little that he was getting into a lion country.
Nagger showed nervousness, something unusual for him. Slone tied both
horses with long halters and stationed them on patches of thick grass.
Then he put a cedar stump on the fire and went to sleep. Upon awakening
and going to the spring he was somewhat chagrined to see that deer had
come down to drink early. Evidently they were numerous. A lion country
was always a deer country, for the lions followed the deer.

Slone was packed and saddled and on his way before the sun reddened the
canyon wall. He walked the horses. From time to time he saw signs of
Wildfire's consistent progress. The canyon narrowed and the walls grew
lower and the grass increased. There was a decided ascent all the time.
Slone could find no evidence that the canyon had ever been traveled by
hunters or Indians. The day was pleasant and warm and still. Every once
in a while a little breath of wind would bring a fragrance of cedar and
pinyon, and a sweet hint of pine and sage. At every turn he looked
ahead, expecting to see the green of pine and the gray of sage. Toward
the middle of the afternoon, coming to a place where Wildfire had taken
to a trot, he put Nagger to that gait, and by sundown had worked up to
where the canyon was only a shallow ravine. And finally it turned once
more, to lose itself in a level where straggling pines stood high above
the cedars, and great, dark-green silver spruces stood above the pines.
And here were patches of sage, fresh and pungent, and long reaches of
bleached grass. It was the edge of a forest. Wildfire's trail went on.
Slone came at length to a group of pines, and here he found the remains
of a camp-fir