the water! I pried bark off dead trees and dug into decayed logs to find
the insect enemies of the trees. The open places, where little colonies
of pine sprouts grew, seemed generally to be down-slope from the parent
trees. It was easy to tell the places where the wind had blown the
seeds.

The hours sped by. The shadows of the pines lengthened, the sun set,
and the shade deepened in the hollows. Returning to my camp, I cooked
my supper and made my bed. When I had laid up a store of firewood it was
nearly dark.

With night came the coyotes. The carcass of the deer attracted them, and
they approached from all directions. At first it was fascinating to hear
one howl far off in the forest, and then to notice the difference in the
sound as he came nearer and nearer. The way they barked and snapped out
there in the darkness was as wild a thing to hear as any boy could have
wished for. It began to be a little too much for me. I kept up a bright
fire, and, though not exactly afraid, I had a perch picked out in the
nearest tree. Suddenly the coyotes became silent. Then a low, continuous
growling, a snapping of twigs, and the unmistakable drag of a heavy
body over the ground made my hair stand on end. Gripping my rifle, I
listened. I heard the crunch of teeth on bones, then more sounds of
something being dragged down the hollow. The coyotes began to bark
again, but now far back in the forest.

Some beast had frightened them. What was it? I did not know whether a
bear would eat deer flesh, but I thought not. Perhaps timber-wolves
had disturbed the coyotes. But would they run from wolves? It came to me
suddenly--a mountain-lion!

I hugged my fire, and sat there, listening with all my ears, imagining
every rustle of leaf to be the step of a lion. It was long before the
thrills and shivers stopped chasing over me, longer before I could
decide to lie down. But after a while the dead quiet of the forest
persuaded me that the night was far advanced, and I fell asleep.

The first thing in the morning I took my rifle and went out to where I
had left the carcass of the deer. It was gone. It had been dragged away.
A dark path on the pine-needles and grass, and small bushes pressed to
the ground, plainly marked the trail. But search as I might, I could
not find the track of the animal that had dragged off the deer. After
following the trail for a few rods, I decided to return to camp and cook
breakfast before going any farther. While