pony. The bones were not yet picked clean,
although more than half of the carcass was eaten, and Jimmy wondered, as
he rushed forward, that the voracious beasts had left a morsel
undevoured. But he did not wonder long; for a low, peculiar sound,
seeming to rise from the earth at his very feet, startled him, and he
saw, stretched upon the ground like a great cat, not six yards away, an
animal the like of which he had never seen before. But he had heard of
the lions which sometimes came down from the mountainous and broken
country farther west, and knew that this creature must be one of them.

He understood then what had driven the wolves away, and wished himself
safely back in his tree-top. The lion lashed its tail and partly rose
from its position on the ground, but it subsided again as Jimmy stood
stock-still, with eyes of horror fixed upon it. The probabilities are
that it was satiated with food, and only wished to guard the prey it had
already secured from further molestation. However that may be, it made
no other movement than to lift its head and swish its tail, as if in
warning, and Jimmy backed slowly away as long as he could endure the
strain of moving slowly; and then, when he felt that he _must_ run, he
turned and flew over the ground with the speed of a deer until he was
forced to stop from sheer exhaustion.

CHAPTER XXVI.

When Jimmy at length stopped running, he found that he had left the
ravine quite out of sight. The country about him was rolling, and as the
wind waved the tall grass before his eyes, it was as if he were looking
upon a great gray-green sea, and the ravine doubtless lay between the
billow-like swells of land that spread out in vast expanse before him.

He looked about him and became more and more bewildered. He could not
determine which course he ought to take in order to reach the ranch
described to him by Mr. Highton.

It never occurred to him that this great cattle ranch, where he was to
get "big wages" and have "lots of fun," had no existence, save in his
"friend's" imagination.

Then again he fell to wondering where Mr. Highton could be. He could not
bring himself to believe that a man--a grown man--had been so frightened
by the lion that he had run away and left him--a boy--to take his
chances, unarmed and alone!

And yet the last he knew of Mr. Highton, he was lying near him, with his
saddle and bridle beneath his head, apparently sleeping and settled for
the night.

An