he reached the first limb, which broke, giving him a hard fall. This
calmed me enough to make me take notice of Jones's condition. He was
wet with sweat and covered with the black pitch from the pines; his
shirt was slit down the arm, and there was blood on his temple and his
hand. The next attempt began by placing a good-sized log against the
tree, and proved to be the necessary help. Jones got hold of the second
limb and pulled himself up.

As he kept on, Kitty crouched low as if to spring upon him. Again Frank
and I sent warning calls to him, but he paid no attention to us or to
the cougar, and continued to climb. This worried Kitty as much as it
did us. She began to move on the snags, stepping from one to the other,
every moment snarling at Jones, and then she crawled up. The big branch
evidently took her eye. She tried several times to climb up to it, but
small snags close together made her distrustful. She walked uneasily
out upon two limbs, and as they bent with her weight she hurried back.
Twice she did this, each time looking up, showing her desire to leap to
the big branch. Her distress became plainly evident; a child could have
seen that she feared she would fall. At length, in desperation, she
spat at Jones, then ran out and leaped. She all but missed the branch,
but succeeded in holding to it and swinging to safety. Then she turned
to her tormentor, and gave utterance to most savage sounds. As she did
not intimidate her pursuer, she retreated out on the branch, which
sloped down at a deep angle, and crouched on a network of small limbs.

When Jones had worked up a little farther, he commanded a splendid
position for his operations. Kitty was somewhat below him in a
desirable place, yet the branch she was on joined the tree considerably
above his head. Jones cast his lasso. It caught on a snag. Throw after
throw he made with like result. He recoiled and recast nineteen times,
to my count, when Frank made a suggestion.

"Rope those dead snags an' break them off."

This practical idea Jones soon carried out, which left him a clear
path. The next fling of the lariat caused the cougar angrily to shake
her head. Again Jones sent the noose flying. She pulled it off her back
and bit it savagely.

Though very much excited, I tried hard to keep sharp, keen faculties
alert so as not to miss a single detail of the thrilling scene. But I
must have failed, for all of a sudden I saw how Jones was standing in
the tr