k branches of the tree beneath which the doe had fallen.
Again the maddened scream rang out and a tawny body flashed from
concealment in the foliage.

"A catamount!" Enoch shouted, and seeing the creature fairly over his
head in its flight through the air, he leaped away toward the creek, his
feet winged with fear. Of all the wild creatures of the Northern
wilderness this huge cat was most to be avoided. It would not hesitate
to attack man when hungry, and maddened and disappointed as this one
was, its charge could not be stayed. At the instant when the beast was
prepared to leap upon either the doe or her fawn, Enoch's shot had laid
the one low and frightened the other away. His appearance upon the scene
attracted the attention of the cat and had given it a new object of
attack. Possibly the creature did not even notice the fall of the deer,
being now bent upon vengeance for the loss of its prey, for which it had
doubtless searched unsuccessfully all the night through.

The young hunter was in a desperate situation. His gun was empty and the
prospect of an encounter with the catamount would have quenched the
courage of the bravest. And to run from it was still more foolish, yet
this was the first thought which inspired him. The creek was beyond and
although the ford was some rods above the deer-lick, he thought to cast
himself into the stream and thus escape his enemy. The beast, possessing
that well-known trait of the feline tribe which causes it to shrink from
water, might not follow him into the creek.

A long log, the end of which had caught upon the bank, swung its length
into the stream, forming a boom against which light drift-stuff had
gathered; the swift current foamed about the timber as though vexed at
this delay to its progress. Upon the tree Enoch leaped and ran to the
further extremity. His feet, shod in home-made moccasins of deer-hide,
did not slip on this insecure footing; but his weight on the stranded
log set it in motion. The timber began to swing off from the shore and
one terrified glance about him assured the boy that he was at a most
deep and dangerous part of the stream.

Although so shallow above at the ford, the bed of the creek directly
below was of rock instead of gravel, and ragged boulders thrust
themselves up from the depths, causing many whirlpools which dimpled the
surface of the water. About the boulders the current tore, the brown
froth from the angry jaws of rock dancing lightly