Kitty 



I came suddenly upon our leader, leading his horse 

 through the scrub pinon on the edge of the canon, 

 and I knew at once something had happened, for he 

 was closely scrutinizing the ground. 



&quot; I declare this beats me all hollow ! &quot; began Jones. 

 &quot; We might be hunting rabbits instead of the wildest 

 animals on the continent. We jumped a bunch of 

 lions in this clump of pinon. There must have been 

 at least four. I thought first we d run upon an old 

 lioness with cubs, but all the trails were made by 

 full-grown lions. Moze took one north along the 

 rim, same as the other day, but the lion got away 

 quick. Frank saw one lion. Wallace is following 

 Sounder down into the first hollow. Jim has gone 

 over the rim wall after Don. There you are ! Four 

 lions playing tag in broad daylight on top of this 

 wall! I m inclined to believe Clarke didn t exag 

 gerate. But confound the luck! the hounds have 

 split again. They re doing their best, of course, and 

 it s up to us to stay with them. I m afraid we ll 

 lose some of them. Hello ! I hear a signal. That s 

 from Wallace. Waa-hoo! Waa-hoo! There he is, 

 coming out of the hollow.&quot; 



The tall Californian reached us presently with 

 Sounder beside him. He reported that the hound had 

 chased a lion into an impassable break. We then 

 joined Frank on a jutting crag of the canon wall. 



285 



