Kitty 



him reeling. Sounder came flying up to bite her 

 flank, and at the same moment fierce old Moze 

 closed in on her. The next instant a struggling mass 

 whirled on the ground. Jones and Frank, yelling 

 like demons, almost rode over it. The cougar broke 

 from her assailants, and dashing away leaped on the 

 first tree. It was a half-dead pine with short snags 

 low down and a big branch extending out over a 

 ravine. 



&quot; I think we can hold her now,&quot; said Jones. The 

 tree proved to be a most difficult one to climb. Jones 

 made several ineffectual attempts before 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 cov 

 ered 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 



297 



