64 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



We could barely hear the hounds ; they had followed 

 their back trail of the preceding day, toward the place 

 where we had first come across the tracks of the cougar 

 we had already killed. We were utterly puzzled, even 

 GofT being completely at fault, and we finally became 

 afraid that the track which the pack had been running 

 was one which, instead of having been made during the 

 night, had been there the previous morning, and had been 

 made by the dead cougar. This meant, of course, that 

 we had passed it without noticing it, both going and com- 

 ing, on the previous day, and knowing Goff's eye for a 

 track I could not believe this. He, however, thought we 

 might have confused it with some of the big wolf tracks, 

 of which a number had crossed our path. After some 

 hesitation, he said that at any rate we could find out the 

 truth by getting back into the flat and galloping around 

 to where we had begun our hunt the day before; because 

 if the dogs really had a fresh cougar before them he must 

 have so short a start that they were certain to tree him 

 by the time they got across the ridge-crest. Accordingly 

 we scrambled down the precipitous mountain-side, gal- 

 loped along the flat around the end of the ridge and drew 

 rein at about the place where we had first come across 

 the cougar trail on the previous day. Not a dog was to 

 be heard anywhere, and Goff's belief that the pack was 

 simply running a back track became a certainty both in 

 his mind and mine, when Jim suddenly joined us, evi- 

 dently having given up the chase. We came to the con- 

 clusion that Jim, being wiser than the other dogs, had 

 discovered his mistake while they had not; " he just nat- 

 urally quit," said Goff. 



