WITH THE COUGAR HOUNDS 65 



After some little work we found where the pack had 

 crossed the broad flat valley into a mass of very rough 

 broken country, the same in which I had shot my first 

 big male by moonlight. Cantering and scrambling 

 through this stretch of cliffs and valleys, we began to hear 

 the dogs, and at first were puzzled because once or twice 

 it seemed as though they were barking treed or had some- 

 thing at bay; always, however, as we came nearer we 

 could again hear them running a trail, and when we 

 finally got up tolerably close we found that they were all 

 scattered out. Boxer was far behind, and Nellie, whose 

 feet had become sore, was soberly accompanying him, no 

 longer giving tongue. The others were separated one 

 from the other, and we finally made out Tree'em all by 

 himself, and not very far away. In vain Goff called and 

 blew his horn; Tree'em disappeared up a high hillside, 

 and with muttered comments on his stupidity we gal- 

 loped our horses along the valley around the foot of the 

 hill, hoping to intercept him. No sooner had we come 

 to the other side, however, than we heard Tree'em evi- 

 dently barking treed. We looked at one another, won- 

 dering whether he had come across a bobcat, or whether 

 it had really been a fresh cougar trail after all. 



Leaving our horses we scrambled up the canyon until 

 we got in sight of a large pinyon on the hillside, under- 

 neath which Tree'em was standing, with his preposter- 

 ous tail arched like a pump-handle, as he gazed solemnly 

 up in the tree, now and then uttering a bark at a huge 

 cougar, which by this time we could distinctly make out 

 standing in the branches. Turk and Queen had already 



