66 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



left us- and were running hard to join Tree'em, and in an- 

 other minute or two all of the hounds, except the belated 

 Boxer and Nellie, had also come up. The cougar having 

 now recovered his wind, jumped down and cantered off. 

 He had been running for three hours before the dogs and 

 evidently had been overtaken again and again, but had 

 either refused to tree, or if he did tree had soon come 

 down and continued his flight, the hounds not venturing 

 to meddle with him, and he paying little heed to them. 

 It was a different matter, however, with Turk and Queen 

 along. He went up the hill and came to bay on the top 

 of the cliffs, where we could see him against the skyline. 

 The hounds surrounded him, but neither they nor Turk 

 came to close quarters. Queen, however, as soon as she 

 arrived rushed straight in, and the cougar knocked her 

 a dozen feet off. Turk tried to seize him as soon as Queen 

 had made her rush ; the cougar broke bay, and they all dis- 

 appeared over the hill-top, while we hurried after them. 

 A quarter of a mile beyond, on the steep hillside, they 

 again had him up a pinyon-tree. I approached as cau- 

 tiously as possible so as not to alarm him. He stood in 

 such an awkward position that I could not get a fair 

 shot at the heart, but the bullet broke his back, and 

 the dogs seized him as he struck the ground. There 

 was still any amount of fight in him, and I ran in as 

 fast as possible, jumping and slipping over the rocks 

 and the bushes as the cougar and dogs rolled and slid 

 down the steep mountain-side for, of course, every min- 

 ute's delay meant the chance of a dog being killed or 

 crippled. It was a day of misfortunes for Jim, who was 



