OH, SHOOT! 



chest, you understand. If you shoot one of us, 

 he'll get away." 



"Spoil the picture, too," Fred declared. 



I agreed that the point was well taken ; then 

 I argued, reasonably enough, that if I became 

 so nervous as to miss the cougar entirely, I 

 would doubtless miss either or both of the 

 ropers as well and no harm would be done. 

 If, on the other hand, but one man climbed the 

 tree, instead of two, that in itself would re- 

 duce the risk 50 per cent a simple problem 

 in subtraction. Anyhow, I asserted, people 

 who capture wild animals should expect to run 

 some risks. 



So much, then, for the why and the where- 

 fore of this expedition, the detail, the disap- 

 pointment, and the drama of which I have set 

 out to narrate in a simple, conservative, and 

 shameless fashion. 



Ambrose met us on the date set, when we 

 stepped off the train at Grand Canon, Arizona, 

 and, for our part, we displayed to him a 

 camera man who, we had been assured, would 

 stand without being hitched. This camera 

 man had never taken any wild-animal pic- 

 tures; he had never been west of Newark, in 

 fact, but he had recently photographed several 



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