THE COWARDLY COUGAR 



a hot day; he was sweaty and his beard was 

 stiff, but personally I could see nothing in his 

 appearance that would have caused me to kick 

 off the whole top of a tree. Of course, I know 

 Fred and I like him. I am prejudiced in his 

 favor. I have seen him when he looked even 

 worse than at that moment; but lions do not 

 make friends easily and there was something 

 about him that this one did not care for. 

 How she escaped a broken collar bone or a 

 sprained ankle I don't know, for she lit with 

 a terrible flop. 



Back we scuttled, over the very trail we had 

 just covered. We knew it to be the same trail, 

 for there were familiar pieces of cuticle on the 

 brush, and the rocks gouged us, the thorns 

 ripped us in precisely the same places they had 

 gouged and ripped us en route hereto. The 

 cougar bayed in the very pine tree from which 

 we had dislodged her in the first place, and 

 we realized that our trip to the oak and back 

 had been a complete waste of time, effort, and 

 epidermis. It had been a perfectly senseless 

 and futile performance, and we told the lion- 

 ess so. 



Once more we climbed that tree, and once 

 more she jumped. Doubtless she intended to 



205 



