THE COWARDLY COUGAR 



"Sure! Turn 'em aloose!" he yelled back. 

 "I've got her half skinned." 



Fred and I clung weakly to each other. 



' ' Wh what! ' ' we screamed. 



Ambrose came to the edge of the cliff and 

 leaned over. 



"We should have left her where she was," 

 he shouted. "Her belly was full of fresh 

 meat, and when I got back she was dead. 

 Indigestion, I guess." 



"Couple of nuts!" Paul muttered, as he 

 toiled painfully upward. 



Ambrose had spoken truly. He had re- 

 turned from his errand of mercy to find our 

 victim no longer of this world. He had her 

 hide off when we reached him. 



Night was approaching; the deep side 

 canon lay between us and our horses; camp 

 was a long way beyond, and an inexplicable 

 lassitude had come over us. We were a 

 silent party; no one had much to say except 

 Paul, and his remarks we chose to ignore. 



We took a short cut on the way to camp, 

 and, to mark the end of a perfect day, we got 

 lost. In all likelihood we would have wan- 

 dered through those woods until we perished 

 from loneliness, and the painful details of our 



213 



