262 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



would follow the killing of one of these reptiles. 

 Neither the jack rabbit on the ground nor the 

 eagle in the tree escaped his sight. When he 

 laid his hand on my arm and whispered "Qua- 

 ha&al 33 no antelope could be seen by me until we 

 had crept many yards nearer and the creature 

 was within easy range. I shot it against Tave- 

 tossa's protest, for being, like other Indians, a 

 poor shot himself, he always sought to get need- 

 lessly near the game. 



Just once was his instinct at fault, but that 

 gave me the red letter day of the hunt. We 

 were walking slowly and silently in a bit of open 

 woods studying each tree before us, when the In- 

 dian's hand rested on my shoulder with a sharp 

 pressure that enjoined silence and attention. 

 His own silence told me that the game was too 

 near to permit him to speak and as we stood mo- 

 tionless, scarcely daring to breathe, my eyes 

 studied the nearby trees. As they casually 

 rested on a tree within less than fifteen feet of 

 me there flashed upon them the form of a panther 

 crouched on its lowest limb. It was called a pan- 



