CHAPTER VI 



|HE dogs being more or less crippled from the 

 fight with the lion and the buck, we were lay- 

 ing off a day, which Hardy took advantage of to 

 hunt deer in the afternoon. He had not been 

 gone long before we saw him returning in apparent haste, and, 

 surmising that he had found a lion track near camp, we were 

 watching him, when his horse turned acrobat and both landed 

 in the snow. He came on and informed us that he had found 

 a track a short distance up Dark Canon. As it was one of the 

 brightest of Colorado days, we quickly decided to try and get 

 the lion. So we hurriedly saddled and rode up to the track. 

 At first we thought it a wolf, but on following a short dis- 

 tance, a change in the snow enabled us to tell that it was a 

 lion; so the hounds were uncoupled. "Speckle/' the re- 

 liable, was left in camp, as he had been too badly hurt the day 

 before to go ; so "Spot" was put in the lead, and away they went 

 up the hill to the west, while we followed as fast as possible. 

 We had hardly got started, it seemed, before the dogs were 

 balked by a piece of bare ground to which the trail led. Pat- 

 terson went across afoot and found where the lion had left it ; 

 so when the dogs were once more gathered — for they were 

 working hard to find the trail — they were put on, and we 



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