The Slum Cat 
huge Black Thing with a blazing red eye com- 
ing on, yowling and spitting like a yard full of 
Cats. She put forth all her powers to run, 
made such time as she had never made before, 
but dared not leap the fence. She was running 
like a Dog, was flying, but all in vain; the mon- 
strous pursuer overtook her, but missed her in 
the darkness, and hurried past to be lost in the 
night, while Kitty crouched gasping for breath, 
half a mile nearer home since that Dog began 
to bark. 
This was her first encounter with the strange 
monster, strange to her eyes only; her nose 
seemed to know him and told her this was an- 
other landmark on the home trail. But Pussy 
lost much of her fear of his kind. She learned 
that they were very stupid and could not find her 
if she slipped quietly under a fence and lay 
still. Before morning she had encountered sev- 
eral of them, but escaped unharmed from all. 
About sunrise she reached a nice little slum 
on her home trail, and was lucky enough to 
find several unsterilized eatables in an ash-heap. 
She spent the day around a stable where were © 
two Dogs and a number of small boys, that ~ 
58 
