186 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
by Boots, intended to climb the tree and attack said 
lynx with a club. Our part was to encircle the tree 
and help Boots if the lynx elected to fight on land 
instead of aloft. If so be that he sprang on any one 
of us, the rest were to attack him instantly, before 
he had time to lap the blood of his victim —a 
distressing habit which Buck advised us was charac- 
teristic of all Canada lynxes. 
This masterly plan was somewhat marred by the 
actions of Robbie Crane. Robbie was of a gentle 
nature, and one whose manners and ideals were far 
superior to the rough boys with whom he occasion- 
ally consorted. Mrs. Crane said so herself. After 
reflecting a moment on the lynx’s unrestrained and 
sanguinary traits, he suddenly disappeared down the 
back-track with loud sobbings, and never stopped 
running until he reached home an hour later. There- 
after our names were stricken from Robbie’s calling- 
list by Mrs. Crane. 
As Buck, boosted by Boots, started up the tree, 
the perfidious lynx disappeared in an unsuspected 
hole beneath a branch, from which he refused to come 
out in spite of all that Buck and Boots could do. 
One member, at least, of that hunting-party was 
immensely relieved by his unexpected retreat. It 
was many years later before I learned that even such 
masters of woodcraft as Buck and Boots could be 
mistaken, and that the Canada lynx was really a 
Connecticut coon. 
It was not until recently that I ever met Lotor by 
daylight. Three years ago I was walking down a 
