190 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 
Sure enough, when the shot cut through the 
branches well above the animal, he started slowly 
down the trunk, head-foremost, like a squirrel, and 
never stopped until he reached a branch some twenty 
feet above the yelping pack. Then, with hardly a 
pause, he launched himself right into their midst. 
As he came through the air, we could see him slash- 
ing with his claws, evidently limbering up. He struck 
the ground, only to disappear in a wave of dogs. 
In a minute he fought himself clear, and managed to 
get his back against the tree. Then followed a great 
exhibition of scientific fighting. The coon was 
perfectly balanced on all four feet, and did wonder- 
ful execution with his flexible fore-paws, armed with 
sharp, curved claws. He went through that mongrel 
pack like a light-weight champion in a street fight. 
Ducking, side-stepping, slashing and biting fiercely 
in the clinches, he broke entirely through the circle, 
and started off at a brisk trot toward the thick woods. 
The pack followed after him, baying ferociously, 
but doing nothing more. Not one of them would 
venture again into close quarters. Though we came 
back empty-handed, not even Uncle Zeke grudged 
that coon his life. 
The motto of the next sleeper is, ““Don’t hurry, 
others will.”’ If you meet in your wanderings a black- 
and-white animal wearing a pointed nose, a bushy 
tail, and an air of justified confidence, avoid any al- 
tercation with him. The skunk discovered the secret 
of the gas-attack a million years before the Boche. 
