Upweekis the Shadow. 123 



moment my eyes were upon him the others hitched 

 closer ; and already two more lynxes were coming over 

 the log. I had to draw the curtain hastily with a 

 bullet between the yellow eyes of the biggest lynx, 

 and a second straight into the chest of his fellow- 

 starer, just as he wriggled down into the snow for a 

 spring. The others had leaped away snarling as the 

 first heavy report rolled through the woods. 



Another time, in the same region, a solitary lynx 

 made me uncomfortable for half an afternoon. It was 

 Sunday, and I had gone for a snowshoe tramp, leaving 

 my rifle behind me. On the way back to camp I 

 stopped for a caribou head and skin, which I had 

 cached on the edge of a barren the morning before. 

 The weather had changed ; a bitter cold wind blew 

 after me as I turned toward camp. I carried the head 

 with its branching antlers on my shoulder ; the skin 

 hung down, to keep my back warm, its edges trailing 

 in the snow. 



Gradually I became convinced that something was 

 following me ; but I turned several times without 

 seeing anything. " It is only a fisher," I thought, and 

 kept on steadily, instead of going back to examine my 

 trail ; for I was hoping for a glimpse of the cunning 

 creature whose trail you find so often running side by 

 side with your own, and who follows you, if you have 



