Upweekis the Shadow. 127 



and a tremendous crash of bushes, almost under my 

 nose, it raised my hair for a moment, not knowing 

 what the creature was, nor which way he was heading. 

 But though every day brought its experience, and its 

 knowledge, and its new wonder at the ways of wild 

 things, I found no trace of the den, nor of the kittens 

 I had hoped to watch. All animals are silent near 

 their little ones, so there was never a cry by night or 

 day to guide me. 



Late one afternoon, when I had climbed to the top 

 of the ridge and was on my way back to camp, I ran 

 into an odor, the strong, disagreeable odor that always 

 hovers about the den of a carnivorous animal. I 

 followed it through a thicket, and came to an open 

 stony place, with a sharp drop of five or six feet to 

 dense cover below. The odor came from this cover, 

 so I jumped down ; when — yeow, karrrr, pft-pft ! 

 Almost under my feet a gray thing leaped away snarl- 

 ing, followed by another. I had the merest glimpse of 

 them; but from the way they bristled and spit and 

 arched their backs, I knew that I had stumbled upon 

 a pair of the lynx kittens, for which I had searched so 

 long in vain. 



They had, probably, been lying out on the warm 

 stones, until, hearing strange footsteps, they had glided 

 away to cover. When I crashed down near them 



