Part 22 (1/2)

”As I ao in the leash But the hare was not in the brush; and, after traain noticed the track where she had gone out on the opposite side I was about starting forth to follow it, when all at once an odd-looking creature ht before me It was that fellow there!” And Basil pointed to the lynx ”I thought at first sight,” continued he, ”it was our Louisiana wild cat or bay lynx, as Luce calls it, for it is very like our cat; but I saas nearly twice as big, and hted the creature, it was about an hundred yards off

”It hadn't seenslowly--nearly crosswise to the course of the hare's track--and looking in a different direction to that in which I was I ell screened behind the bushes, and that, no doubt, prevented it fro forward, and setting Marengo after it Then I deter it a while Perhaps it may come to a stop, reflected I, and letthe bushes, and kept the dog at my feet

”As I continued to watch the cat, I saw that, instead of following a straight line, it wasin a circle!

”The diameter of this circle was not over an hundred yards; and in a very short while the aniot once round the circumference, and came back to where I had first seen it It did not stop there, but continued on, though not in its old tracks It still walked in a circle, but a much smaller one than before Both, however, had a common centre; and, as I noticed that the animal kept its eyes constantly turned towards the centre, I felt satisfied that in that place would be found the cause of its strangeI looked to the centre At first I could see nothing--at least nothing that ht be supposed to attract the cat There was a very small bush of s, but they were thin I could see distinctly through them, and there was no creature there, either in the bush or around it The snow lay white up to the roots of the s, and I thought that athe it from where I stood

”Still I could not explain the odd actions of the lynx, upon any other principle than that it was in the pursuit of gaain, and carefully exaround as my eyes passed over it This time I discovered what the animal was after Close into the s appeared two little parallel streaks of a dark colour, just rising above the surface of the snow I should not have noticed the in the saht my eyes before, but I had taken them for the points of broken s I no that they were the ears of sohtly while I was regarding the at them steadily for a time, I made out the shape of a little head underneath It hite, but there was a round dark spot in the middle, which I knew to be an eye There was no body to be seen

That was under the snow, but it was plain enough that what I saas the head of a hare At first I supposed it to be a Polar hare--such as we had just killed--but the tracks I had folloere not those of the Polar hare Then I remembered that the 'rabbit' of the United States also turns white in the winter of the Northern regions This, then, ht I

”Of course my reflections did not occupy all the ti the round and round the circle, but still getting nearer to the hare that appeared eagerly to watch it I reet within shot of the Polar hare; and I no the very sa practised by a duuide than instinct But I had seen the 'bay lynx' of Louisiana do so his feet tobackwards and forwards upon a fallen log, leap into the tops of trees, and get off in that way”

”Believing that his Northern cousin was just as artful as hinificantly at the ”Captain,”) ”I did not so much wonder at the perforreat curiosity to see it out But for this curiosity I could have shot the lynx every tie of the circle Round and round he went, then, until he was not twenty feet froard this the worst of her eneth stopped suddenly, brought his four feet close together, arched his back like an angry cat, and then with one i forward upon his victim

”The hare had only ti of the lynx brought hiht upon the top of her I could hear the child-like scream which the American rabbit always utters when thus seized; but the cloud of snow-spray raised above the spot preventedeither lynx or hare The scream was stifled in a moment, and when the snow-spray cleared off, I saw that the lynx held the hare under his paws, and that 'puss' was quite dead

”I was considering how Idistance, when, all at once, I heard another scream of a very different sort At the same time a dark shadow passed over the snow I looked up, and there, within fifty yards of the ground, a great big bird heeling about I knew it to be an eagle fro one of the white-headed kind--for, as you are aware, these do not have either the white head or tail until they are several years old Its immense size, however, showed that it could not be one of these It le_ of the Rocky Mountains, thought I

”When I first noticed it, I fancied that it had been after the rabbit; and, seeing the latter pounced upon by another preying creature, had uttered its screa thus disappointed of its prey I expected, therefore, to see it fly off To my astonishment it broke suddenly out of the circles in which it had been so gracefully wheeling, and, with another scream wilder than before, darted doards the lynx!

”The latter, on hearing the first cry of the eagle, had started, dropped his prey, and looked up In the eagle he evidently recognised an antagonist, for his back suddenly became arched, his fur bristled up, his short taileyes, and claws ready to receive the attack

”As the eagle cas and claere thrown forward, and I could then tell it was not a bald eagle, nor the great ”Washi+ngton eagle,” nor yet a fishi+ng eagle of any sort, which both of these are

The fishi+ng eagles, as Lucien had told les are more feathered So were his, but beyond the feathers I could see his great curved talons, as he struck forward at the lynx He evidently touched and wounded the aniry: and I could hear it purring and spitting like a toain mounted back into the air, but soon wheeled round and shot down a second ti forward to meet it, and I could hear the concussion of their bodies as they cale ain, for the fight froround The lynx seeonist's body--and at tiain by the bird, that fought furiously ings, beak, and talons”

[Illustration: THE LYNX AND THE GOLDEN EAGLE]

”The lynx now appeared to be the attacking party, as I saw hile, while the latter always received hi with its back upon the snow Both fur and feathers flew in every direction, and sometimes the combatants were so covered with the snow-spray that I could see neither of them

”I watched the conflict for several et near enough for a shot was just while they were in the thick of it, and not likely to heedMarengo in the string, crept forward I had but the one bullet to give them, and with that I could not shoot both; but I knew that the quadruped was eatable, and, as I was not sure about the bird, I very easily le did not fly off, and I no that one of its wings was disabled! He was still strong enough, however, to scratch Marengo severely before the latter could hly handled His skin was torn in several places, and one of his eyes, as you see, regularly 'gouged out'”

Here Basil ended his narration; and after an interval, during which some fresh as chopped and thrown upon the fire, Nor what had befallen him

CHAPTER xxxV

THE ”ALARM BIRD” AND THE CARIBOU