"So he is," said Hugh. "Let's see what it is," and, reaching down, he took his rifle and, stepping outside of the tent door, fired at the creature. It paid no attention whatever, but went on eating. Then Hugh fired another shot and then another, and after the fourth shot, the animal sprang into the air and, turning about, bounded off into the shadow and was not seen again. Hugh picked up the bundle of elk meat and put it in among the branches of the tree, and then he and Jack went back into the tent.
"Well," said Hugh, "I don't know. It was either a mountain lion or a lynx or a bob-cat, but whatever it was, it wasn't a bit afraid."
"No," said Jack, "I could see that. We ought to be glad that it didn't come into the tent with us."
"Well," said Hugh, "we'll know what it is in the morning, when it gets light."
For the remainder of the night their rest was undisturbed. They rose early, and while breakfast was being cooked Hugh walked over to where the animal had been, and after looking about, came back and told the boys that the disturber of their rest had not been a mountain lion.
"I wish after we get breakfast you would show me how you know that, Hugh," said Jack.
"I will," said Hugh, "but I can tell you now. The place where it was lying is too small for a mountain lion. There is no mark anywhere on the snow of a long tail, such as a lion would have, and then out there I picked up this," and he took from his pocket a little tuft of hair, gray, mixed with reddish. "Do you recognize that fur?" he said, as Jack took it in his hand and looked at it.
"No," said Jack, "I don't. But then you know I don't know many of the mountain animals."
"No," said Hugh, "you don't, and I don't think Joe does, either. But unless I'm mightily mistaken that came from a lynx, one of those big animals like a bob-cat, only a good deal bigger, and gray instead of red. They've got black tips to their ears and a kind of whiskers around their necks, and they look awful fierce and savage, but it's all looks. Though they seem to be so big, a man can kill one with a stick and not a very big stick, either."
"Well," said Jack, "let's go over there as soon as we've eaten."
After breakfast Hugh and Jack took their rifles and went over to the place where the animal had been sitting, and Hugh pointed out the animal's tracks, which looked very large.