were moose in this country before the snow, and there are moose
within a day's walk of us now. It's just as I told you; we may have
to spend five days in finding where they are."

It was on the second day that we found that, while after moose, we
had been tracked by a catamount. The print of its paw was
generously large.

"I've seen bigger," said Alaric, "but this feller's big enough.
He's just waiting round, I guess, so as to get some of the meat we
kill. We'll remember him," he said, looking up at me as he knelt on
the snow, "so's to see that he doesn't spoil the hide or the head."

I accepted the theory, and thought little more of the matter for
twenty-four hours.

At the end of the third day we found that the catamount had for a
second time been following our trail--not only _our_ trail,
but also _mine._

He had followed me all day as I walked along the hillside, looking
ahead and on both sides, but seldom behind. Alaric examined his
tracks carefully for half a mile.

"He was in sight of you all the way," he said. "See here, where he
stood for some time, just shifting about in one place, watching?" I
saw--and thought.

After a while, it seemed to me, a catamount might get tired of
waiting for us to kill his meat, and would start in to kill it for