"And how about Ajax?" Bandy-legs continued.

"He's a general all-around dog, and ain't afraid of anything that walks.
Why, boys, I've known him to tackle and kill the biggest lynx ever seen
in these parts, and that's something few dogs could do."

"What's a lynx?" asked Bandy-legs.

"A species of wildcat that sometimes strays down this way across the
Canada border," replied the trapper. "Generally speaking, he's bigger'n
the other and fierce as all get out. Fact is, I believe I'd sooner have a
panther tackle me than a full-grown, ugly tempered lynx. Some people call
it the 'woods devil,' and they hit it pretty near right, too."

"Hasn't a lynx got some sort of mark about him that makes him look
different from the ordinary bobcat?" asked Owen.

"Why, yes," replied Trapper Jim, "there's some difference in the beasts;
but I reckon the little tassels that kinder adorn the ears of the lynx
mark him most of all."

"Looks like a full house, now," remarked Max, who had not hesitated to
make up with both the dogs, being very fond of their kind.

"Oh, while I have company Ajax and Don'll have to sleep in the shed or
lean-to outside," remarked the master of the dogs. "Of course, when I'm
here all by myself they stay indoors with me. And I tell you, lads, they
make a fellow feel less lonely in the long winter days and nights. Dogs
are men's best friends--that is, the right kind of dogs. They become