e spoke. Then Yan, "I'll go if you'll lend me the
revolver."

"So would I," said Wesley quickly.

"Well, now, we'll draw straws"--and Yan won. Caleb felled a thin tree
against the big one and Yan climbed as he had done once before.

There was an absence of the joking and chaffing that all had kept
up when on the other occasion Yan went after the Coon. There was a
tension that held them still and reached the climber to thrill him
with a weird sense of venturing into black darkness to face a fearful
and mysterious danger. The feeling increased as he climbed from the
leaning tree to the great trunk of the Basswood, to lose sight of his
comrades in the wilderness of broad leaves and twisted tree-arms.
The dancing firelight sent shadow-blots and light-spots in a dozen
directions with fantastic effect. Some of the feelings of the night at
Garney's grave came back to him, but this time with the knowledge of
real danger. A little higher and he was out of sight of his friends
below. The danger began to appal him; he wanted to go back, and to
justify the retreat he tried to call out, "No Coon here!" but his
voice failed him, and, as he clung to the branch, he remembered
Caleb's words, "There's nothing ahead of grit, an' grit ain't so much
not bein' scairt as it is goin' straight ahead when you _are_
scairt." No; he would go on, come what would.

"Find anything?" drawled a cheery voice below, just at the right time.

Yan did not pause to answer, but continued to climb into the gloom.
Then he thought he heard a Coon snarl above him. He swung to a higher
branch and shouted, "Coon here, all right!" but the moment he did so
a rattling growl sounded close to him, and looking down he saw a huge
grey beast spring to a large branch between him and the ground, then
come climbing savagely toward him. As it leaped to a still nearer
place Yan got a dim view of a curious four-cornered face, shaggy
and striped, like the one he saw so long ago in Glenyan--it was an
enormous _Lynx_.

Yan got such a shock that he nearly lost his hold, but quickly
recovering, he braced himself in a crotch, and got out the revolver
just as the Lynx with a fierce snarl leaped to a side branch that
brought it nearly on a level with him. He nervously cocked the pistol,
and scarcely attempting to sight in the darkness, he fired and missed.
The Lynx recoiled a little and crouched at the report. The boys below
raised a shout and Turk outdid them all in racket.

"