ht. I think there are lions workin'
over the ridge somewhere. I heard one scream."

"Scream?" inquired Bo, with interest.

"Yes, an' if you ever hear a lion scream you will think it a woman in
mortal agony. The cougar cry, as Roy calls it, is the wildest to be
heard in the woods. A wolf howls. He is sad, hungry, and wild. But a
cougar seems human an' dyin' an' wild. We'll saddle up an' ride over
there. Maybe Pedro will tree a lion. Bo, if he does will you shoot it?"

"Sure," replied Bo, with her mouth full of biscuit.

That was how they came to take a long, slow, steep ride under cover of
dense spruce. Helen liked the ride after they got on the heights. But
they did not get to any point where she could indulge in her pleasure
of gazing afar over the ranges. Dale led up and down, and finally mostly
down, until they came out within sight of sparser wooded ridges with
parks lying below and streams shining in the sun.

More than once Pedro had to be harshly called by Dale. The hound scented
game.

"Here's an old kill," said Dale, halting to point at some bleached bones
scattered under a spruce. Tufts of grayish-white hair lay strewn around.

"What was it?" asked Bo.

"Deer, of course. Killed there an' eaten by a lion. Sometime last fall.
See, even the skull is split. But I could not say that the lion did it."

Helen shuddered. She thought of the tame deer down at Dale's camp. How
beautiful and graceful, and responsive to kindness!

They rode out of the woods into a grassy swale with rocks and clumps of
some green bushes bordering it. Here Pedro barked, the first time Helen
had heard him. The hair on his neck bristled, and it required stern
calls from Dale to hold him in. Dale dismounted.

"Hyar, Pede, you get back," he ordered. "I'll let you go presently....
Girls, you're goin' to see somethin'. But stay on your horses."

Dale, with the hound tense and bristling beside him, strode here
and there at the edge of the swale. Presently he halted on a slight
elevation and beckoned for the girls to ride over.

"Here, see where the grass is pressed down all nice an' round," he said,
pointing. "A lion made that. He sneaked there, watchin' for deer. That
was done this mornin'. Come on, now. Let's see if we can trail him."

Dale stooped now, studying the grass, and holding Pedro. Suddenly he
straightened up with a flash in his gray eyes.

"Here's where he jumped."

But Helen could not see any reason why Dale should s