he hound, ringing back,
full of savage eagerness, and she believed Pedro had roused out the lion
from some covert. It lent more stir to her blood and it surely urged her
horse on faster.

Then the swift pace slackened. A windfall of timber delayed Helen. She
caught a glimpse of Dale far ahead, climbing a slope. The forest seemed
full of his ringing yell. Helen strangely wished for level ground and
the former swift motion. Next she saw Bo working down to the right, and
Dale's yell now came from that direction. Helen followed, got out of the
timber, and made better time on a gradual slope down to another park.

When she reached the open she saw Bo almost across this narrow open
ground. Here Helen did not need to urge her mount. He snorted and
plunged at the level and he got to going so fast that Helen would
have screamed aloud in mingled fear and delight if she had not been
breathless.

Her horse had the bad luck to cross soft ground. He went to his knees
and Helen sailed out of the saddle over his head. Soft willows and wet
grass broke her fall. She was surprised to find herself unhurt. Up she
bounded and certainly did not know this new Helen Rayner. Her horse was
coming, and he had patience with her, but he wanted to hurry. Helen made
the quickest mount of her experience and somehow felt a pride in it.
She would tell Bo that. But just then Bo flashed into the woods out of
sight. Helen fairly charged into that green foliage, breaking brush and
branches. She broke through into open forest. Bo was inside, riding down
an aisle between pines and spruces. At that juncture Helen heard Dale's
melodious yell near at hand. Coming into still more open forest, with
rocks here and there, she saw Dale dismounted under a pine, and Pedro
standing with fore paws upon the tree-trunk, and then high up on a
branch a huge tawny colored lion, just like Tom.

Bo's horse slowed up and showed fear, but he kept on as far as Dale's
horse. But Helen's refused to go any nearer. She had difficulty in
halting him. Presently she dismounted and, throwing her bridle over a
stump, she ran on, panting and fearful, yet tingling all over, up to her
sister and Dale.

"Nell, you did pretty good for a tenderfoot," was Bo's greeting.

"It was a fine chase," said Dale. "You both rode well. I wish you could
have seen the lion on the ground. He bounded--great long bounds with
his tail up in the air--very funny. An' Pedro almost caught up with him.
That scar