it missed. And then, for a weary time of silence it sat still, its head
back, its eyes on the desired meal. In the moonlight Gloria saw the
glistening saliva from the half-parted jaws.

But in the end feline craft found the way, and the cat set its paws
against the tree trunk, and began to climb. Limbs broke under the two
hundred pounds of weight; the bark was torn under slipping paws, but
upward the sinuous body writhed. Swiftly now it would come to King's
kill.

King's! Gloria started; this was Mark's kill: he had stalked it, he had
ploughed many miles through deep snow to get it. To get it for her as
well as for him. To keep the life in her--now, without it, King would
die. And now the lion was going to take it, while she watched and did
nothing!

"Oh, God, help me!" She sprang to her feet, she jerked up her rifle and
fired at the black bulk crawling upward in the pine. "It shall not have
Mark's meat! It shall not!"

At the first shot the mountain-lion dropped through crashing branches.
She had shot it--she had driven a bullet through its heart. God had
heard her. That was her first wild thought. But in a flash she saw that
it was on its feet again, and that with red mouth snarling it had swung
about, facing her; she saw the cruel white teeth, wet and glistening.

Incoherently Gloria cried out, again sick and shaken with terror. In
another moment she would have the lean powerful body leaping upon her.
She fired again and again, taking no time for aim, as fast as she could
work the lever and pull the trigger; she was trembling so that it was
all that she could do to hold the gun at all. She prayed and called on
Mark and fired, all at once.

Never did bullets fly wider of the mark, but never did the roar of
exploding shells do better service. The lion, though ravenous, was not
yet starved to the degree to whip it to the supreme desperation of
attacking a human being and defying a rifle; it whirled and went
flashing across the snow, seeking the shadows, gone in the drifts,
vanishing.

Gloria gasped, stared after its wild flight a paralysed moment and then
ran to the tree where the bear hung. She was shaking like a leaf in a
storm; she was still terrified, filled with horror at the thought that
at any second the lean body might come flashing back upon her. But
through the emotions storming through her there lived on that one
determination that would live while she lived: that was Mark's meat and
she was going t