st back from the rock by his
own effort, the bear toppled outward over the brink of the shelf.
Grappling madly to save himself, he caught only the bowed loins of the
puma, who now sank her teeth once more into his throat, while her
rending claws seemed to tear him everywhere at once. He crushed her in
his grip; and in a dreadful ball of screeching, roaring, biting,
mangling rage the two plunged downward into the dim abyss. Once, still
locked in the death-grip, they struck upon a jutting rock, and bounded
far out into space. Then, as the ball rolled over in falling, it came
apart; and separated now, though still very close together, the two
bodies fell sprawlingly, and vanished into the blue-shadowed deeps
which the dawn had not yet reached.

Upon this sudden and terrible ending of the fight appeared a bearded
frontiersman who had been trailing the grizzly for half an hour and
waiting for light enough to secure a sure shot. With something like
awe in his face he came, and knelt down, with hands gripping
cautiously, and peered over the dreadful brink. "Gee! But that there
cat was game!" he muttered, drawing back and sweeping a comprehensive
gaze across the stupendous landscape, as if challenging denial of his
statement. Obviously the silences were of the same opinion, for there
came no suggestion of dissent. Carefully he rose to his feet and
pressed on towards the cave.

Without hesitation he entered, for he knew that the puma's mate some
weeks before had been shot, far down in the valley. He found the
kittens asleep and began to fondle them. At his touch, and the smell
of him, they awoke, spitting and clawing with all their mother's
courage. Young as they were, their claws drew blood abundantly.
"Gritty little devils!" growled the man good-naturedly, snatching
back his hand and wiping the blood on his trouser-leg. Then he took
off his coat, threw it over the troublesome youngsters, rolled them in
it securely, so that not one protesting claw could get out, and
started back to the camp with the grumbling and uneasy bundle in his
arms.

Three months later, the two puma cubs, sleek, fat, full of gayety as
two kittens of like age, and convinced by this time that man was the
source and origin of all good things, were sold to a travelling
collector. One, the female, was sent down to a zoological garden on
the Pacific coast. The other, the male, much the larger and at the
same time the more even-tempered and amenable to teac