ng his feet down
and yawned prodigiously. "Heh--hell!" he exclaimed as his bare feet
touched the furry back of the lion. Bill glanced down into those
half-closed eyes. His jaw sagged. Then he bounded to the middle of
the room. With a whoop he dashed through the doorway, rounded into the
open, and sprinted for the corral fence, his bare legs twinkling like
the side-rods of a speeding locomotive and his shirt-tail fluttering in
the morning breeze. Andy White leaped from his bunk, saw the dead
lion, and started to follow Haskins. Another cowboy, Avery, was
dancing on one foot endeavoring to don his overalls.

Hank Barley, an old-timer, jumped up with his gun poised, ready for
business. "Why, he's daid!" he exclaimed, poking the lion with the
muzzle of his gun.

Pete rose languidly and began to dress. "What's all the hocus, fellas?
Where's Haskins?"

"Bill he done lit out like he'd lost somethin'," said Barley. "Now I
wonder what young ijjut packed that tree-cat in here last night? Jim
said yesterday he was goin' to do a little lookin' round. Looks like
he sure seen somethin'."

"Yes," drawled Pete. "Jim and me got a buck and this here lion. We
didn't have time to git anything else."

"Too bad you didn't git a bear and a couple of bob-cats while you was
at it."

"Hey, boys!" called Andy from the doorway. "Come see Bill!"

The men crowded to the door. Perched on the top rail of the corral
fence sat Bill Haskins shivering and staring at the house. "We killed
your bed-feller!" called Barley. "He done et your pants afore we
plugged him, but I kin lend you a pair. You had better git a-movin'
afore Ma Bailey--"

"Ssh!" whispered Andy White. "There's Ma standin' in the kitchen door
and--she's seen Bill!"

Bill also realized that he had been seen by Mrs. Bailey. He shivered
and shook, teetering on the top rail until indecision got the better of
his equilibrium. With a wild backward flip he disappeared from the
high-line of vision. Ma Bailey also disappeared. The boys doubled up
and groaned as Bill Haskins crawled on all fours across the corral
toward the shelter of the stable.

"Oh, my Gosh!" gasped Barley. "S-s-ome--body--sh-shoot me and put me
out of my m-misery!"

A few seconds later Bailey crossed the yard carrying an extra pair of
those coverings most essential to male comfort and equanimity.

It was a supernaturally grave bevy of cow-punchers that gathered round
the table that morning