rched off very matter
of fact to the next snare.

But if Koot's vision had been as acute as his sense of _feel_ and he had
glanced up to the topmost spreading bough of a pine just above the
snare, he might have detected lying in a dapple of sun and shade
something with large owl eyes, something whose pencilled ear-tufts
caught the first crisp of the man's moccasins over the snow-crust. Then
the ear-tufts were laid flat back against a furry form hardly differing
from the dapple of sun and shade. The big owl eyes closed to a tiny
blinking slit that let out never a ray of tell-tale light. The big round
body mottled gray and white like the snowy tree
widened--stretched---flattened till it was almost a part of the tossing
pine bough. Only when the man and dog below the tree had passed far
beyond did the pencilled ears blink forward and the owl eyes open and
the big body bunch out like a cat with elevated haunches ready to
spring.

But by-and-bye the man's snares began to tell on the rabbits. They grew
scarce and timid. And the thing that had rifled the rabbit snares grew
hunger-bold. One day when Koot and the dog were skimming across the
billowy drifts, something black far ahead bounced up, caught a bunting
on the wing, and with another bounce disappeared among the trees.

Koot said one word--"Cat!"--and the dog was off full cry.

Ever since he had heard that wailing call from the swamp woods, he had
known that there were rival hunters, the keenest of all still hunters
among the rabbits. Every day he came upon the trail of their ravages,
rifled snares, dead squirrels, torn feathers, even the remains of a fox
or a coon. And sometimes he could tell from the printings on the white
page that the still hunter had been hunted full cry by coyote or
timber-wolf. Against these wolfish foes the cat had one sure refuge
always--a tree. The hungry coyote might try to starve the bob-cat into
surrender; but just as often, the bob-cat could starve the coyote into
retreat; for if a foolish rabbit darted past, what hungry coyote could
help giving chase? The tree had even defeated both dog and man that
first week when Koot could not find the cat. But a dog in full chase
could follow the trail to a tree, and a man could shoot into the tree.

As the rabbits decreased, Koot set out many traps for the bob-cats now
reckless with hunger, steel-traps and deadfalls and pits and log pens
with a live grouse clucking inside. The midwinter lull was a