hat Sprigg was in the land of the
living.

CHAPTER X.

Still at the Foot of the Old Oak Tree.

The roar of the bison bull was hardly out of his ears, when the boy
heard another slight rustling in the leaves and grass near-by, and
peeping out from behind his cap, he saw that the moccasins had again
shifted their position. Looking in the direction toward which their toes
were turned, he saw an object more to be dreaded, by far, than a bison
bull.

A wild-cat it was, already too near at hand, creeping up in that soft,
sly way peculiar to animals of the cat family whenever they have a
victim in view. A wild-cat--fat; sleek sides, all ribbed with stripes of
black and white; white teeth, very long and sharp; black claws, longer
and sharper still; ringed tail, very long and very lithe, waving softly
all the time from side to side, with a sort of quivering eagerness in
its motion, as if the owner were trying his best to hold it still, and
for the life of him could not do so.

By this time, the handsome savage had slipped himself within easy
springing distance of his intended quarry. Here he paused, and fixing
his wild, sly eyes on those of the boy, began purring in a soft way, and
licking his red chops with his long, red tongue in a soft way--that
uncontrollable tail still waving from side to side in the same soft
way--all in the softest, slyest way that you could well imagine, as if
he were saying within himself: "But won't a wild-cat pap and a wild-cat
mam and their wild-cat kittens feast and be merry to-night?"

All this took the boy but three winks of the eye to observe; though, in
the time, he had not winked once, so fascinated was he by the gaze of
those wild, sly eyes, which shone like balls of green fire, rather than
eyes. Now was Wild Tom of the Woods making his squat for the long
spring, and the poor little runaway screaming again to pap for help. But
just then, in the very nick of time, with a swiftness that left a red
streak in the air, the red moccasins darted directly at the wild-cat's
face, and kicking the green fire out of his eyes, spoiled their charming
expression in a twinkle. With a scream of amazement, fright and pain,
which struck on the ear like the shriek of a terrified woman, the nimble
creature spun lithely 'round, and, like the bull, reckless of all save
the unseen foe behind him, made a blind leap sheer over the brink of the
precipice, and in a moment sank out of sight.

This happily