oward
the man on the shoulder of the hill.

What purpose lay under his strange movement Young Matt did not
know. But certainly it was not in his mind to harm Ollie. He was
acting upon the impulse of the moment; an impulse to get nearer
and to study unobserved the person of his rival. So he stalked him
with all the instinct of a creature of the woods. Not a twig
snapped, not a leaf rustled, as from bush to fallen log, from tree
trunk to rock, he crept, always in the black shadows, or behind
some object.

But there were still other eyes on Old Dewey that night, and sharp
ears heard the big woodsman climbing out of the ravine, if Ollie
did not. When the young man in the clear light of the moon crossed
the Old Trail, a figure near the clump of trees, where he had sat
with his two friends that day, dropped quietly behind a big rock,
half hidden in the bushes. As the giant crept toward the Lookout,
this figure followed, showing but little less skill than the
mountaineer himself. Once a loose stone rattled slightly, and the
big fellow turned his head; but the figure was lying behind a log
that the other had just left. When Young Matt finally reached the
position as close to Ollie as he could go without certain
discovery, the figure also came to a rest, not far away.

The moments passed very slowly now to the man crouching in the
shadows. Ollie looked at his watch. It was early yet to one
accustomed to late hours in the city. Young Matt heard distinctly
the snap of the case as the watch was closed and returned to its
owner's pocket. Then Stewart lighted a cigar, and flipped the
burned out match almost into his unseen companion's face.

It seemed to Young Matt that he had been there for hours. Years
ago he left his home yonder on the ridge, to look for stray stock.
They must have forgotten him long before this. The quiet cabin in
the Hollow, and his friend, the shepherd, too, were far away. In
all that lonely mountain there was no one--no one but that man on
the rock there; that man, and himself. How bright the moon was!

Suddenly another form appeared upon the scene. It came creeping
around the hill from beyond the Lookout. It was a long, low,
lithe-bodied, form that moved with the easy, gliding movements of
a big cat. Noiselessly the soft padded feet fell upon the hard
rock and loose gravel of the old pathway; the pathway along which
so many things had gone for their kill, or had gone to be killed.

Young Matt saw it