get used to
the situation. He was even beginning to relax the tense vigilance of his
watching, when suddenly his heart gave a leap and seemed to stand still.
Just about ten paces behind him he saw a pair of pale, green-gleaming
eyes, round, and set wider apart than those of the fox, slowly floating
toward him. At the same time his nostrils caught a scent which was
absolutely unknown to him, and peculiarly terrifying.

[Illustration: "WHICH SEEMED TO SCRUTINIZE HIM STEADILY."]

As these two dreadful eyes drew near, the colt's muscles grew tense.
Then he distinguished a shadowy, crouching form behind the eyes; and he
gathered his haunches under him for a desperate defense. But the big
lynx was wary. This long-legged creature who stood thus with his back
to him and eyed him with watchful, sidelong glances was something he did
not understand. Before he came within range of the colt's heels he
swerved to one side and stole around at a safe distance, investigating.
He was astonished, and at first discomfited, to find that, whichever way
he circled, the unknown animal under the rock persisted in keeping his
back to him. For perhaps half an hour, with occasional intervals of
motionless crouching, he kept up this slow circling, unable to allay his
suspicions. Then, apparently making up his mind that the unknown was not
a dangerous adversary, or perhaps in some subtle way detecting his
youth, he crept closer. He crept so close, indeed, that he felt
emboldened to spring; and he was just about to do so.

Just at this moment, luckily just the right moment, the colt let loose
the catapult of his strong haunches. His hoofs struck the lynx fairly in
the face, and hurled him backwards against a neighbouring tree.

Half-stunned, and his wind knocked out, the big cat picked himself up
with a sharp spitting and snarling, and slunk behind the tree. Then he
turned tail and ran away, thoroughly beaten. The strange animal had a
fashion in fighting which he did not know how to cope with; and he had
no spirit left for further lessons.

After this the night wore on without great event, though with frequent
alarms which kept the colt's nerves ceaselessly on the rack. Now it was
the faint, almost imperceptible sound of a hunting weasel; now it was
the erratic scurrying of the wood-mice; now it was the loud but muffled
thumping of a hare, astonished at this long-limbed intruder upon the
wilderness domains. The colt was accustomed to sleeping wel