Page 107 (1/1)

"What!" exclaimed Bo, incredulously

"The deer was runnin' here with the lion on his back I'll prove it to you Come on, now Pedro, you stay withhis horse, and occasionally he pointed down into the grass "There! See that! That's hair"

Helen did see soround, and she believed she saw little, dark separations in the grass, where an animal had recently passed All at once Dale halted When Helen reached hi down at a wide, flattened space in the grass Even Helen's inexperienced eyes could ray-white hair lay upon the crushed grass Helen did not need to see any more, but Dale silently pointed to a patch of blood Then he spoke: "The lion brought the deer down here an' killed him Probably broke his neck That deer ran a hundred yards with the lion See, here's the trail left where the lion dragged the deer off"

A well-defined path showed across the swale

"Girls, you'll see that deer pretty quick," declared Dale, starting forward "This work has just been done Only a few o"

"How can you tell?" queried Bo

"Look! See that grass It has been bent down by the deer bein' dragged over it Now it's springin' up"

Dale's next stop was on the other side of the swale, under a spruce with low, spreading branches The look of Pedro quickened Helen's pulse He ild to give chase Fearfully Helen looked where Dale pointed, expecting to see the lion But she saw instead a deer lying prostrate with tongue out and sightless eyes and bloody hair

"Girls, that lion heard us an' left He's not far," said Dale, as he stooped to lift the head of the deer "Warm! Neck broken See the lion's teeth an' claw irls This is only an hourly incident of everyday life in the forest See where the lion has rolled the skin down as neat as I could do it, an' he'd just begun to bite in there when he heard us"

"What ht sickens me!" exclaimed Helen

"It is nature," said Dale, simply

"Let's kill the lion," added Bo

For answer Dale took a quick turn at their saddle-girths, and then, , he called to the hound "Hunt him up, Pedro"