The foolish youth could not bear to leave the thing where he found it, and slid down the tree with it at once, none too soon, it may be, for its mother must have left it somewhere in the treetop earlier in the day, and had she come back in time there would have been an end of Gnawbones, and the she leopard would have fed well. But he got away and took to his father and mother the little thing which was so pretty and purring, and, seemingly, so gentle. They told him he might keep it--well for them was it that I, who know wild beasts, heard nothing of the matter!--and so it was kept in the cave, and fed, sometimes on flesh which Gnawbones brought, but mostly upon fish and clams and frogs, which, as I have said, were the chief food of Three Toes and his wife. And so, as Gnawbones told me, when I made him confess with my spear-handle, the thing was kept in the cave, and grew until it became a plaything no longer, but something ever hungry, and sometimes sullen. Then they, the foolish ones, drove a great stake in the cracked rock, in a corner of the cave floor, and tied the beast there, with a thong about its neck fastened to a bar of hard wood, which, in its turn, was tied to the great stake. The brute, nearly full grown, could only circle about the stake, though ever straining at his thongs. So they kept him and fed him. No man can tell why they did so. There came a day when the fishing was bad, and frogs and clams were few for Three Toes, and the hunting bad for the youth Gnawbones, and that day the leopard got no food. The next morning he was raging, and Three Toes and Gnawbones left the cave early to find what might come to them. At the warm time, the middle of the day, when the sun hung almost over the caves by the river, there came such a screaming and yelling from the gorge as had never been heard before. It came to our ears together, to Black Bow and me, for we were not in our huts, but sitting outside, working upon our bows. I seized my spear, and ran toward the gorge. Night, the old woman in the cave in the gorge, told me afterward what happened to her. The hungry leopard had strained at its leash until the thong about its neck had parted, and in an instant it had crouched for a spring at her throat. She had seen it in time, and had caught up a spear, and had screamed shrilly; and, whatever the cause, the leopard had turned its head, and then leaped from the cave out into the open. She saw it go down the gorge, and had rushed out and climbed a tree, still screaming, to warn Three Toes and Gnawbones, who, she knew, were in a little wood near at hand. They came running, and then also climbed trees most hurriedly, and added to the noise with their wild howling to warn the Cave people below. That was when I, leading the others, came running to the mouth of the gorge. There, halfway up it, we saw the leopard, advancing downward, cautious and crouching!