As the first awful, raucous outburst broke the outer silence Kitty Bonnair jumped, and Lucy and her father turned pale. "What's that?" cried Kitty, in a hushed voice, "a mountain lion?" "Not yet," answered Creede enigmatically. "He will be though, if he grows. Aw, say, that's just my cat. Here, pussy, pussy, pussy! D'ye hear that, now? Sure, he knows me! Wait a minute and I'll try an' ketch 'im." He returned a few minutes later, with Tommy held firmly against his breast, blacker, wilder, and scrawnier than ever, but purring and working his claws. "How's this for a mountain lion?" said Creede, stopping just inside the door and soothing down his pet. "D'ye see that hook?" he inquired, holding up the end of Tommy's crooked tail and laughing at Kitty's dismay. "He uses that to climb cliffs with. That's right--he's a new kind of cat. Sure, they used to be lots of 'em around here, but the coyotes got all the rest. Tom is the only one left. Want to pet him? Well--whoa, pussy,--come up careful, then; he's never--ouch!" At the first whisk of skirts, Tommy's yellow eyes turned green and he sank every available hook and claw into his master's arm; but when Kitty reached out a hand he exploded in a storm of spits and hisses and dashed out through the door. "Well, look at that, now," said Creede, grinning and rubbing his arm. "D'ye know what's the matter with him? You're the first woman he ever saw in his life. W'y, sure! They ain't no women around here. I got him off a cowman over on the Verde. He had a whole litter of 'em--used to pinch Tom's tail to make him fight--so when I come away I jest quietly slipped Mr. Tommy into my shaps." "Oh, the poor little thing," said Kitty; and then she added, puckering up her lips, "but I don't like cats." "Oh, I do!" exclaimed Lucy Ware quickly, as Creede's face changed, and for a moment the big cowboy stood looking at them gravely. "That's good," he said, smiling approvingly at Lucy; and then, turning to Kitty Bonnair, he said: "You want to learn, then." But Kitty was not amenable to the suggestion. "No!" she cried, stamping her foot. "I don't! They're such stealthy, treacherous creatures--and they never have any affection for people." "Ump-um!" denied Creede, shaking his head slowly. "You don't know cats--jest think you do, maybe. W'y, Tommy was the only friend I had here for two years. D'ye think he could fool me all that time? Rufe here will tell you how he follows after me for miles--and cryin', too--when the coyotes might git 'im anytime. And he sleeps with me every night," he added, lowering his voice. "Well, you can have him," said Kitty lightly. "Do they have any real mountain lions here?" "Huh?" inquired Creede, still big-eyed with his emotions. "Oh, yes; Bill Johnson over in Hell's Hip Pocket makes a business of huntin' 'em. Twenty dollars bounty, you know." "Oh, oh!" cried Kitty. "Will he take me with him? Tell me all about it!"