Noddy was left to watch from a comfortable vantage point, while her mistress ran up to the large panther which was stretched out at the foot of the tree. He had tried to climb it in order to escape the grizzly's claws. "Isn't he a massive beast!" cried Anne, watching from her horse some distance away. "You girls come back! He may not be dead!" shrieked Barbara, the moment she saw the animal. "Say, Bob, if he wasn't dead, he'd have had me down long before you came along to warn us!" laughed Eleanor. "Polly, he's a beauty, even if he is such a terror, isn't he?" said Eleanor, admiring the satiny coat and beautiful form of the large mountain-lion, so majestic in death. "I never saw a larger one! He must be at least nine feet long from nose to tip of tail!" said Polly, lifting the tail with her foot, then letting it drop again. She stooped over looking closely at the wounds made by the grizzly, then she suddenly cried out, "Oh! I thought that shot hit him! It must have been that first shot from the rifle that sent him back from the cliff. Then, the bear tracked him and had the fight back here in the forest. That is when we heard the sounds diminishing. "Well, old fellow, I'm sorry it had to be so! But you decreed it! It was you or one of us, and I preferred to have had it you! Old Grizzly wouldn't be so cattish about sneaking up and laying low for us until the fire died down, or till one of us happened to step out of the circle of light! He would have made a big noise from the beginning and pounced down upon us willy-nilly. And now he has given you yours!" As Polly spoke, she stood looking regretfully at the creature, as if she wished the world was ordered otherwise than all the killing and taking, one from another, in the vain belief of living! "Polly, how much do you think he weighs?" asked Eleanor eagerly. "Too much to drag home--if that is why you asked!" laughed Polly, looking up at Eleanor, with a wise shake of the head. "To tell the truth, that is exactly what I planned to do until I saw how big he was!" laughed Eleanor. "He must weigh at least two hundred pounds, Nolla," said Anne, who had come nearer during the examination. "Yes, nearer two hundred and fifty pounds, I reckon," said Polly. "I wanted to ship him to Chicago and show all of my society friends what _we_ killed during my mountain visit!" explained Eleanor. "Your motive killed the project before you saw him," said Anne, wagging her head at Eleanor as a rebuke. Eleanor laughed merrily. "Well, I intend having a regular exhibit when I get back! All kinds of wild things will be shown my friends. I propose having Polly and Noddy sitting upon a pedestal in the drawing-room as a sample of the wildest things on the Rockies!" laughed Eleanor, giving Polly an affectionate glance. "Oh, Nolla, don't talk so foolishly! As if Polly would come to Chicago! What would she do with herself while we had to entertain?" said Barbara, pettishly, but no one hearkened.