Scotty quieted the mare and raised the .405. Its enormous bellow rang out. The cat screeched and launched forth with all four claws spread in the convulsive flurry of death. He struck the pine needles with a heavy thud and instantly the dogs charged in, growling and worrying at him, while old Tom rolled over on his back and spun his claws in the instinctive defense of a cat in his last throes. Niltci clattered up on the mustang at that instant. In a flash he had leaped from his horse, bounded to the cougar’s side and jumped away, leaving a red knife-handle sticking out behind the cougar’s shoulder blades. Again there was a flash of his nimble body and the knife came out, while blood spurted six feet from the gash. The cougar groaned and stretched out on his side, quivering and sighing peacefully as if falling asleep. His eyes glazed; then the body stiffened and stretched in a last tremor. Blaze ran up on the carcass and bared white fangs at Ruler. His attitude was crinky, cocky as a prize fighter’s, and he honestly believed that he had killed that whole cougar all by himself! He dared Ruler to come on. As the latter had convictions of his own concerning that cat, a royal dog-fight seemed imminent--but Niltci seized the hound’s collar and held him back by main force. Big John laughed uproariously. “Hol’ him, Injun!” he roared. “Ruler’ll be gobblin’ more’n he kin chow, fust ye know! That Blazie boy’s feelin’ reel mean an’ ornery, danged ef he ain’t!” Scotty laughed as Big John dismounted to boot the Airedale off the cougar, for Niltci had signified that he wanted to begin skinning out but wasn’t any too anxious to go near the belligerent Blaze. “Where’s Sid, John?” asked Scotty, collecting his thoughts for the first coherent greeting that the swift action of the hunt so far had allowed. The big cowman’s eyes twinkled. “Sid, he ain’t travelin’ none, these days,” he grinned. “He’s back thar, somewhar, nursin’ along a sort of present for ye, Scotty.” He winked enigmatically at the youth. “How come?” asked Scotty, mystified. “Present, eh?” “Yaas, he’ll come a-singin’ with it, pronto. Some dago writin’ on a piece of Injun pottery, ’tis. We-all was headin’ for yore camp when we heard Ruler kyoodlin’ back thar a-piece,” he explained, “so Blazie and I, we ’lows to set in the game. But Sid he’s afear’d to ride, which-same’s because he mought break that thar curio. We found it in one of them caves, after the most all-fired climb this hombre ever got inter, I’m settin’ here to tell ye----” “Here he comes, now!” interrupted Scotty, whipping off his sombrero to wave it at a new rider who came plodding through the pines with a led pack cayuse following him. “_Whoopee!_--Oh, Sid!” he yelled.