Raymond S. Spears

“ Humans would come with a pack of dogs, and they would scramble and rattle the wilderness and make a grand old hullabaloo—and if there was anything the cougar despised, it was tumult, agitation, confusion and noise. He hated above all things the scandalous dogs, brothers of the wolf-packs—and wolves!
The cougar sniffed, lowered his head and looked about uneasily. He didn't really have to be afraid of dogs, nor yet even of wolves, but they were exceedingly annoying. They came bounding, yelping, yapping at his heels, and they would nip him, which was insulting—but Felis Concolor was hungry. ”

“ The opacity of the third eye which she carried in her hands was different from her own bright blue eyes, whose shining and handsome depths were where they ought to be—in a human creature's head.
He walked with her for miles. They strolled among the junipers. They went down to the edge of the juniper belt, where the sage was alone amid the crumbling talus-slope débris.
There, at the open, the cougar hesitated. He stopped as the den of humans showed plain far down. He glanced at the horses and cattle scattered far and wide. She spoke to him, urged him, and then approached him. ”

“ The sunlight gone and a chill breath from mountain-peaks coming down, he retreated into his cave, where he slept till the moon was shining and hunger bade him awaken, for it was time to hunt.
In two or three days he was lonesome again. He crossed the range, edged down into the junipers below the timber, and near the human runway he found that human again. ”

“ When he went forth again he kept himself hidden in the timber depths and hunted tiny mice morsels by the hour, feeling happy when he caught a rabbit; but he was so sore that he seemed unequal to the task of killing a deer; yet, having fed on the wilderness trifles, he ran at last upon a deer and killed it with less difficulty than catching an agile rabbit, for the young victim was neither cautious nor fortunate in discovering the approach of the slinking shadow of hunger in the feline figure. ”

“ When she walked along the mountain he walked with her, never very far from her, never within three steps of her. When she would have made bold to pat his head he drew away doubtfully, his ears lying back, and his purring was broken, even ceased. Then she must needs beg his pardon in a most caressing voice. Not for worlds would she abuse his confidence!
She told him that she was his friend. She explained how she was lonely on the ranch, that she detested Toyab Edem, favorite son of Grizzly Edem, because Toyab was a youth after Grizzly's own heart. ”

“ For the deer he had only an appetite. Bears he disliked for their burly swaggering strength and courage. Elk he longed to eat, but feared their horns and hoofs. A lone wolf did not matter to him; but when a pack came, barking, yapping, howling and snapping at his heels, Concolor snarled and fled to safety amid the dignity of tree-branches. He hated wolves, for they disturbed his self-respect.
Stricken by the, longing that was worse than hunger, Concolor took to wandering far and swing wide from his den at the corner of Greentimber Range and the Wasting Hills. ”

“ Her voice trailed away in helpless resignation.
“All Toyab lives for is to be like old Grizzly,” she went on. “He wants to be like his father. They laugh at me because I love the sunrise and the Leopard Ridge, which is spotted on its cream-colored clay with junipers. I love jackrabbits with their absurd legs and ears—but Toyab just loves to kill them. And I hate venison, because living deer are so beautiful! You understand, don't you, cougar?”
Felis Concolor blinked. ”

“ Green timber Range was a lower crest that loomed against the vaster heights which caught the first rays of morning sunshine.
Wasting Hills were rounded knobs that extended toward the Mirage Flats of pale alkali, along the north side of Shattered Valley to the arid lake of chemical concentrates. On the hills the trees grew more scattering, the juniper-trees changed from splotches to spots, and finally at the approach to the flats, even sage-bushes diminished to mere trifles of stunted vegetation amid acreages of color, sunshine and shadows of lumps in a largess of varied expansiveness. ”

“ No guilt was in his conscience, despite the good feed he had had the previous evening when a yearling deer fell to his right paw's deadly crash.
Rose Stanley had found companionship and appreciation. The cougar was comforted in his own loneliness. Certainly there was mutual understanding between the human and the cougar who was moved to go walking with a human.
But Toyab Edem was coming down off the mountain range on horseback one day after sunset, feeling cheated because his hunting had been so steady that he had killed or driven away all the game within easy range of the ranch. ”

“ Some human had come that way, tainting the air. Concolor, however, was hungry enough to approach his cache, despite the disturbance.
Suddenly beneath his forepaw the earth opened up and jaws closed on his toes. He sprang, jerked, tumbled about and threw, with two claws in it, the trap that had been unskilfully placed. By failure to put a trip-stick for the paw to step over to insure its landing squarely on the trap pan, the man had lost his chance to stretch the hide of old Felis Concolor. ”

“ Their sprawled victims were deadly, for around them the humans placed murdering traps that even wolves could not always avoid. And like wolves, humans often killed merely for fun.
Nevertheless the cougar returned to the runway of men where it led winding over the timbered pass down through the juniper belt in the direction of the bare, lower levels where they had their own den. Felis stalked along the trail, drawn irresistibly by the mystery of these careless, stalwart beings. ”

“ He had been at a high pitch of nervous expectancy, for those who approach men takes chances and carry their lives as offerings. As he was weary after eating much good veal or venison, so now he was surfeit with satisfaction of his lonesomeness by much friendly companionship. ”