The dead cow presented the same appearance as the cows of Mr.Bonney had done.
When the old chief appeared at the school-house with Benjamin that morning, the school gathered around him and asked him what these things could mean.

He replied, in broken Chinook, that there was a puma among them, and that this animal sucked the blood of its victims.
The puma or cougar or panther, sometimes spelled _painter_, is the American lion.

It is commonly called the mountain lion in the Northwest.
It belongs to the cat family, and received the name of lion from its tawny color.

When its appetite for blood has been satisfied, and its face is in repose, it is a very beautiful animal; but when seeking its prey it presents a mean, cowardly, stealthy appearance, and its face is a picture of cruelty and evil.

It will destroy as many as fifty sheep in a night, sucking their blood and leaving them as though they had died without any external injury.