An interval of some moments passed, then it pealed out again, nearer this time, and so human that it startled me.

Moze raised his head and growled low in his throat and sniffed the keen air.
"Jones, Jones," I called, reaching over to touch the old hunter.
He awoke at once, with the clear-headedness of the light sleeper.
"I heard the cry of some beast," I said, "And it was so weird, so strange.

I want to know what it was." Such a long silence ensued that I began to despair of hearing the cry again, when, with a suddenness which straightened the hair on my head, a wailing shriek, exactly like a despairing woman might give in death agony, split the night silence.

It seemed right on us.
"Cougar! Cougar! Cougar!" exclaimed Jones.
"What's up ?" queried Frank, awakened by the dogs.
Their howling roused the rest of the party, and no doubt scared the cougar, for his womanish screech was not repeated.

Then Jones got up and gatherered his blankets in a roll.
"Where you oozin' for now ?" asked Frank, sleepily.
"I think that cougar just came up over the rim on a scouting hunt, and I'm going to go down to the head of the trail and stay there till morning.