Sometime  last  fall.  See,  even  the  skull  is  split.  But  I
could  not  say  that  the  lion  did  it."

Helen  shuddered.  She  thought  of  the  tame  deer  down
at  Dale's  camp.  How  beautiful  and  graceful,  and  re-
sponsive to  kindness!

They  rode  out  of  the  woods  into  a  grassy  swale  with
rocks  and  clumps  of  some  green  bushes  bordering  it.
Here  Pedro  barked,  the  first  time  Helen  had  heard  him.
The  hair  on  his  neck  bristled,  and  it  required  stern  calls
from  Dale  to  hold  him  in.  Dale  dismounted

"Hyar,  Pede,  you  get  back,"  he  ordered.  "I'll  let  you
go  presently.  .  .  .  Girls,  you're  goin'  to  see  somethin'.
But  stay  on  your  horses."

Dale,  with  the  hound  tense  and  bristling  beside  him,
strode  here  and  there  at  the  edge  of  the  swale.  Presently
he  halted  on  a  slight  elevation  and  beckoned  for  the  girls
to  ride  over.
"Here,  see  where  the  grass  is  pressed  down  all  nice  an*
round,"  he  said,  pointing.  "A  lion  made  that.  Ha

H7


THE  MAN  OF  THE  FOREST

sneaked  there,  watchin'  for  deer.     That  was  done  this
mornin'.     Come  on,  now.     Let's  see  if  we  can  trail  him."

Dale  stooped  now,  studying  the  grass,  and  holding
Pedro.  Suddenly  he  straightened  up  with  a  flash  in  his
gray  eyes.
"Here's  where  he  jumped."

But  Helen  could  not  see  any  reason  why  Dale  should
say  that.  The  man  of  the  forest  took  a  long  stride —
then  another.
"An'  here's  where  that  lion  lit  on  the  back  of  the  deer.
It  was  a  big  jump.  See  the  sharp  hoof  tracks  of  the
deer."  Dale  pressed  aside  the  grass  to  show  dark,  rough,
fresh  tracks  of  a  deer,  evidently  made  by  violent  action.
