There was instant commotion, which proved that Elizabeth was justified in her fears, for, sure enough, lying along a limb, switching its short tail and gazing down at its enemies, was a great lynx, a fearsome enough beast to alarm a less timid person than Elizabeth.
There was the sudden sharp crack of a rifle, the sound of a falling body, then a shout went up. Elizabeth shut her eyes and held her hands tightly over them. Scared as she had been, she was sorry for the creature.
“You got him at the first shot,” cried Jim. “My, ain’t he a whopping big fellow! As I said, sissy, he is as big as a calf. You wasn’t so far out.”
“It is a lynx, true enough,” declared Mr. Hollins, “although I cannot imagine how one could have wandered down this way, so near to human habitations.”
“I said there’d be a mate when Neal Paine shot that there other one back there in the woods awhile ago,” said Jim Powers. “I surmised there’d be a pair of them. I wouldn’t wonder if they got druv out by forest fires and come ambling down this way. There’s a good stretch of wild country up there in the next county. These here critturs journeyed down from Canada, likely, though I’ve heard of a few around in spots this side the border. I guess he belongs to sissy, here, by right of discovery. What you going to do with him, sis? Make a set of furs out of him?”
“Oh, no!” Elizabeth could not bear the idea. Scared as she had been she was too tender-hearted to think of wearing the skin of the animal which she had just seen as a living, free, wild creature. “I would much rather not,” she shook her head when her father looked at her questioningly. “Why, I was almost acquainted with him, father, and it wouldn’t seem right to wear the skin of a person you have known.”
The men shouted with laughter. “Well, if that don’t beat all,” cried Jim Powers. “Skin of a person you have known. I didn’t know lynxes was people. I’ll have to tell my wife that.”
“I think we’d better have him stuffed and present him to the State museum,” said Mr. Hollins. “He is a fine specimen. See his short tail and the tufts of hair on his ears. There is no doubt of his identity.”
It was quite dark by this time, and as Elizabeth insisted that she was quite able to walk uphill again, she followed in the wake of the procession which bore the body of the lynx to the blacksmith’s shop. Bill Walker, having a lantern, led the way; Jim Powers and Mr. Hollins bore the lynx on their shoulders, Bert and Elizabeth brought up the rear. In her excitement Elizabeth did not miss the effect of this picturesque sight. “It looks like a scene in a book,” she whispered to Bert. “Like those hunting pictures when they bore home the trophies of the chase.”
But Bert had no eye for the artistic, although he did admire the spoils of the chase. “Gee, but he’s got a pretty fur,” he said. “I’ll bet Kath will speak for it.”