Bob started when his chum gave this sudden exclamation.
"Oh! I thought you had sighted the panther!" he gasped as he lowered the gun, which had, perhaps through mere instinct, gone up to his shoulder.
Frank was bending down. He held his torch in such a fashion that he could see better; and he appeared to be examining something on the rock.
"What is it?" asked Bob, eagerly; "footprints?"
"No, just a little spot of blood," came the reply.
"Fresh, too, I can see," declared the tenderfoot, as he looked. "Does that mean this is the exact place where Joe had his little circus, Frank?"
"I reckon it is," replied the other.
"Then if that beast hasn't cleared out we might run across him before long!" remarked Bob.
"Oh!"
Frank gave utterance to this cry. He had seen some object flash through the air, and knew it could be nothing else than the lithe body of a panther making a leap.