"That was a fine shot!" Charley shouted, quite beside himself with excitement, and now breathing freely again.
"He'll be a fine surprise for Dad!" exclaimed Toby, surveying the carcass with vast pride. "Won't he and Mother be glad of un! The fur's not prime, but 'twill be fair, and 'tis the first fur we gets this year!"
"He won't kill any more of our rabbits!" Charley boasted, touching the furry coat of the dead animal.
"The one he kills back there where we sees un, were the last un for he," agreed Toby.
"How'll we carry it?" asked Charley.
"'Twill be easy to carry he," assured Toby. "I'll show you how easy 'tis."
Now that the lynx was harmless to attack, and lay quiet and motionless at their feet, Charley discovered that it was a much smaller animal than he had thought when he saw its eyes and its crouching form in the shadows. Still he had no desire to meet a lynx alone in the forest, though Toby still insisted that the animal would have made no attack, and would have slipped away from them had he failed in his aim.
Toby drew the twine from his pocket, and tied together the front legs, just above the padded feet, wrapping the twine around the legs several times, and tying it in a secure knot. The hind legs were tied in similar manner. Then cutting a stiff pole, and trimming off the branches with the ax, he ran the pole between the front and hind legs, with the two ends protruding.
"Now," said Toby, "and you takes one end of the pole on your shoulder, I'll take the other on mine and we'll carry he in between us."
"I never would have thought of doing it that way," said Charley admiringly. "That's dead easy!"