So close is the relationship of a man to his horse that he soon communicated his nervousness to his rider. Scott could not see anything, but he had an uncomfortable feeling that he was being followed. The feeling became so strong that he determined to stop and see if there really was anything there. Jed did not fancy stopping in the timber, but Scott finally managed to bring him to a prancing halt on the far edge of a little open park. He glanced back and felt sure that he saw something in the trail just within the shadow of the trees. But it did not advance.
“Pshaw,” Scott grumbled, “I’ll be shying at a bunch of brush myself after awhile.”
He rode on, determined not to look back, but the temptation became too strong. He cast a glance over his shoulder and was sure that he saw a silent shadow cross a little opening in the woods not fifty yards back. He rode ahead slowly and stopping again on the far edge of another little opening wheeled suddenly about.
This time his maneuver was successful. A large mountain lion loped lithely out of the shadow into the open before he seemed to realize how close he was. Scott had read of these queer animals trailing people silently for miles with no apparent object, but he had never believed it. No sooner did the great cat see them not more than thirty yards away than he stopped in apparent embarrassment and gazed indifferently about the country, neither advancing or retreating. Scott saw all this in the fraction of a second and longed for a rifle, but it would not have done him any good if he had had a whole arsenal—for Jed saw the cougar almost as soon as Scott did and ended the interview with one wild snort and a still wilder plunge which almost shook Scott out of the saddle.
There was no reasoning with him now. Neither soft words nor hard-curbed bit had any influence at all. By chance he happened to hit the trail—or so it seemed to Scott—and down it he went at a terrific pace. He paid no attention to grades or washouts, up hill or down, over smooth trail and broken ruts, he jumped four feet in the air over every shadow and seemed to duck under every tree. Scott leaned over on his neck to avoid the limbs and brush and clung on for dear life. That first ride over the corral fence and across the open plain was nothing to this. But Jed was as sure footed as a mountain goat. He swung out of the Knobcone trail safely and swept along the ridge with a burst of speed which was almost unbelievable.
Scott was wondering whether he would attempt to turn him down the trail to the cabin or let him run it out along the ridge, but he really did not have anything to say about it. Jed was in complete control of the home trip. He whirled into the side trail with a scattering of gravel and a suddenness that left Scott hanging to the saddle bow to avoid the bushes beside the trail, and stopped with all four feet sliding before the gate of the corral. He was trembling violently and when Scott came to dismount he found that he himself was trembling even worse. He tried to lead Jed into the barn but the horse absolutely refused to go under a roof or anything else. It was only in the open corral that he seemed at all at ease. He was used to the plains and knew that nothing living could catch him there.
Jed did not seem in the least distressed by his long race and when he had quieted down a little Scott went in to report on the fire. Heth was not there. He called up the ranger and reported with some heat that the fire had been a fake, and no trace of smoke was to be seen in any part of that region. The ranger only laughed, said it was better to be sure than to take a chance on burning up, and did not seem in the least displeased with the lookout for reporting the fire falsely.
Deprived of the satisfaction of calling down Heth for sending him off on a blind trail, and indignant at the lack of sympathy on the part of the ranger, Scott scraped together a hurried supper, wrote up his diary in rather warm language and went to his bed in an ugly mood.
Nor would it have improved his temper if he could have been up at the ranger station and heard the private conference which was then in session between the ranger and Heth.