A little later he heard a curious scratching at the top of the hollow. He strained his eyes and saw a bushy tail swishing around.
"A wild animal!" he thought. "Will it come down on top of me?"
He gave a low call and the animal disappeared. But then, after a period of several minutes, it came back again and this time looked down into the hollow tree, longingly.
"A wildcat!"
Shep was right; it was indeed wildcat that had come to pay him a visit, and the beast seemed to be in anything but a good humor as it glared down upon the imprisoned young hunter.
Would the beast spring down upon him? That was the question Shep asked himself. As quickly as he could he raised his hand which contained his jack-knife.
"Scat!" he hissed, and, alarmed once more, the wildcat backed away from the hollow and sat down on a limb of the tree to think matters over. As a matter of fact, the hollow tree was one of the wildcat's favorite haunts and it did not know what to make of it to find it thus strangely inhabited.
In the meantime the three young hunters who had lost themselves in the woods were doing their best to find their way back to camp. They had reached a small opening and Whopper raised an unexpected cry:
"Boys, look!"
"Shep's gun, as sure as fate!" ejaculated Snap.