“He didn’t get a chance,” answered Fred, just a bit proudly. “Andy and I let drive at him almost as soon as we saw him.”
“A pretty powerful beast, I’ll say,” remarked Gif, as he made an examination of the lion that was now dead. “I don’t think I’d like to face such a creature.”
“We had to fight him,” declared Andy. “He was right up on that rocky shelf yonder, and he couldn’t back out. If he had had the chance he’d have leaped right on us.”
“Well, you’re the prize hunters of this crowd,” declared Randy.
“You can’t put that down to hunting,” answered his twin promptly. “That was simply a case of necessity.”
“Anyway, you’ve got the lion, and that skin will make some rug,” declared Spouter.
“I wonder if there are any other mountain lions around?” remarked Gif. “I’d like to get a shot at one of them myself.”
“They often travel in pairs,” answered Joe Jackson. “But if you’re going after lions you had better arm yourselves with rifles. It was only good luck that brought this beast down with pistol bullets.”
“The pistols were good enough at close quarters,” answered Andy. “Just the same, I’d rather shoot the next mountain lion from a distance,” he added dryly.
Of course, when the boys rode up to the ranch home with the carcass of the dead lion there was a good deal of excitement among the older folks and the girls, and Fred and Andy had to tell their story in detail.