"Shoot him! Shoot him!" came from Fred excitedly.
"Plug him quick!" added Andy.
None of those who had followed Jack and Spouter were armed, so the fight rested entirely upon the shoulders of that pair. Circling around so as to avoid the others, Jack pulled the trigger and fired. The wildcat began flipping and flopping on the snow, badly wounded. Then Spouter discharged his firearm once more, and after this the creature lay quiet where it dropped.
"Is—is he dead?" questioned Fred, who was the first to speak. The youngest Rover was very much excited, and with good cause.
"Wait! Don't go forward!" ordered Jack, as he stepped back a few paces. "He may be playing possum. Anyway, we had better load our guns first," he added to Spouter.
This advice to load immediately after discharging a weapon was one which had been well drilled into the cadets, and so now the pair lost no time in putting new charges into their weapons. Then they approached with caution, and Jack turned the wildcat over with the barrel of the gun, keeping his hand meanwhile on the trigger ready for action.
But the beast was quite dead, the charges from the two guns having gone completely through its body.
"What are you going to do with the carcass?" questioned Randy, after all had made an inspection.
"Might as well leave it here," declared Fred. "It isn't good for anything. Even the skin is all torn from the shot."
"No, we might as well take it along. We can hang it on the back of the boxsled," said Gif. "Perhaps we can use the meat to trap some other wild animals."