“Where did they go?”
“Randy! Randy! Can’t you shoot the beast?” screamed Andy.
The words had scarcely left Andy’s lips when there came a scream from his twin and another wild snort from the horse. Then there was added to the tumult the snarl of the mountain lion and an instant later the beast dropped from the horse and shot through the brushwood directly in front of where Jack and Fred had brought their mounts to a halt.
The boys had brought their guns with them, but not having noticed any game worth shooting at had placed the weapons behind them. Both Jack and Fred made frantic efforts to get their weapons into action, but before they could aim at the mountain lion it had whirled around and disappeared up a rocky trail and then behind a clump of brushwood. An instant later they saw it streaking up the mountainside. Jack took aim and so did Fred, but before either could pull a trigger the beast disappeared.
“Randy! Randy! Are you all right?” called out his twin anxiously, for they could hear the horse Randy was riding thrashing viciously around in the brushwood some distance away.
“Whoa! Whoa!” Randy called out. “Whoa, I tell you! You’re all right now, old boy! Keep quiet! Whoa!” The boy continued to talk to the horse and do his best to subdue the animal. But the nails of the mountain lion had been dug deep into his flank and he evidently felt as if he had been scourged with a whip. He continued to prance here and there and then, of a sudden, streaked off across a clearing that led upward.
“There they go!” shouted Jack. “The horse is running away!”
“Hold tight, Randy!” shouted Fred. “Don’t let him throw you!” For a dash upon those sharp rocks that lay strewn all over the open space might mean death.
Fortunately, Randy had slung his fishing rod beside his gun and had tied his share of the fish in a cloth behind his saddle. Consequently, his hands were free to hold the reins, and this he did grimly as the horse pranced over the field very much like an untamed broncho.
“Whoa! Whoa!” went on Randy, doing his best to subdue his mount. “Whoa, I tell you! That wildcat—or whatever it was—is gone.”