Then before they could turn and charge again, she took another spring, and was safe in the branches of a tree. “Some other day, thou dog of a coward!” Mrs. Puma said. “I’ll sleep here until you get tired of waiting.”
Having got Mrs. Puma out of trouble we will follow White Tail in the next story.
STORY IX
Young Black Buck Has an Accident
It is hard work to starve out Puma the Mountain Lion when treed, and perhaps harder yet to imprison him on the side of a steep cliff. Timber Wolf knew this, and after the escape of Mrs. Puma up the tree, he grew uneasy, and decided that it was safer for him to lead the pack back to their own hunting ground.
When they had gone Mrs. Puma leaped down to the ground, and ran to the edge of the ravine to see what had become of her mate. She was not greatly surprised when she saw that he had slowly made his way to the bottom of the chasm, and was looking up to see where she was. With a little cry of joy she trotted down to the end of the ravine to rejoin him.
Meanwhile, of course, White Tail and Young Black Buck were running like the wind, anxious to get as far away from their pursuers as they could. They didn’t know what had happened at Black Ravine, and they couldn’t stop to investigate. The fear that the wolves and Mountain Lions might still be on their trail kept them going until they were nearly exhausted.
One mile, two miles, three miles they ran without stopping or looking around, fear lending speed to their legs. Then something happened which brought them to a sudden halt. Young Black Buck stumbled, and plunged headfirst to the ground. When he tried to get up again, he groaned with pain, and held a fore-leg in the air as if it hurt him.
“Oh, I’ve broken my leg!” he cried. “I can’t run another step. They’ll catch me now, I know! I can’t escape them!”
White Tail, whose momentum had carried him some distance ahead, stopped and turned around.
“Let me see it,” he said, sniffing at the leg. After quickly examining it, he added; “No, it isn’t broken—only sprained. Can’t you stand on it?”