“Don’t! pray don’t!” cried Joe in a hoarse whisper; “it will seize your hand in its jaws.”
“Nonsense! It’s as tame as an old tom-cat,” said Rob coolly. “Poor old puss, then!” he continued, reaching out a little farther, so that he could just softly touch the animal’s cheek, passing his fingers along toward its left ear.
“There, I told you so,” he said, with a laugh, for the puma pressed its head against his hand, giving it a rub in regular cat fashion, while as, to Joe’s horror, Rob continued his caress and began gently rubbing the animal’s head, it emitted a soft, purring noise, rolled its head about, and ended by closing up and leaning against the lad’s leg, passing itself along from nose to tail, turning and repeating the performance, and again on the other side.
“I am glad I didn’t shoot,” said Rob, bending down to stroke the animal’s back. “I say, isn’t he a beauty! Come and make friends. He’s a bit afraid of us yet.”
Joe stood fast, with the loaded gun presented, ready to fire and save his friend’s life the moment the creature seized him, when, to his astonishment, the puma so thoroughly approved of the first human caress it had ever received that it lay down, rolled over, wriggling its spine when all four legs were in the air, rolled back again, scratching the ground, and finally crouched and looked up as much as to say, “Go on.”
Rob answered the appeal he read in the puma’s eyes, and going down on one knee, he patted and stroked it, when, quick as the movement of a serpent, it threw itself over on its back, seized the lad’s hand between its bent paws, patted it from one to the other, and then held it tightly as it brought down its mouth as if to bite, but only began to lick the palm with its rough tongue.
“There!” said Rob; “what do you say now? Isn’t it a tame one?”
“I—I don’t know yet. Hadn’t I better fire and kill it?”
“You’d better not,” cried Rob. “That’ll do, old chap; you’ll have the skin off. I say, his tongue is rough. Why, what beautiful fur he has, and how soft and clean! I wonder whose he is.”
In the most domestic cat-like fashion the puma now curled itself round, with its forepaws doubled under, and kept up its soft purr as it watched the lad by its side. But as he rose the animal sprang up too, butted its head affectionately against his leg, and then looked up as if to say,—