"You must have killed him before he got to you," said Julian. "A bear could not jump that far, and if it were a panther—why, you have done something to be proud of. You have done it anyway, for you have cleared up something that scared those two men away from here."
"Do you really think so?" asked Jack.
"I know it."
"But think of the howling he made! It seemed as if the pit was full of bears and panthers, and I didn't know which way to look. Have you got all the blood off? Then let us go down there and see about it. We can't work our mine with those fellows in there. If I killed him at once, how did he come to jump so far? And then he took himself off after clawing me; that is something I don't understand."
"You have to shoot one of those fellows through the brain or in the spine, in order to throw him in his tracks. Did you have a fair chance at his heart?"
"I don't know. I simply shot a little ways below that green spot, in the darkness, and the next thing I knew I didn't know anything."
"Because, if you had a fair chance at his heart, a wild animal will sometimes run a good way before he drops. He is down there somewhere, and I'll bet you will find him. But, Jack, there are others that we must get rid of before we own this mine."
"What do you mean by that? I was in hopes I had shot the last one of them."
"Well, you did not. While I was working over you I heard those moans repeated. That proves others are there—don't it?"
"I am going down to clear it up," persisted Jack, who had got upon his feet by this time and started toward the lean-to. "Hold on till I get cartridges to put in this revolver. I used to grumble at you because you spent so much money in Denver, last winter, in shooting at a mark, but I begin to believe you were right and that I was wrong. If I had been as awkward with this shooting-iron as I used to be, you would have got the whole of that hundred thousand dollars to spend for yourself."