Then his better sense came to his aid.
“How silly I am!” he exclaimed to himself, as he started off again in the darkness. “Of course there aren’t any lions or tigers here. They live only in hot countries in the jungle. The only wild animals around here that might hurt me are bears, foxes and—bobcats!”
Teddy almost forgot about this last-named beast. But he had heard the lumbermen talking about it only the other day. Bears, the wood-choppers had said, were very scarce and hard even for a hunter to find, so Ted knew he need not worry about them. He, himself, had seen a fox, and had noted how the brown creature with the big tail had so quickly run away.
“A fox won’t fight unless you corner him,” thought Teddy; “and I’m not going to corner this one! Besides, a fox doesn’t climb a tree, and this animal is up in the trees overhead.”
He knew this, because he had heard the branches rustling as the animal sent out its strange cry.
There was only one thing left that the beast could be.
“It’s a bobcat!” whispered Ted to himself.
And as he heard again the strange, wailing cry of the beast, he felt sure he had guessed right.
“They claw terrible, and bite!” thought Ted, with a shiver of fear, for he had heard the lumbermen talking about the bobcat, or lynx, which is another name for it. “But maybe it can’t find me,” thought the Curlytop boy hopefully.
He wished that it was daylight, and then he wished that he had his electric pocket flash lamp with him, so that he might see which way to go. But he had to make the best of it, and so he slipped along as well as he could, gliding amid the trees and bushes of the dark forest.