Instantly Ted burst into a laugh.
“Why, it’s only an owl!” he told himself. “It was an owl that was following me through the woods. But I didn’t know owls cried like a bobcat. I thought they only made a sound like just now—‘who!’ I’m glad it’s only an owl!”
The owl, for such it was, flew away. Ted saw it go, but he could not hear the flapping wings, for an owl flies on silent pinions, its wings being covered with such soft feathers as to make scarcely a sound. In this way an owl can fly close to the creature it wishes to catch without being heard.
Ted laughed again as the owl hooted and vanished in the night. The boy felt better now, and he was beginning to wonder if he would have to spend the night alone in the forest when, suddenly, that same strange cry sounded again. This time so near at hand—in a tree directly over Teddy’s head—that the boy jumped.
“It wasn’t the owl after all!” he thought. “It must be the bobcat still after me!”
There was a rustling in the leaves of the tree, and Ted dodged behind the trunk of the one he had picked out as a refuge. Then as the moon became a bit brighter, for more clouds passed from it, the boy caught sight of two other eyes, gleaming red and green as they reflected the shine of the moon.
“He’s looking right at me!” thought Ted, for, indeed, the eyes seemed to stare at him. “Come on down here and I’ll hit you with this club!” cried the boy boldly.
However the bobcat—and by a glimpse he had of the beast Ted was sure it was a lynx—did not accept the invitation to come down and be clubbed. The animal snarled again and moved out on the limb over Ted’s head so the boy had a good view of it. Then he saw more clearly what it was—an animal like a cat, only three times as large, and with curious tufts of fur on its ears. The lynx is about the only animal that has ear tassels.
Suddenly Ted decided on a bold move. If the bobcat would not come down to be clubbed, the boy would not exactly climb up the tree to hit it—that would be dangerous indeed—but Ted could throw his club at the beast.
“That’s what I’ll do!” decided the boy.