All this while the old ’possum hung quietly upon her tail, holding the hare in her teeth. From the moment she had secured herself in her present position, she seemed to have no fear of her antagonist. On the contrary, her countenance exhibited the expression of a malicious laugh—and this was as evident to the spectators, as words could have made it. The cunning creature plainly enjoyed the chagrin she was causing to the “catamount.”
At intervals, however, the thought seemed to stray across her mind as to how it would all end: and then she assumed a graver look. The lynx, was determined—she saw that in his face—to make her stand a long siege. It would be, therefore, a question of patience and hunger. For the latter she was prepared; and, to enable her to endure it the better, she passed the hare into her hand-like fore-feet, and commenced tearing and eating it!
This was too much for the patience of the lynx. He could bear it no longer, but rose suddenly to his feet; and, with mane erect, rushed up the tree again, and out upon the branch where hung the opossum. This time, without stopping to calculate the danger, he sprang forward, throwing his fore-feet around the other’s hips, and seizing her tail in his teeth. The branch creaked, then broke, and both fell together to the earth!
For a moment the lynx seemed stunned by the fall; but, the next moment, he was “himself again.” He raised himself up; arched his back like a true cat; and, with a wild scream, pounced down upon the ’possum. He seemed to have forgotten the hare, which the other had dropped in her fall. Revenge was the passion that now raged strongest within him. Revenge caused him to forget that he was hungry.
The opossum, as soon as she came to the ground, had suddenly clewed herself up; and now presented the same appearance as when she first came upon the stage. Head, neck, limbs, and tail, were no longer visible—nothing but a round ball of thick, woolly hair! At this the catamount tugged with “teeth and toe-nails.” He worried it for not less than ten minutes, until he became weary. The ’possum was dead to all appearance; and this the other seemed to think,—or whether he did or not, at all events, he became tired, and left off worrying her. The sweeter morsel—the hare—was before his eyes; and this, perhaps, tempted him to desist, preferring to try his teeth for a while upon it. Leaving the ’possum at length, he turned round and seized upon the hare.
At this moment François let Marengo slip, and the whole party rushed forward with shouts.
The lynx, seeing his retreat cut off from the timber, struck out upon the prairie; but the great hound soon overtook him; and after a short but desperate fight, put an end to his poaching.
The young hunters in the pursuit had picked up the hare, which the lynx had dropped in his flight. When the chase was over they came back to the tree, with the intention of getting the dead ’possum, which they meant to cook for their supper. To their astonishment no ’possum was there—neither in the tree, nor the briar-patch beside it, nor anywhere! The sly creature had been “playing ’possum” throughout all that terrible worrying; and, finding the coast clear, had “unclewed” herself, and stolen off to her hiding-place under the roots of some neighbouring tree!
Nothing remained but the body of the lynx and the poor little carcass of the hare. The former none of our adventurers cared to eat, although it is often eaten both by the trappers and Indians—and the latter was so torn and chawed as to render it worthless. So, since no other game—not even a squirrel—could be found about the place, all four—Lucien, Basil, François, and Marengo, went to sleep—for the first time since the commencement of their journey—supperless!