“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Nick answered; “just explain to me first how you managed to take that shot in time. I heard the beast springing just as you fired.”
“Why!” said the backwoodsman, “I was waitin’ here, hopin’ the scent of me would bring the varmint along, and, of course, I wasn’t makin’ no noise about it.
“Then I heard steps—your’n, you know—and I was wondering about it as you come down the steep part of the trail.
“Ef you look up at the top of the ledge thar you’ll see that the risin’ moon makes the top line quite clear.
“Wal, I had my gun up, fer I didn’t know but what you might be an enemy, when, all of a suddent, I saw a black mass on the clear edge of the rock up thar.
“I knowed what it was, and the thing jumped.
“Thar wasn’t no time to think about it.
“I knowed the critter had spied you, and was springin’ fer ye, and I had to fire then, or not at all.
“So I blazed while the beast was in the air.
“It was too late to save you from a knock down, but the critter was dead when he hit you. Them shots of yours was mighty slick ones, comin’ as fast as they did, just as ef you was out practicin’ at a target, but they was good powder and lead throwed away.”