Dave experienced a certain mild pang at the thought of leaving two good pelts behind him to be gnawed by foxes; but he followed Miranda without a word. It would have been a fatal error to talk of furs at that moment. As soon, however, as they were out of sight of the open slope, he turned aside and headed their course toward a rocky knoll which was visible through the trees.
“What are you going that way for?” asked Miranda.
“Likely the lou’-cerfies had their den in the rocks yonder,” was the reply; “we must find it.”
“What do we want of their den?” queried the girl in surprise.
“There’ll be a couple of lou’-cerfie kittens in it, I reckon,” said Dave, “an’ we must find ’em.”
“What for?” demanded Miranda, suspiciously.
Dave looked at her.
“You’ve had me shoot the father an’ mother, Mirandy,” he said slowly, “for the sake of the deer. An’ now would ye hev the little ones starve to death?”
“I never thought of that, Dave,” answered the girl, smitten with remorse; and she looked at him with a new approval. She thought to herself that he, hunter and blood-stained as he was, showed yet a readier and more reasonable tenderness for the furry kindred than she herself.
For nearly half an hour they searched the hollows of the rocky knoll, and at last came upon a shallow cave overhung darkly by a mat of dwarf cedar. There were bones about the entrance, and inside, upon a bed of dry moss, were two small rusty brown, kitten-like objects curled softly together. Miranda’s discerning vision perceived them at once, but it took Dave’s eyes some seconds to adapt themselves to the gloom. Then the furry ball of “lou’-cerfie” kittens looked to him very pretty—something to be fondled and protected. He knew well how their helplessness would appeal to Miranda’s tender heart. Nevertheless, with a firmness of courage which, under the circumstances, few heroes would have arisen to, he stepped forward, stooped, untangled the soft ball, and with the heavy handle of his hunting-knife struck each kitten just one sharp stroke on the neck, killing it instantly and easily.