“What, a real Canada lynx?” exploded Dolph. “That excites me a whole lot, let me tell you; for if there’s one animal in this country I’ve always wanted to run across it’s a genuine lynx. Heard a lot about the sly things, too. Shot cats in Florida, Louisiana, Virginia, and up in Maine, but never saw a lynx. I hope you’re not mistaken, Teddy, and that I get a chance to clap my eyes on him.”
“Then look sharp; I know the beast’s habits pretty well,” ventured the other; whose father being a rich lumber merchant, it was only natural that the boy should be acquainted with these Michigan pine woods, and their furry inhabitants, “and the chances are that, having got a taste of our fine ham, he won’t want to clear out without trying to carry it with him.”
“Wait! I think I see something that looks like a big knob on one of his limbs!” exclaimed Dolph, eagerly.
“Hi! there, go slow!” cautioned Teddy, fearing an attack, if any blunder were committed; “a lynx only wounded can upset a whole camp like a twister of a cyclone had struck it, ain’t that so, Amos?”
“It sure is,” answered the third member of the party of campers, a stocky boy, who was not apparently as well to do as the others, if one could judge from the old gun he carried, and his general make-up; for while Teddy and Dolph had donned pajamas when they retired for the night, Amos had simply removed part of his day clothes, and crawled under his blanket that way; but from the manner in which he handled his weapon, he evidently felt pretty much at home in the wilderness.
“Does it seem to move, Dolph?” asked Teddy, when the other continued to bend his head forward, and stare at a certain point among the rather thick branches of the marked pine.
“Don’t seem to, and that’s what bothers me,” came the ready reply. “I rather think it can’t be much, either, because, if it was the lynx, I’d almost surely see his yellow eyes staring at me, wouldn’t I?”
“That’s what you would,” answered Amos.
“And that’s been what I’ve had my eye peeled for all the time,” declared Teddy. “But I wish somebody’d hurry up and glimpse the old thief. This night air ain’t as salubrious as it might be. Fact is, I’m beginning to get the shakes; and give you my word, it ain’t the excitement at all that’s making my hands tremble. Think that if I moved over this way a little, perhaps I might stir him up. Watch now, everybody; and shoot at the drop of a hat!”
As he said this, Teddy slowly started to walk farther away, so as to be able to investigate parts of the suspected tree that, up to then, had not come fully under observation. The revived fire was doing pretty well, for the flames had seized on portions of wood only partly burned, and were crackling merrily. And the light revealed the presence of two up-to-date canoes partly hauled up on the shore not thirty feet away from the tent, thus disclosing the fact that the trio of lads had used the water way in order to reach their present camp in the Michigan pines.