It was dusk when the boys got back to Tamarack Lake, for Arthur found himself badly exhausted after this experience, and they had walked slowly. The legs of his boots were torn, and in several places claws had left their marks on his ankles.
"I'll bet 'twas the same lynx that we saw here last year!" exclaimed Antoine, when they told their story, sitting by the camp-fire that evening, "An old Canada lynx with a kitten is about the savagest creature in these woods—nearly as bad as a panther. I tell you, you boys were lucky to get off as you did, with only a scare an' a few little scratches! But don't get scared, thinkin' this is goin' to happen every day; you're not likely to see a lynx again in a year—no, nor in five years."
"Well, I suppose you've had enough of the woods," said George, as he and Arthur rolled themselves in their blankets and prepared to go to sleep. "We've had a rather tough experience, and perhaps we'd better start back for Chateaugay to-morrow."
"No; I don't think I've had enough of the woods, and I'm in no hurry to leave. If I'd had a little more of them in my life, I wouldn't have gone to pieces as I did to-day, dropping my club and screaming like a baby! And, George, I won't forget in a hurry how you, with only a gumming-pole to fight with, came to the rescue and pitched into that angry lynx."
[AN HOUR IN BICYCLELAND.]
WITH AN ACCOUNT OF A PNEUMATIC CIRCUS.
BY HAYDEN CARRUTH.
II.
It was not hard to push through the crowd, because the people, when off their bicycles, didn't stand very steadily, as Kenneth soon discovered after toppling several of them over in brushing against them. All the way through the crowd they kept hearing the man talking about the wonderful horse, and warning people to keep back from the ropes, and hold on their hats when the animal snorted. Just as they got to the front of the crowd a man came round from behind with a measure of oats on the end of a long pole, and pushed it cautiously through between the bars.