Oscar came, not sneakingly nor slowly but a rasping, spitting, clawing chunk of deviltry, and Ren shut the door just in time. It caught Oscar at the flank and for a few seconds the air was full of cougar cuss words.
Sig advanced cautiously and managed to get one rope over its head and pulled the noose tight. He handed that rope to Ren, who immediately proceeded to forget that he was there to keep the door tight. He grabbed the rope with both hands, braced himself for the rush and unthinkingly stepped away from the door.
There was a heave and a flash and the cougar sailed over Sig’s head and out to the end of that rope. Ren was partly braced for the shock but didn’t figure on the velocity of the animal, and when the shock came he went straight up in the air and off across the clearing.
Luckily he lit running and hung on to the rope, and he and the cougar went down the hill, over stumps and through the thickets like a spitting, yelling, yellow comet with a human tail.
They had traveled thus for about two hundred yards when the cougar went on one side of a tree and Ren on the other. They almost met on the big swing. The cat flipped upside down over a log while Ren almost completed the circle, only stopping when he threw his arms around a tree and hung on. He still held the rope and had presence of mind enough left to proceed to tie that cat up good and tight. The cougar had choked itself nearly to death trying to come up under the log and Ren had little trouble in tying its hind legs so it was helpless.
He rolled a smoke and hobbled back to the cabin. He wondered in a detached sort of way what had become of Sig and why he didn’t help him hold it, but as he walked around the cabin he heard Sig’s voice imploring him to:
“Hurry up, fer Gawd’s sake!”
“What’s th’ matter?” asked Ren.
“Come over here you danged fool!” wailed Sig. “Can’t yuh see I can’t hold this door much longer!”
“Hold th—what—why, I’ll be danged! Where did yuh git it, Sig?”