It had not seen or smelt any of the living
creatures ahead, as yet, but speedily sighted the beaver now
working away to cut down his tree.
As a pelt, the beaver was worth more than the lynx, but the
naturalist is strong in most hunters, and they watched to see
what would happen.
The lynx seemed to sink into the ground, and was lost to sight as
soon as he knew of a possible prey ahead. And now he began his
stalk. The hunters sighted him once as he crossed a level
opening in the snow. He seemed less than four inches high as he
crawled. Logs, ridges, trees, or twigs, afforded ample
concealment, till his whiskers appeared in a thicket within
fifteen feet of the beaver.
All this was painfully exciting to Skookum, who, though he could
not see, could get some thrilling whiffs, and he strained forward
to improve his opportunities. The sound of this slight struggle
caught the beaver's ear. It stopped work, wheeled, and made for
the water hole. The lynx sprang from his ambush, seized the
beaver by the back, and held on; but the beaver was double the
lynx's weight, the bank was steep and slippery, the struggling
animals kept rolling down hill, nearer and nearer the hole.
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