It seemed only one sled had come this way and none of
the men were here. The voices and axes sounded from higher up
the ridge.
Suddenly she heard something entirely different from the noise of
the woodsmen. It was the snarling voice of a huge cat and
almost instantly Nan sighted the creature which stood upon a
snow-covered rock beside the path. It had tasseled ears, a wide,
wicked "smile," bristling whiskers, and fangs that really made
Nan tremble, although she was some yards from the bobcat.
As she believed, from what her cousins had told her, bobcats are
not usually dangerous. They never seek trouble with man, save
under certain conditions; and that is when a mother cat has
kittens to defend.
This was a big female cat, and, although the season was early,
she had littered and her kittens, three of them, were bedded in a
heap of leaves blown by the wind into a hollow tree trunk.
The timberman driving through the hollow had not seen the bobcat
and her three blind babies; but he had roused the mother cat and
she was now all ready to spring at intruders.
That Nan was not the person guilty of disturbing her repose made
no difference to the big cat. She saw the girl standing,
affrighted and trembling, in the path and with a ferocious yowl
and leap she crossed the intervening space and landed in the snow
within almost arm's reach of the fear-paralyzed girl.
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