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 leaped from the door of the cabin in the canebrake.

Already in Koe Ishto's brain this man stood for Fear; but it was in the beech wood on the lower slopes of Unaka Kanoos that the long war between Koe Ishto and Fergus Gilyan had its real beginning. Gilyan had come to Unaka in search of deer hides. Corane the Raven, whose village lay close to that mountain, had told him of the droves of whitetails to be found there, and he had come to see for himself. To his astonishment, he had chanced suddenly upon a puma which he recognized at once. It was an easy shot; yet, inexplicably, Gilyan had failed to kill.

The incident provoked him, whetted his determination. Having shot as many deer as he could skin, he spent two days searching for the puma on the rocky upper heights of Unaka, and when, early the following spring, he returned to the mountain for another deer hunt, he searched the upper heights again. His quest was fruitless, but he found puma tracks larger than any that he had ever seen before.

He was satisfied then that the big cub, now grown to adult estate and a veritable giant of his kind, lived always on Unaka Kanoos; and again Gilyan swore—despite certain things that Corane the Raven had made known to him