Page:The Boy Land Boomer.djvu/140

130 made another spring, right for the boomer's throat.

Crack! crack! twice again the pistol rang out. But the big cat was now wary and both shots failed to take effect.

The pistol being now empty, Pawnee Brown hurled it at the enraged beast, striking it in the nose and eliciting another scream of rage.

Then, as the wildcat came on for a final attack, the scout pulled out his hunting knife.

As the wildcat came down the hand holding the hunting knife was raised, with the blade of the knife pointing upward.

A lightning-like swing and a thrust, and for one brief instant the wildcat was poised in the air, upon the very blade of the long knife.

The blow had been a true one, the knife point reaching the beast's heart, and when the animal fell it rolled down among the leaves, dead.

"By thunder! but that was something I hadn't bargained for!" murmured the great scout, as he surveyed the carcass. "That's about the biggest wildcat I ever saw. It's a good thing I didn't meet him in the dark."

Wiping off his hunting knife, he restored it to his belt. Then he picked up his pistol and started to