At last, tired with watching the boys fell asleep, a circumstance that
is not strange perhaps when you consider they had plodded fifteen miles
that day and had carried heavy loads.
They slept for some time. From later events the boys could infer what
took place outside the hut. The late-rising moon swung up from behind
the dark tree-tops. The panther had crept to within a few feet of the
shack. Suddenly it crouched and sprang upon the roof of the little camp!
When it struck the flimsy roof, the boys woke up. For an instant the
whole frail structure shook; then it reeled and partly collapsed. The
boys sprang up, and as they did so a big paw with claws spread burst
through the roof and came down between them! The claws opened and closed
as the paw moved to and fro. Billy's face was scratched slightly, and
Joe's jacket was ripped. Joe then seized the paw with both hands and
tried to hold it. The roof swayed and trembled and, for a moment, seemed
about to fall; then the panther withdrew its paw, and the boys heard the
creature leap off and bound away.
Hunters say that if a panther misses its first spring it will not try
again. That may sometimes be true; but in this case the panther went off
a short distance among the trees and after a few minutes crept forward
as if to spring again.
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