lion without lion dogs. It takes a long time to break a hound off
of deer, once he's chased them. Buckskin is full of deer, wolves,
coyotes, and there's the wild horses. We couldn't go a hundred
feet without crossin' trails."

"How's the hound you and Jim fetched in las' year? Has he got a
good nose? Here he is--I like his head. Come here, Bowser--what's
his name?"

"Jim named him Sounder, because he sure has a voice. It's great
to hear him on a trail. Sounder has a nose that can't be fooled,
an' he'll trail anythin'; but I don't know if he ever got up a
lion."

Sounder wagged his bushy tail and looked up affectionately at
Frank. He had a fine head, great brown eyes, very long ears and
curly brownish-black hair. He was not demonstrative, looked
rather askance at Jones, and avoided the other dogs.

"That dog will make a great lion-chaser," said Jones, decisively,
after his study of Sounder. "He and Moze will keep us busy, once
they learn we want lions."

"I don't believe any dog-trainer could teach them short of six
months," replied Frank. "Sounder is no spring chicken; an' that
black and dirty white cross between a cayuse an' a barb-wire
fence is an old dog. You can't teach old dogs new tricks."

Jones smiled mysteriously, a smile of conscious superiority, but
said nothing.