In fear for Dega’s life, Evelyn fired from the hip. At that range she couldn’t miss; the slug cored the lion’s side. In a flash the cat spun and was on her, slashing in a fury. She retreated and her heel caught on Bright Rainbow and down she sprawled.
Dega’s left hand was useless. The cat had bitten clean through it. He drew his knife, and as the beast pounced on Evelyn, he dived and stabbed, seeking to turn it from her so it would attack him. He succeeded; it did.
Evelyn’s senses reeled from a blow to the head. Her dress was torn and she was bleeding, but all that mattered to her was the sight of Dega on the ground with the black mountain lion tearing at him in a frenzy. Clutching her flintlocks, she thumbed back both hammers as she drew. Dega was stabbing and the mountain lion was biting and clawing. She threw herself full length and rammed both muzzles against the mountain lion’s head. The cat started to rise and turn toward her. She fired both pistols at once.
The black mountain lion arched its face to the sky. Only half was left, and the lone eye seemed to fix on the moon. It yowled and collapsed.
In the silence that followed, Evelyn rose on unsteady legs. The cat had fallen across Dega and neither was moving. “Dega?” She pushed, but the mountain lion was too heavy. “Dega, talk to me.”
“What you want me say?”
“You’re alive!”
“I think so.”
Evelyn laughed giddily. She pushed, and Dega pushed, and together they rolled the black beast off. Grimacing, he sat up and looked down at himself. His green buckskin shirt and pants were shredded, and he had been sliced and cut all over.
“You’re bleeding.” Evelyn stated the obvious. So was she.
“I live.” Dega got his moccasins under him, and stood. “I help you.”
It took the two of them to carry Bright Rainbow the rest of the way. They placed her near the embers and Evelyn rekindled the fire. She was weak and strangely sluggish yet elated to be breathing. “How are you holding up?”
Since all Dega had in his hands was his knife and it wasn’t at all heavy, he said, “I holding fine.”
A rumbling like thunder drew Evelyn’s gaze down the valley. Two riders were galloping toward them, and one of the riders was leading a buttermilk. “Ma and Pa and Buttercup!” she exclaimed.
Dega grunted. “I forget tell you. I see your horse. It run by me. I try to catch but it faster than my feet.”
“Buttercup must have gone all the way home and they started out after us right away,” Evelyn deduced. “Pa must have tracked us by torchlight most of the night.” She clasped her hands and laughed for joy. “Everything will be all right. Ma is good at healing. She’ll help us and have Bright Rainbow on the mend in no time. Isn’t that great?”
Dega remembered an expression her brother liked to use. He hoped it fit the occasion. “Just dandy,” he said.
Author’s Note
This entry in the King saga was taken from Evelyn King’s diary and not her father’s journals. Nate makes mention of the affair but only briefly.
Evelyn is quite insistent that the mountain lion was black. Current scientific opinion has it that black mountain lions do not exist. Yet there have been scores of eyewitness accounts of such cats.
The reader is left to decide whether her tale is true. It should be noted that many years later, an old, moth- eaten black cat hide said to belong to the King family was sold at auction in Estes Park. No one knows where that hide is today.
The Wilderness series:
#1: KING OF THE MOUNTAIN
#2: LURE OF THE WILD
#3: SAVAGE RENDEZVOUS
#4: BLOOD FURY
#5: TOMAHAWK REVENGE
#6: BLACK POWDER JUSTICE
#7: VENGEANCE TRAIL
#8: DEATH HUNT
#9: MOUNTAIN DEVIL HAWKEN FURY (GIANT EDITION)
#10: BLACKFOOT MASSACRE
#11: NORTHWEST PASSAGE
#12: APACHE BLOOD
#13: MOUNTAIN MANHUNT
#14: TENDERFOOT
#15: WINTERKILL
#16: BLOOD TRUCE
#17: TRAPPER’S BLOOD
#18: MOUNTAIN CAT
#19: IRON WARRIOR
#20: WOLF PACK
#21: BLACK POWDER
#22: TRAIL’S END
#23: THE LOST VALLEY
#24: MOUNTAIN MADNESS
#25: FRONTIER MAYHEM
#26: BLOOD FEUD
#27: GOLD RAGE
#28: THE QUEST
#29: MOUNTAIN NIGHTMARE
#30: SAVAGES
#31: BLOOD KIN
#32: THE WESTWARD TIDE
#33: FANG AND CLAW
#34: TRACKDOWN
#35: FRONTIER FURY
#36: THE TEMPEST
#37: PERILS OF THE WIND
#38: MOUNTAIN MAN
#39: FIREWATER
#40: SCAR
#41: BY DUTY BOUND
#42: FLAMES OF JUSTICE
#43: VENGEANCE
#44: SHADOW REALMS
#45: IN CRUEL CLUTCHES
#46: UNTAMED COUNTRY
#47: REAP THE WHIRLWIND
#48: LORD GRIZZLY
