The Challenger by Terri Farley Page B

kitchen floor.
    Sam stepped in front of the kitchen door. “Don’t let him out!”
    â€œWhy not?” Dad’s voice was low, but she heard him over Blaze’s barks.
    Sam couldn’t let it happen. There’d be a whirling tumble of fur and teeth and one of the animals would probably die.
    â€œSamantha?” Dad’s voice said she’d better speak up, right now.
    â€œI think it’s the cougar.”
    Gram was in the kitchen now. “Linc shot—”
    â€œIt’s the other one,” Sam interrupted. “The baby.”
    Dad gave a quick nod. He switched on the porch light. Just as he slipped past Blaze and stepped outside, Sam heard a ringing impact. Something big had hit the wire around the chicken coop.
    â€œWyatt!” Gram shouted.
    Blaze bounded back and forth in front of the door, then jumped, trying to see from the window.
    Sam peered out, but the angle was wrong for her to see the coop. What she could see was Dad waving his arms.
    â€œGet out of here!” he shouted. “Go on, now!”
    Blaze’s barking stopped and Sam could hear Dallas call from the bunkhouse.
    â€œWhat ya got out there, Boss?”
    Dad shouted something back, but because he was facing the other direction, Sam couldn’t tell what he said.
    â€œShould we send Blaze to see him off?” Dallas yelled.
    At the sound of his name, the dog barked again.
    â€œNo, I think we’ve seen the last of him,” Dad said.
    Gram had crowded beside Sam at the window. They watched Dad leave the porch and walk across the ranch yard to meet Dallas.
    As the men talked, Gram turned to Sam and asked, “You’re sure it was the cougar?”
    â€œNo. Maybe—it could have been a coyote.”
    â€œNot likely. They’re awfully quiet, but a young cat who didn’t know what he was doing…Throwing himself against the wire is just the sort of thing he’d do.”
    Sam saw Pepper leave the bunkhouse and cross the yard with a flashlight. He swept the beam around the chicken coop. When he called out, Dad and Dallas walked over to join him.
    After all the nodding and pointing, Sam knew they’d seen the tracks of the mountain lion.
    â€œIt’s nine o’clock,” Gram said. “You’d better start getting ready for bed.”
    â€œPlease, not yet,” Sam said. “I’ve got to talk with Dad.”
    â€œI’m afraid you won’t like what he has to say,” Gram warned. “And I don’t know why you’ve gotten attached to these dangerous animals. They could kill any one of us, and that includes the horses. Thank goodness Dark Sunshine isn’t due to foal yet.”
    Gram was right, but Sam had to explain her feelings.
    â€œLinc Slocum only killed that cougar so that hecould hang its skin on his barn,” Sam blurted. “He orphaned that cub for no good reason. Linc created the problem, but the cub has to pay for it.”
    She’d heard Dad come back into the house while she was talking. She turned to look at him. Though he leaned down to rumple Blaze’s ears and praise him, Dad kept his eyes on Sam.
    â€œWas it the cat?” Gram asked.
    â€œYeah, and since we’ve never had trouble with one before, I’m pretty sure it’s the one Sam was talking about.” Dad’s eyes were sympathetic, but his voice wasn’t. “I’ll give him a day or two to head up into the mountains.”
    Sam didn’t want to ask the question, but she had to.
    â€œWhat if he doesn’t go?”
    â€œThat chicken won’t fill him up for long,” Dad said. “He needs a deer a week—or prey that amounts to that many calories. If he doesn’t get it, he’ll get too weak to hunt and he’ll starve.”
    â€œCould they trap him and take him somewhere with other cougars?”
    â€œThey’re solitary animals, Sam. Far as I know, they only get together in mating