Chapter 7  Early next morning before the sun had tipped the
pines with gold I went down Barber Shop Canyon with Copple to
look for our horses. During the night our stock had been chased
by a lion. We had all been awakened by their snorting and
stampeding. We found our horses scattered, the burros gone, and
Copple's mules still squared on guard, ready to fight. Copple
assured me that this formation of his mules on guard was an
infallible sign of lions prowling around. One of these mules he
had owned for ten years and it was indeed the most intelligent
beast I ever saw in the woods.  We found three beaver dams
across the brook, one about fifty feet long, and another fully
two hundred. Fresh turkey tracks showed in places, and on the
top of the longer dam, fresh made in the mud, were lion tracks
as large as the crown of my hat. How sight of them made me
tingle all over! Here was absolute proof of the prowling of one
of the great cats.  Beaver tracks were everywhere. They were
rather singular looking tracks, the