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looking back at this catlike face, surprised, of course, but not as surprised as I might have been. I believe that all along, without admitting it to myself, without saying it out loud, I had known this thing we had been chasing wasn’t any coon. Then it grinned at me. Don’t ask me how it grinned or how I knew it grinned. I saw no teeth, I’m certain, but I knew it grinned. It had the feeling of a grin. Not a grin at having beaten me and Ranger, but a grin of good fellowship, a grin that said, ‘Haven’t we been having an awful lot of fun?’ And so, I tucked my gun underneath my arm and headed back for home, with Ranger following me.”
    â€œThere’s one thing wrong,” said Rila. “You said that Ranger is a coon dog and will hunt nothing but a coon.”
    â€œThat puzzled me, too,” said Ezra. “There were times when I wondered an awful lot about it. That’s why, I suppose, I wouldn’t admit to myself that it wasn’t any coon, even when I must have known it wasn’t. But since that night I told you about, Ranger has run him many times, and sometimes I’ve joined in for the simple fun of it. I’ve seen old Catface around the place, peering at me from a bush or tree, and when he knows I see him, he always grins at me. A grin of good fellowship; nothing mean in it. You have seen him, Asa?”
    â€œAt times,” I said. “He hangs around in my apple orchard.”
    â€œAlways just a face,” said Ezra. “That grinning face. If there is a body there, it is indistinct. No sign of how big or what shape it is. There have been times when I’ve come upon Ranger and this creature—the creature peering from a bush at Ranger and Ranger just standing there, companionable. You know what I think?”
    â€œWhat do you think?” Rila asked.
    â€œI think that Catface comes around and talks to Ranger to set up a run that night. It says to Ranger, how about running me tonight? And Ranger says, it’s okay with me. And Catface asks, do you think you can get Ezra to come along? And Ranger says, I’ll talk to him about it.”
    Rila laughed gaily. “How ridiculous,” she cried. “How beautifully ridiculous.”
    Ezra said sourly, “Maybe to you. It’s not ridiculous to me. It seems quite right to me. To me, that seems entirely logical.”
    â€œBut what is this thing? You must have some idea. You must have thought about it.”
    â€œI’ve thought about it, sure. But I don’t know. I’ve told myself maybe it is something that has survived out of the prehistoric past. Or the ghost of something from a prehistoric age. Although it doesn’t have a ghostly look to it. What do you think, Asa?”
    â€œSometimes it appears a little faint,” I said. “A little fuzzy, maybe. But not in the same way a ghost would be faint or fuzzy. It doesn’t have a ghostly look to it.”
    â€œWhy don’t the two of you stay for supper,” Ezra suggested. “We could sit and talk the night away. I ain’t talked out by any means; I got a lot of things stored up to say. I could ramble on for hours. I got a big kettle of turtle stew on the stove, five times as much as Ranger and I can eat. I caught a couple of young snappers down by a little pond not far from here. An old snapper can be moderate tough, but a young one is downright toothsome. Couldn’t offer much else than turtle stew, but when you got turtle stew, you don’t want nothing else.”
    Rila looked at me. “Could we?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “I’m tempted, but we should be getting back. It’s two miles out to the road where we parked the car. I wouldn’t want to try those two miles in the dark. We better start now so we’ll have some light to follow the trail.”

SEVEN
    Back in the car, heading for home, Rila asked, “Why didn’t you tell me about this Catf