The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1874-04-03

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prompt steps to prevent the savage from
executing his threat.
Waiting until the warrior had made q
demonstration, which he soon did by
attempting to draw his tomahawk,
Branson sprung at him, knocked him
down with his fist, and then quietly dis
armed and bound him where he lay.
After a few moments of furious raving,
he rolled over and fell into a drunken
sleep. He did not awaken until the
next morning, but before he did so the
settler had quietly removed his bonds
and restored the weapons, which he
laid by the sleeper's side. The savage,
on awakening, rose slowly to his feet,
felt his wrists, as though the thongs
had left a feeling there, took up his
weapons, and, without speaking a word,
left and disappeared in the timber near
by.
"What do you think of that ?" asked
the wife, turning to her husband with a
frightened look.
"Pshaw! Don't trouble your head
about the drunken brute !" answered
the settler lightly but as he turned
away and stepped into the yard he NUT
tered:
Like it? Well, not much. The
fellow must be watched. [ was in
hopes that he would not remember, but
that lump where my fist landed was
enough, if nothing else, to recall the
circumstances"
The summer passed and they saw
their drunken guest no more. He failed
TO make his appearance. But as the
leaves began to fall, the settler n day,
while returning from hunting on the
hills, and passing through a dense piece
of timber not far from the house, caught
sight of a figure lurking in the bushes,
which quickly disappeared when he adj
vanced to where it was. The figure was
that of an Indian warrior, and Branson
would have sworn that it was the Indian
warrior whom he had knocked down and
bound the previous spring. The news
was not in any way comforting, and
hence he did not tell his wife of his dis
covery.
1t would only alarm her, he thought,
and without perhaps any good result.
He simply told her he had discovered
bear tracks near by, and that she and
the child must stay within or close to
the house during his absence.
Several days afterward Rufus Bran
son heard his dogs in the timber down
by the river, and, knowing they never
opened without good cause, he caught
up his rifle and FASTENED to where the
dogs were barking. They had struck a
fresh bear trail, and as he arrived in
sight they fairly lifted it, going off in n
straight line down the river.
The chase led him several miles, and,
when he at last got a shot that finished
bruins career, he found that it was
three CT four o'clock in the afternoon.
Swinging his meat to q sapling, out of
reach Of cat or wolf, he started for home
to get his horse and return and fetch it
that very night.
Taking a neal cut, he reached the
cabin from the western side where the
timber grew heavy up to within a few
yards of the building, and consequently
he could not see the clearing, or what
be Transporting there, until he had
through the wood.
Thus it was that, when within a short
distance Of his home, he heard a wild
piercing shrek; but he could only guess
that something terrible must be taking
place beyond the screen of bushes and
leaves. Uttering a loud shout that his
presence might sooner be known, Bran
son sprang forward like a wounded
buck, a great fear in his heart for
he had only too clearly recognized in
that scream the agonized voice of his
wife.
1t took but a moment for him to clear
the intervening timber and underground
and as he dashed ont into the clearing.
holding his rife ready for instant use,
he comprehended in one swift glance all
had taken place, and what was
further to fear.
Near the end of the cabin facing the
cliff, of which l have spoken, stood the
mother, her face as pallid as death, her