River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-07-17

we're not quite prepared for so sudden !;
/ spring as the old beast had made.
"Look outfn shrieked AL. "Sloot
shootw
George fired-Wilts fired-Al slung the
axe, and Ned and were both cooking
our guns-trying to get aim
But the savage brute flew from jim
across the brook towards Al. He ran up
the side Of the gully, shouting, "Shootl
shoot herr
No wonder he ran, tor she was the
ngliest-looking thing ! ever saw.
She got past us all. and secured away
down the hollow. The dogs started after
her, at full cry, down the gully, of
through the woods to the northeast.
We rallied, too, loaded up again, and fol-
lowed for mile or more. Then we lost
them from hearing altogether, and, being
now uIetty tired and hungry, we went
home.
| But Just as George and Al and | were
finishing a most hearty meal Ned came
running to the house to say that the
hounds had come around from the north
vest, within hearing again. We went
into the yard They seemed not more
than tao miles of, going in full cry to-
wards the pond woods
Come ONT shouted George.
Guns were brought out in hot haste,
and away we went But after running a
mile or two we lost sound of the dogs !;
and it was not till near four o'clock that
they came round from the south end of
tie pond. Not many minutes after that
we heard the long howl of Old Jim. 1t
was down by the east shore of the pond,
where crag, called the "overset," front
ed on the water.
Willis and George had already started to
go down there The rest of us followed
them round the head of the pond and
clown through the woods to the "overset"
George and Wits were at some distance
aheaC
The dogs were whining about the rock.
There was great crevice, two or three
feet wide, between two huge ROCKS which
lay at the foot of the cliff. Upon these,
other greet boulders had fallen down.
The crevice looked like the mouth Of
den
The old brute is in there, sure enough !"
Wits said. GLOW | wish had a bucket
of nitro-gIycerine to tuck in after her."
Finally, we concluded to SIT our guns
the hole of them-spring- gun fashion,
pointing into the crevice.
Ned went up to house about half
mile off and got some hemp Irvine. While
he was gone, the rest of us cut crotched
stakes to rest the guns in, and set them
in the ground around the hole. Five guns
were set pointing into the den.
When Ned came back with the twlne,
a perfect network of lines was laid across
the mouth of the den; and each of these
CROSSINGS ran round stake to the trig-
gers of all the guns.
1t was "a nice Job to fix them, and
rather critical one when it came to put
ting the lines on the triggers The guns
we're then &C aked. Each one had been
loaded as heavily as we dared to load
it.
BY the time we got our guns set it was
fairly dark, and we went off home as fast
as He could.
Early next morning, before either
George or | was up, boy from the house
where we got the Irvine came in The
family had heard the guns 90 off late in
the evening. As soon as it was light
the boy had run down and looked over
the top of the crag, and had seen the old
wolf down on the pebbles, 'kicEing," he
said.
We were soon out of bed and down bv
the crag. And, sure enough, the old pest,
that had done 50 much mischief, lay
stretched out there, not "kicking," but
stone dead.
She had gone fifty feet or more from
the mouth OF her den, though both her
forc-legs were broken by buck-shot and
bullet had traveIsed the whole length of |
her body. Three Of the guns had been |
discharged when she trIpped the lines.
She VAS a great, bony, 9aunt, long
BEAST, the very embodiment of rapacity |
md fiercencss. From Muzzle to the tail, |
she measured but an inch short of five |
feet. We received a bounty of eight dol
lars on her scalp.