Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1882-09-23

moment made the matter worse,
| gloom and personal trepidation in
creasing, he decided 20 leave his fish
until daylight and make the passage
unloaded. He tied his spells to a
stout branch and begun the march.
With arms extended as if on the
tight-rope he fixed his eye on the
shore, felt the log with his feet and
shuflled awkwardly along at the rate
Of two steps to the minute.
But the shuttle forward was sud-
denly exchanged to back action, as
there rose up on the log before him
the head of an enormous alligator
that fixed a pair of wicked little eyes
full upon him. The monster had
doubtless been watching him all the
time, and observing his movement
shoreward had cut in just in time to
stop it. Charles Ackworth found
himself about the going down of the
sun sixty feet from shore and guard
ed by a Pontchartrain crocodile.
In the first moment of surprise hio
THE mans feet slipped on the slip
perry log, and he was completely
soused in the water before he could
scramble back to his footing. Then
he betook himself to a large limb,
leaving his fish below, and made a
deliberate survey of the situation.
While doing this, and wringing the
water from his clothes, his borrow
was intensified by seeing the mon
ster quite as deliberately draw him
self on the log at full length and be-
gin slow movement toward him.
AS the black knobs on his back rose
above the water in undulatory mo-
tions he could reckon to an inch the
length of the saurian from the tip of
snout to the last scale upon his
swinging caudal This was not,
however like measuring dried
specimen with tape line. Every foot
of that fifteen feet was animated and
eager The body was reeking with
slime; his mouth, as he opened and
closed it in his awkward shamble,
displayed full rows of those large
round teeth, so coveted by hunters
as chargers for rifle guns.
The reptile breathed with a sigh
ing sound, ana Ackworth imagined
there was an odor of carrion upon
the air. AS the hideous reptile
reached the first fork in the tree his
weight brought down another ton of
earth from the bank, and had not
AckWorth been confident that the
longer bough rested on the bottom
he would have given up all for lost
As it was, he was obliged TO seek a
softer position, and there tied him
self with suspenders and handkerchief
and prepared to pass the night. The
alligator, seeing the fish hanging to
a limb, took them in at gulp, lines
and all.
This feat being accomplished the
beast spread himself at full length,
and fixing his eye upon his prey ,sug-
gested in his crocodilean style: "Be
in no hurry. | am patient. | have
had my smack. When you get tired
roosting there | will have you"
As the two faced each other thus,
the man, who was not patient, cursed
his i'll fortune that he had neither
gun nor pistol to match those villain
Gus teeth. There, in plain sight,
leaned in a dogwood fork, the gun,
good at twenty PAGES to blow the
very skull plates from the animals
head. There, hanging by their side,
the rined pistols. Only one shot to
bore out that little red eye, and he
almost felt that he could die happy.
A wide yawn from the alligator in
dictated a desire for sleep. An i'm
mense owl Of the gray species then
took up his station over the now
useless weapons, and began so dis
NAL hoOting-sOunds so unnatural
and uneXplainable upon ordinary
principles that Ackworth could only
feel they were intended for his death
song, though why the owl should
colleague with the alligator he could
not imagine. All this was discour-
aging enough.
But there was an added horror. Be-
fore the owl had finished the first
chapter of his dirge, splashing in
the water called his attention to the
fact that another alligator had come
on duty Another reptile, allured
/ by some instructive sense of prey,
was swimming round the tree top as
if seeking an entrance and a wei
come. How many times that the
circuit was made will never be
known. How many times Saurian
/ No. raised himself to his feet at the
! MANS slinhtaSt mnNamant and oman.