The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1883-06-21

a fox's head. very long ears and very
short tail. The shrillness of his bark
pierced your ears like knife, but the
awfulness OF his howl-he always howled
If left alone-Daffles description. Dur
ing the fourteen years had him, he sell
dom left me day or night. On a journey
he would run beside me, and, when
tired, get up and sit in my wallet. The
greatest pleasure of his life was to steal
behind people and secretly bite their
legs.
"By some mysterious affinity, he and
Marengo were friends from the first.
They now sleep under the same tree.
well, we started, and after going
over good deal Of ground, thought 1
my face homeward. My direction was
| by Alma, to strike the great road that
runs under the Atlas eastward to Con
stantine.
1T was about o'clock one morning,
when l had been two hours in the sad
die, that emerged from a narrow val
ley or ravine through which the road run,
| on a sandy plain dotted with bushes and
scrub.
81 had just laid the reins on Marengo's
ltCh, Wucu SiuOcuiN uc SuNc II tICuCEu-
Gus shy and pitched me clear Oft.
1.-The next minute, with horrible
roar, a lion sprang at his head.
II made sure he was on the top of
him, and so he would have been, but. rs
| lightning on his hind legs, the streaming
reins caught the brute's foreraw. and, as
it were, tripped him, so that he fell side
ways on the road.
THE heavy jerk nearly brought the
horse down, but the throat-lash broke,
| the bride was pulled over his ears, and
recovering himself, he darted away
among grove of trees that stood by the
wayside.
$50 intent was the lion on the horse
that he paid no attention to me lying de-
fenseless before him.
Crawling swiftly along the ground,
he pursued Marengo, whom l gave up
| for lost-for his chance against the little
brute among the trees seemed hopeless.
"However, as luck would have it,
there was an open space about a dozen
yards across. In the center of this Mar
engo took his stand, with his tail toward
back over his shoulder, watching him.
| 1o ctOOu otlll, SASCPt AOi thC
slight shifting of his hind feet and lifting
Of his quarters, which I knew meant mis-
chief.
"The lion probably thought so, too,
for he kept lodging to try and take his
opponent by flank movement. But the
old horse knew his game, and pivoting
on his forelegs still brought his stern
guns to bear on the enemy.
| tla lion rpo.la his
spring, but, AIarengo dashed out both heels
together which such excellent judgment
| of time and distance that, catching him
full in the chest, he knocked him all of
heap TO the ground, where he lay mo-
tionless Then with neigh of triumph
and a flourish of his heels, away he
galloped through the grove out on the
plain and was safe.
1.-The lion lay so still that I thought
he was dead, or at any rate quite hors de
combat, and was Just running to pick up
the bride and follow Marengo, when he
sat op on his launches. This made me
stop.
''As he sat there with his head loosely
wagging from side to side, and mouth
half open, he looked quite vacant and
idiotic.
Suddenly his head stopped wagging.
he pricked his ears, and by the flash of
his eye and changed expression, l knew
he had seen me.
SONY one thing was to be done, and l
did it. The outermost tree was large
and low -branched. To it ran, and up
it scrambled, and had just perched in
fork about fifteen feet above terra
firma as the lion arrived at the bottom.
Looking up at me with two red-hot
Goals for eyes, his long nervous tail
lashing his sides, every hair on his body
| turned to wire, and his great claws pro-
truded, he chartered at me as a cat chat
ters at bird out of reach. His jaws
snapped like steel trap, and his look
was perfectly diabolical. When he was
tired of chattcring he stood and growled.
Catching sight of tho bride, he
walked to it. smelled it, patted it, and
then came back and lay down and glared
ut me.
my carbine-confound it! was slung
at my saddle. Ny only weapon. besides
my hanger, was pocket pistol, double
barreled, and what in those days we
CALLED breech-loader that is. the bar
rels unscrewed to load, and then screwed
on again.
1T would have been handy weapon
against u man at close quarters, for it
threw good ball; but for lion! Be-
sides, the beast was too far of.
| "Then the thought flashed into my
mind, where was Cognac?
4 L L.. Il