Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-23
and, as it were, trippcd him, so that he

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the bride was pulled over his ears, and,
recovering himself, he darted away
among a grove of trees that stood by
the wayside.
$50 intent was the lion on the horse
that he paid no attention to me lying
defenceles before him.
Crawling swiftly along the ground,
ne pursued Marengo, whom 1 gave up
for lost-for his chance against the 1.-the
brute among the trees seemed hopeless.
"However, as luck would have it,
there was an open space about q dozen
yards across. In the center of this Ma
rengo took his stand, with his tail to-
ward the lion and his head turned
sharply back over his shoulder, watch
ing him.
"He stood quite still, except for the
slight shifting of his hind feet and lift
ing of his quarters, which l knew meant
mischief.
"The lion probably thought so too,
for he kept lodging to try and take his
opponent by a flank movement. But
the old horse knew his game, and pivot
ing on his forelegs still brought his stern
guns to bear on the enemy.
"Soon, with a roar the lion made his
spring, but Marengo dashed out both
heels together with such excellent judy
ment of time and distance that, catching
him full in the chest, he knocked him
all of a heap to the ground, where he
lay m~otionless. Then with a neigh of
triumph and a flourish of his heels,
away he galloped through the grove out
on the plain and was safe.
"The lion lay so still that I thought
he was dead, or at any rate quite hors
de combat, and was justrunning to pick
up the bride and follow Marengo, when
he sat up on his launches. This made
me stop.
GAS he sat there with his head loosely
wagging from side to side, and mouth
halt 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, 1 knew
he had seen me.
"Only n thing wa to be done, and
I did it. The outermost tree was large
and low-branched. To it I ran, and up
it I scrambled, and had just perched in
q fork about fifteen feet above terra
6rma 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
chatters at a bird out of reach. His
jaws snapped like a steel trap, and his
look was perfectly diabolical. When
he was tired of chattering he stood and
growled.
"Catching sight of the bride, he
walked to It, smelled it, patted it, and
then came back and lay down and
glared at me.
"My carbine-confound it!-was slung
at my saddle. My only weapon, besides
my hanger, was q pocket-pistol, double
barrelled, and what in those days we
called a Observation-Disclosures is, the bar
rels unscrewed to load, and then screwed
on again.
It would have been a handy weapon
against a man at close quarters, for it
threw a good ball; but for a lion! Be-
sides, the beast was too far of.
"Then the thought flashed into my
mind, where was Cognac?
II supposed he had run away and
hidden somewhere. 1.-THE lion got sight
of him, it would, I knew, be soon all
over with the poor little fellow.
GAIL at nee there arose, close at
hand, an awful and familiar yell. 1t
had a strange, muf1ed tone, but there
was no installing Cognac's voice.
"Again it came, resonant, long-drawn
and sepulchral. 1t seemed to come
from inside the tree. Where the deuce
was he?
1.-The lion appeared utterly astonished
and turned his ears SO far back to listen
that they were almost inside out, when
from some hole among the roots of the
tree there popped a small yellow head
with long ears.
'Down, down, Cognac!" 1 cried in
my agony; go back, sir!!'
"a cry Of delight, cut short by a
piteous whine, vas his reply, as he spied
me, and then dashing fully a ward to-
ward the lion, he barked defantly.
"With a low growl and rufling maae,
the beast charged at the little dog.
"Back went Cognac into his cave as
quick as a rabbit, and stormed at him
from inside.
''Thrusting his great paw right down
the hole, the lion tried to claw him out.
Oh, how I trembled for Cognac!
"But he kept up such a ceaseless fire
of swapping and snarling that it was
plain he was either well round a corner
or that the hole was deep enough for
his safety. -
"All the same, to. see the great
cowardly beast digging away at my poor
little dog like chat was more than I
could stand. Cooking my pistol, I
shouted, and as he looked up / fired at
his %blood-shot eye. He shook his head,
and l gave him the other barrel.
"With a scream of rage he bounded
back"
Cognac Immediately shot forth his
head and insulted him with ieering
barks.
"But he was not to be drawn again,
and after a bit he lay down further off
and pretended to go to sleep. Cognac
barked at him till he was tired, and
then retired into his castle.
"Reloading, I found I had only three
bullets left, and concluded to reserve
them for a crisis