The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-11-07
THE sRELEToN,s STORY.

IA rib there-bones scattered about as
the wild beasts left them after the hor-
rible feast. The clean-picked skull
grins and stares-every bone and scat
tered lock of hair has its story of
tragedy. And what besides these rel
icsg More bones-not scattered, but
lying in, heaps-a vertebra with ribs at
tached-a feshless skull bleaching un-
der the summer sun. Wolvesl Yes.
Count the heaps of bones and you will
find nearly a score. Open boats are
picked up at sea with neither life nor
sign to betray their secret Skeletons
are found upon the prairie, but they tell
q plain story to those who halt beside
them. Let US listen:
Away off to the right you can see
. tree-tops- Away>off to the left you can
see the same sight The skeleton is in
line between the two points. He left
one grove to ride to the other. To ridei
Certainly; q mile away is the skeleton
of horse or mule. The beast fell and
was left there. If he left the grove at
noon he would have been within mile
of this spot at dusk. It is therefore
plain that he did not leave until mid
afternoon, or possibly at dusk. Signs
of Indians may have driven him from
his trapping ground. or mayhap he had
exhausted the game and was shifting to
new fields. -E X tl
tits months since that ride, and the
trail has been obliterated. We're it
otherwise, and Won took it up from the
spot where the skeleton horse now lies,
you would find the last three or four
miles made at a tremendous pace.
'sStepl stepl stepr'
What is ite Darkness has gathered
over mountain and prairie as the hunt
er jogs along over the broken ground.
Overhead the countless stars look down
upon him-around him is the pail of
night There was the patter of foot
steps on the, dry grass He halts and
too deep for him to discover any cause
for alarm. (. s
..Patterl pstteri patterr's
There it is-6yain. 1t is not ffty Yards
from where he last halted. The steps
are too light for those of an Indian. A
grizzly would rush upon his victim with
a roar of defiance and anger. A
panther would hurl himself through
thirty feet of space with a scream to
unnerve the hardest hunter.
s-Wolvesr" whispers the hunter, as a
howl suddenly breaks upon his ear.
Wolvesl The gaunt, grizzly wolves
of the foot-hills-thin, and poor, and
hungry, and savage-the legs tireless-
the mouth full of teeth that can crack
the shoulder bone of buffalo He can
see their dark forms fitting from point
to point-the patter of their feet on the
parched grass proves that he is sur
rounded.
Now the race begins. There is no
shelter until the grove is reached. In
stincI guides the horse, and terror lashes
him with such whip as human hand
never welded. Over space. through
the gloom, almost as swift as an arrow
sent by a strong hand. but dark line
follows A line of wolves spreads out
to the right and left. and gallops after
tongues out-eyes fiashing-great flakes
grass and leave trail to be followed by
the cowardly coyotes.
Men ride thus only when life is the
stake. A horse puts forth such speed
only when terror follows close behind
and causes every nerve to tighten like a
wire drawn until the scratch of finger
makes it chord with a wall of despair.
A pigeon could not skim the valley with
such swiftness, and yet the wings of fate
are abroad, and long. and tireless. The
line is there-aye, It is gaining! Inch
by inch it creeps up, and the red eyes
take on more savage CLEAN as the
hunter cries out TO his horse and opens
FIRE from his revolvers. A wolf falls on
the right-a second on the left. Does
the wind cease blowing because it meets
q forest? The fall of one man in q mad
mob simply increases the determination
of the rest
With q cry so full of the despair that
wells up from the heart of the strong
man when he gives up his struggle for
life that the hunter almost believes q
companion rides beside him, the horse
Observation-Disclosures forward
falls to the earth It was a glorious
struggle, but he has lost
The wings of the dark line oblique to
the center-there is q confused heap OF
snarling. fighting, maddened beasts.
and the line rushes forward again.
Saddle, bride and blanket are in shreds
the horse q skeleton And now the
chase is after the hunter. He has hall
mile the start, and as he runs the
veins stand out, the muscles tighten
and he wonders at his own speed. Be
hind him are the gaunt bodies and the
tireless legs. Closer. closer, and now
he is going to face fate as brave mar
should. He has halted. In an instant
circle is formed about him-a circle
of red eyes, foaming mouths anC
yellow fangs which are to meet in hi
flesh.
There is an interval-a breathing
spell. He looks up at the stars-ou
upon the night 1t is his last hour. bu
there is no quaking-no crying out II
the night to send him aid. As tn,
wolves rest flash blinds their eyes,
second-a third-aud a fourth, and thel
give way before the man they had look
ed upon as their certain prey. But it i
only for moment. He sees then
gathering for the rush, and firing his re
maining bullets among them he seize
his long rifle by the barrel and braces Z
meet the shock. Even q savage would
have admired the heroic fight he mad
for,life He sounds the war cry and whirl
his weapon around him, and wolf afte1
wolf falls disabled. He feels strang'
and as the pack give way before hi
mighty blows CLEAN of hope spring
ND in his heart.
1t is only for moment; then the cir
Gle narrows- Each disabled beast Il
replaced by three which hunger fol
blood. There Is q rnsh-a swirl-anS
the cry of despair is drowned in tn,
chorus of snarls as the pack fight Owe
the feast.
The gray of morning sunlight o
uoonday-the stars of evening will looi
down upon grinning skull and whitening
bones. and the wolf will return {.
<unch them again Men viii not bur-