The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1886-05-29
A WILD CHASE.
Saved from an Awful Death by
the Rocking Stone.

the Rocking stone
"You know Dolly Calhoun, boysP'
interrogatively remarked the Colonel.
."Ah, l see you do" He laughed at
the various expressions of admiration
which the subject Of his question called
forth. Eyes, you are right; neither
Louisville nor Lexington-and that
means Kentucky, which beats the
world-can produce o finer specimen
of young womanhood. She has more
than beauty and brains; she has pure
grit and all the staying qualities Of a
Morgan. I know this, because when l
was last in Honduras she and l had a
little adventure together in the woods
down there, which !
.'Whatp Was Dolly Calhoun rel in
Central American Certainly she was.
Honduras is only two days out Of New.
Orleans. Sixty dollars will pay the
round trip fare from New Orleans to
Puerto Cortez, and a few dollars more
will take you, via the Inter-O Oceanic
railway, from that point into the heart
of the country. We were both visiting
at the hacienda of Don Francisco Gar
della, near the City of Comayagua,
about midway between the Atlantic
coast and the Bay of Fonseca on the
Pacific. With a party we had left the
hacienda in the cool Of the afternoon
on the backs of the pacing mules-or
a%udadoras, as they call them7bound
for the Rocking Stone, mi of the Don's
lions. l had no idea what the Rocking
Stone was, and as Dolly and myself
We're 500 at some little distance ahead
and out of sight of the main party l
neither cared what nor where it was.
Suddenly our mules stopped pacing
and began dancing.
"'What' can be the matter with this
old mule?" cried the girl, pouting ont
her lips in that mock-babyish way
which she has sometimes.
although my own mount was even
more excited than hers I drew closer
to her side, in order to be near in case
her beast bolted, as it threatened to do.
With its ears pricked forward, it was
trembling along its entire body and
shying away from a thick coppice of
~jicoral, or calabash trees, which lined
the road ahead. There was Il crashing
sound coming from the coppice, and
the c minute a wild boar broke from
it and trotted into the center of the
road, where he stopped short to stare
at us out Of his little red eyes. He was
lean and hungry-looking. His lips
were drawn back from his front teeth
like the lips of a bulldog, and big four
inch tusks stood out sharp and glitter
ing from the sides of his black jaws.
"When he charged us our mules
went away together into the forest on
the right-hand side of the road. For
the first few rods We could do nothing
but crouch close to the animals necks
and tug at the brides. The immense
Spanish bit, however, soon gave me a
command over my frantic steed, and at
the first open spot l wheeled close to
Dolly's side and, grasping her audadora
with my right hand while l checked
my W with my left, I soon brought
the beasts to an easier gait. Then l
looked behind, and as l live, gentle
men, instead of one there was an entire
drove of wild bears racing toward US
inc leaders champing their jaws so
That, even in the somi-darkness of the
forest, we could see the foam drop
from them.
Then came a chase which in an
open country could have had but one
'ssue-the %audadoras being very swift
PAGERS and more than a match for the
neetest hog behind us. But the coun-
Try was by no can open, and the
Tears OF our beasts led them to dash
,nto lungles which kept us back sadly,
o"' nlndered the wild bears not q bit.
once during the run l saw the sleek,
ePo'ted body of a jaguar creuched
a'ohg the lower limb of a silk-cotton
Tree; little animals like our common
ground squirrel ran across our path,
anu twice we reused an armadillo.
Suddenly Dolly cried out, threw
inc INES forward and slipped from her
scat TO the grass. The head Of a boa
.ohstrlctor swung down from a ma
aosany tree and brushed tho saddle
s"s mad just quilted. Ny " mule
ts"'eo as reached forward to lift her
IRON the grass, and the next minute
were both in the same predicament
bon .o0' and chased by a troop Of wild
"ogs' We could hear them crashing
pattering through the under
t s,oW'n behind. Yes, sirs, that mule
hos me-something that no horse
Toie since | was ten years old.
'nere was a rift ia the trees q few
Il g.. aneaa, and away we went toward