San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-11-17

scented bursting; but could not sleep for
the haunting thought of those dogs yelping
along my trail, and getting nearer and nearer.
| made a club from the limb of a tree, and
dragged myself on. 1t would be tedious to
rehearse the experiences OF that day and the
next in detail | was weakened by punish
ment and bad food, and fatigue began to tell
terribly upon me. l slept in uneasy snatches,
waking with a start, and took extraordinary
pains to break my trail, swinging from
branches of trees and jumping from stumps.
My brain was 80 distraught and preyed upon
that often stopped stock still with the agon-
izng conviction that the hounds were right
behind me, and at times could make sure /
saw them crashing through the underbrush.
On the second day, when / was half famished,
| managed by great good luck to knock over
a rabbit, and ate some of 1t raw, carrying the
rest with me. On the third day had as yet
seen no house, but struck into disused road,
which made me hopeful that there were some
habitation near. had determined to throw
myself on the mercy Of the first man / met.
1t must have been about noon, while ! was
passing through a we'll wooded strip, that
heard a mournful note that made my hear
stand still II was no hallucination this time,
but the uumistakable wall of bloodhounds
that had heard often enough from their
kennel In the camp As l stood there, terror
stricken and thrillins, the baying sounded
again, now right % hand, and an instant
later, three dogs aTpeared over little rise
and made straight at me. There was no tree
near that was large enough to bear me, so !
gripped my biudgeon and prepared 10 fight.
But when the dogs came within dozen feet
they stopped and began to fawn and wag
their tails They were hounds from the camp
they wore the Lone Star collar-but it was
plain they wanted to be friends even with
such poor wretch as l. Then l noticed that
the brutes were starved and trembling and
threw them half my rabbit. By the time
they devoured 1t | was patting their heads
and they were licking my hands
My theory was then, and is now, that early
in the chase the rest of the hounds took the
wrong trail, and these three alone stuck to
the right one. Their famished condition lent
itself to this conclusion, at any rate. | never
saw or heard of the rest of the pack or any of
the guards. But l soon found that blood
hounds are not to be despised as travelling
companions, for | wandered aimlessly for
eight days longer, and. had it not been for
them, would most certainly have starved.
y,
by great chance or deXterity, caught a wild
turkey, and thus we managed to keep alive
AT night time we all slept in heap, and the
dogs kept me warm. Moreover, | knew that
it would be impossible for any one to sur
prise me before they would give the alarm.
On the eleventh day out | and my three
bloodhounds walked into a COW camp, and
when the good natured COW punchers heard
my story and satisfied themselves that had
been one of them once upon time, they un-
dertook to spirit me over the state line.
hated to part with the dogs, for we had con
ceived great esteem for each other; but the
cowboys kept them as loot, and, afterward
learned, sold one of them for SIS to an Eng
lish tourist. After a couple of months of
vicissitudes made my way north and, al
though the authorities of Texas have assured
me that there will be no effort made TO prose
cute or rearrest me, l have never had any
craving to revisit the Lone Star state.-Eew
York Sun