Devils Lake inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, Ramsey Co., Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1905, 1888-02-11

cred and lowed piteously.
"The night was almost entirely dark now,
for the moon had quite set md the clouds
had covered up the stars, so that the only
light that we had came from the FIRE, which
b. this time was burning up brightly again.
But, as you know, freight is absolutely use
less to shoot by, it is 50 uncertain, and besides
it penetrates but a very little way Into the
darkness, although if one is in the dark out
side one can sec it from SO far away.
Presently the oxen, after standing still
for a moment, suddenly winded tho lion and
did what l feared they would-began to
SHREK that is. to try and break loose from
tie trektows to which they were tied, end
hlow of this habit on the part of oxen, which
ave, I do believe, the most foolish animals un.
der the sum-, q sheep being a very Solomon
compared to them, and it is by no means I'M
conmon for q lion to got In such a position
that Il herd or span Of oxen may wind him,
shrek, break their reins and rush of into the
bush. OF course, once they arc there they
ara helpless In the dark; and then the lion
chooses the one that he loves best and eats
him at his leisure.
swell, round and round went our six poor
oxen, nearly t%rampling us to death in their
mad rush; indeed, had we not hastily tum-
bled out Of the way we should have been
trampled to death, or at the least seriously
injured. As it was, Harry was run over,
and poor JinJim being caught by tho trek
tow somewhere beneath the arm, was hurled
right across the skerm, landing by my sid
only some PAGES of.
"Snap went the disselboom of the cart be-
meath tbs transverse strain pat upon it. Had
II NOR hNnl<o,, khn ., nj ,..a.ll 49,
it was, in another minute, oxen, cart, trek
Tow, reims, broken disselboom, and every
thing We're soon tied in one vast ~heaving,
r!unging, following and seemingly inextrica-
Bile knot.
"tor a moment or two this state OF affairs
took my attention Of from the lion that had
caused it, but while ! was wondering what
on earth was to be lone next, and what VIC
should do if the cattle broke loose into the
bush and were lost, for cattle frightened in
this manner will 60 right away like mad
things, it was suddenly recalled in a very
painful fashion.
For at that moment I perceived by the
light Of the fire a kind of CLEAN of yellow
travelling through the airtoward us.
"'The lion! tho !iony' holloacd Pharaoh,
and as lle did so he, or she, for it was a great,
gaunt ~lioness, hnlf wild, no doubt, with
hunger, lit right in tho middle OF the skerm,
and stood there In the smoky gloom and
dashed her tail and roared. seized my rifle
and fired it at her, but what between the con-
fusion and my agitation and the uncertain
light, I missed her and nearly shot Pharaoh.
The fash OF the rife, however, threw the
whole sceno into strong relief, and q wild ono
it was, / can toll you-with the seething mass
Of o1eu twisted all around the cart in such a
fashion that their heads looked as though
they were growing out Of their rumps and
their horns seemed to protrude from their
backs; the smoking fire, with just a blaze in
the heart Of the smoke; Jim-Jim In the fore
ground, where the oxen had thrown him in
their wild rush, stretched out there in terror;
and then, as a center to tho picture, the
great. gaunt lionea glaring round with
hungry, yellow eyes, roaring and whining as
she made up her mind whatt to do.
ut did not take her long, however-iust
as long cs It takes a flash to die into dark.
ness-for before l could fire again or dc any
thing, with a most fiendish snort she sp:ang
upon poor Jim-Jim.
II heard the unfortunate lad shrek. and
then almost instantly I saw his legs thrown
into the air. The lioness had seized him by
the neck, and with a sudden jerk thrown his
body over her back SO that his legs hung
down ct this further side.
Then, without the slightest hesitation,
and apparently without any difficulty, she
cleared the skerm fenco at a single bound,
and, bearing poor Jim-Jim with her, vanished
into tie darkness beyond in the direction of
the bathing place that I have already do
scribed We jumped up, perfectly mad with
horror and fear, and rushed after her, firing
shots at haphazard, on the chance that she
would be frightened by them Into dropping
her prey, but nothing could we Gee aud moth
ing could VIC hear. The lioness had vanished
into the darkness, taking Jim-Jim with her,
and to attempt to follow her till daylight was
madness. We should only expose ourselves
to the risk Of a like fate.
8 with scared and heavy hearts va crept
back to the skerm and sat down to wait for
daylight, which now could not be much more
than on hour of. It was absolutely useless
to try even to disentangle the oxen TIL then,
% all that was left for us to do was to sit and
wonder bow 1t came to pass that one should
be taken and the other left, and to hope
against hope that our poor servant might
have been mercifully delivered from the lions
jaws. At length the faint light came steal
ing lie a ghost up the long slope Of bush
and glinted on the tangled oxen's horns,
and with frightened faces we got ND end
set to the task Of ~disentangling the oxen till
such time es there should be light enough to
enable US to follow the trail Of the loness
which had gone Of with Jim-Jim. And here
fresh trouble awaited rs, for when at last.
with infinite difficulty, we had got the great
helpless brutes loose, it was only to End that
n Of them was very aick. There was no
mistake about the way he stood with his leps
slightly apart and his head hanging down.
he had got the redwater; I was sure of it.
OF all the difficulties connected with life and
travelling in South Africa those connected
with oxen arc perhaps the worst. Tho OK il
the most e~xasperating animal In the world, a
negro excepted. He has absolutely no con-
stitutioa, and never neglects an opportunity
Of falling sick of some mysterious disease.
he will get thin upon the slightest provoca.
ton, end from mere righteousness die Of
poverty whereas 1t is his chief delight 10
turn round and refuse to pull whenever be
finds himself well In the center Of a river, or
the wagon wheel nicely fast in a mud hole.
Drive him a few miles over rough roads and
you win find that he is footsore; turn him
loose to feed and you will discover that he
has run away, or If he has not run away he
has Of malice ~aforethousht eaten tulip and
poisoned himself. There is always some
thing wrong with him. The OK is a brute.
1t ives Of a piece with his accustomed be-
havior for the ono in question to break out
on purpose, probably-with redwater lust
when q lion had walked Of with his herdsr.