Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1888-11-17
A Marrow EscapsA

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From Theodore Roosevelts paper or
Frontier Types, in the Century, W.
quote the following description of on,
of his trappers, French Canadian
"Once or twice he showed curious re-
luctance about allowing o man to APP
proach him suddenly from behind. Al
together his actions were so odd that I
felt some curiosity to learn his history.
1t turned out that he had been through
q rather uncanny experience the winter
before. He and another man had gone
into remote basin, or inclosed valley,
IN the heart of the mountains, where
game was very plentiful; indeed, it was
so abundant that they decided to pass
the winter there. Accordingly they
put up log cabin, working hard, and
merely killing enough meat for their
Immediate use. Just as it was finished,
winter set IN with tremendous snow
storms. Going out to hunt, in the first
lull. they found, to their CONSERVATION,
that every head of game had left the
valley. Not an animal was to be found
therein; they had abandoned it for
their winter haants. The outlook for
the two adventures was appalling.
They were afraid of trying to break
out through the deep snow-drifts, and
starvation stared them in the face if
they stayed. The man that met had
his dog with him. They put them
selves on very short commons, so as to
use up their -four as slowly as possible,
and hunted unweariedly, but saw moth
ing. Soon a violent quarrel broke out
between them. The other man,
fierce, sullen fellow, insisted that the
dog should be killed, but the owner
was exceedingly attached to it, and re-
fused. For couple of weeks they
spoke 10 words to each other, though
cooped in the little narrow pen of logs.
Then one night the owner of the dog
was wakened by the animal crying out;
the other man had tried to kill it with
his knife, but failed. The provisions
were now almost exhausted, and the
two men were glaring at each other
with the rage of maddened, ravening
hunger. Neither dared to sleep for
fear that the other would kill him.
Then the one who owned the dog at
last spoke, and proposed that, to give
each chance for his life, they should
separate. He would take half of the
handful of -four that was left and start
off to try to get home; the other should
stay where he was, and if he tried to
follow the first he was warned that he
would be shot without mercy. A like
fate was to be the portion of the wan
derer If driven to return to the hut.
The arrangement was agreed to and
the two men separated, neither daring
to turn his back while they were within
rihe-shot of each other For two days
the one who went off toiled on with
weary weakness through the snow
drifts. Late on the second afternoon,
as he looked back from high ridge.
he saw in the far distance black speck
against the snow, coming along on his
trail. His companion was logging his
footsteps. Immediately he followed
his own trail back little and lay in
ambush. At dusk his companion came
stealthily up, rifle in hand, peering
cautiously ahead, his drawn face show
ing the starved, eager ferocity of wild
beast, and the man he was hunting
shot him down exactly as if he had been
one. Leaving the body where it fell,
the wanderer continued his journey,
the dog staggering painfully behind
him. The next evening he baked his
last cake and divided it with the dog.
In the morning, with his belt drawn
still tighter around his skeleton body,
he once more set out, with apparently
only a few hours of dull misery be-
tween him and death. At noon he
crossed the track of huge timber
wolf; instantly the dog gave tongue,
and, rallying its strength, ran along
the trail. The man struggled after.
At last his strength gave out and he
sat down to die; but while sitting
still, slowly stiffening with the cold,
he heard the dog baying in the woods.
Shaking off his mortal numbness, he
crawled toward the sound, and found
the wolf over the body of deer that
he had just killed, and keeping the
dog from it. At the approach of the
new assailant the wolf sullenly drew
off, and man and dog tore the raw deer
flesh with hideous eagerness. It made
them very sick for the next twenty-four
hours; but, lying by the carcass for
two or three days, they recovered