Wichita eagle., 1888-08-03

space as possible between myself and tno
camp before the alarm, and plunged ahead,
taking q southeasterly direction from the
stars Ichose the thick of the wood rather
than the open, for from the time passed the
guard the bloodhounds had never been out Of
my mind an instant, and l knew
that the trees would seriously embar-
rass the riders who follow the pack.
1t Is generally supposed that blood
hounds track and tree fugitives for hours be-
fore the pursuing party comes up. but as
matter of fact, the riders always aim to be
right on the fenks Of the dogs. There was
good deal Of underbrush and it was hard
progress, but excitement kept me up, and l
never paused until / reached a clearing q
good six miles away, where | threw myself
down and listened. The wind was still yet,
the night was full of the interminable stir Of
the woods, the futter Of leaves the swapping
Of twigs, and the scamper OF some belated
squirrel. and in every sound fancied could
hear the faint, far baying of the hounds
Stories l had heard In camp Of the savage
beasts swarming over poor wretches and
tearing them open as they fought, came back
to me, and every revolving detail leaped into
horrid picturing in my mind until my scalp
began to creep and sweat started out all over
me like water 1t had grown very dark, but
L dived into the woods again, thrusting my
hands in front of me to keep the branches
out of my eyes.
l kept on pretty steadily all night, and
when morning dawned it found me on the
fringes of the wood belt, with sparsely
grown, undulating country before me. There
was a thicket near by; / crept into it and
far I
and my feet were swollen 90 that my shoes
seemed bursting; but l could not sleep for
the haunting thought of those dogs yelping
along my trail, and getting nearer and nearer.
l made club from the limb of 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. / slept in uneasy snatches,
waking with a start, and took extraordinary
pains to break my trail, swinging from
branches Of trees and jumping from stuInps.
My brain was SO distraught and preyed upon
that often stopped stock still with the agon-
izing conviction that the hounds were right
behind me. and at times I 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
rabbit, and ate some of it 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 well wooded strip, that l
heard mournful note that made my hear
stand still 1t was no hallucination this time,
but the unmistakable wall of bloodhounds
that had heard often enough from their
kennel in the camp. As stood there, terror
stricken and thrilling, the baying sounded
again, now right at hand, and an instant
later, three dogs appeared over a little rise
and made straight at me- There was no tree
near that was large enough to bear me, SO l
gripped my bludgeon and prepared to 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 1 noticed that
the brutes were starved and trembling and
threw them half my rabbit. By the time
they devoured it l 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. l never
saw or heard of the rest of the pack or any Of
the guards But | soon found that blood
hounds are not to be despised as travelling
companions, for | wandered aimlessly for
eight days longer, and. bad it not been for
them, would most certainly have starved
They ran down rabbits for me, and one day.
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 q COW camp, and
when tho good natured COW punchers heard
my story and satisfied themselves that | had
been one OF them once upon a time, they I'M
dertook to spirit me over the state line l
hated to part with the dogs, for we had con-
ceiyed a great esteem for each other; but the
cowboys kept them as loot, and, afterward
learned, sold one of them for SIS to an Eng
iish tourist. After a couple Of months Of
vicissituCes | made my way north, and, al
though the authorities of Texas have assured
me that there will be no effort made to prose-
cute OF rearrest me, | have never had any
craving to revisit the Lone Star state,