Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-02

together hurriedly. and Rowe for the first time
felt thrill of dread.
The next moment the leaders OF the paeS
swept into sight o7er the swell on the hill, and
after them, with vicious snarls and snap
ping yelps came the main crowd. At the signt
OF the two men the whole pack halted; then the
leaders with their eyes closed and their noses
pointing skyward, gave vent 20 long o4ooG-
curdling bowling. At the signal oil the PACK
sQuatted and howled in unison.
Rowe laughed at the sight. but his laugh died
away with merriiess ring. There was some
thing in the aspect of the dogs that sent his
blood cold.
He realized suddenly what these gaunt brutes
were The outcast homeless dogs OF hundred
abandoned kraals. Half furnished and desper-
ate from hunger they had left their holes, rushes
and caverns in the hills. Dogs OF war,
they had fought over the fallen soldiers
on the bloody field OF Isandlana, they had
howled in delight over their dead masters at
Kambula. They had followed the wide tran Of
many wounded wretch TO SONS still pool and
hemmed him in, licking their jaws, and airing
flesh, and they had run mp the wind on the
scent of human blood. and had found their
victims.
The two men by the power in the steady look
from their eyes held the pack back, but only for
a time.
A large yellow brute began barking in a mad
frenzied wav jerking his head from side to SIDE
and champing his fangs until the foam dripped
from mis- jaw. The others, excited by TINS;
barked themselves into the same mad fury. and
now and then another would dash out and
bite az tn stones and grass.
There was something hideous in the ravenous
cleaning IN the yellow eyes beyond anything IN
Rowe experience. and he watched the narrow
ing circle with 8. feeling OF sickeninC disgust
what dog death, - he EIuttered bitterly.
Suddenly one brute sprang upon Rowe's sad
die, and in an Instant score OF mao9eneu
creatures were tearing at the leather, tunoling
over each other in their blind rage, and biting
savagely at anything within reach, until thelr
bodies were spattered with blood.
Rowe sprang up, staggered a moment from q
dizziness in the head, then, with wild cry feil
upon the fighting mass, striking furiou'ly with
his knife, The dogs opened up at his attack,
and then closed upon him. with rush that
swept him off his legs. AS he fell they crowded
upon his body, put in such numbers that they
impeded one another, and could not make play
with their teeth.
The Zulu might have escaped had he chosen,
but instead ne hurled rock at the dogs, then
spTinging over those near him, seized one by IFS
hind legs and using il aS club, swept the oth-
from OFF the white mans body. Then DICK
ing mp the bowie knife, he stood over the pros
tratc man, a weapon in either hand, and shouted
in ZIlu-'' Hannibal that Is go. FOR mo-
ment the furious pack quailed under the LOOK
and voice of the warrior, then they came on
again.
Rowe regalned his feet, picked up the stirrup-
feathers with the iron stirrup attached. and
stood with his back to his rescuer.
The shadows of evening heightened out, and
the grew dusk falling, and still they kept of
rush after rush. Soon, however, 1t would be
dark, and the dogs would have them at an ad-
vantage. The dogs themselves seemed
to understand this. They ceased their
cutlery, and withdrew for a few yards, some
lying down and painting, others licking their
wounds, and few moving round the circle, but
all with their hungry eyes fixed upon the two
dark forms in their midst. The stars broke out
from the darkening sky, and the first gust OF
:he night wind mosned over the land. 1t
brought with IL the strong sweet door OF the
avand bloom evening fower), and it brought,
too, wild c!amor.
Another pack was approaching!
TO BE CONTINUED.