Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-05-27


Frenchman. He was thus easily able to
explain the absence of the panther, and
the respect which she had shown for him
while he was sleeping.
The first piece of luck embroidered him
about the future. He conceived the mad
idea of setting up n pleasant household
life together with the panther, neglecting
no means of pacifying her and of conciliat-
ing her good graces. He returned to her,
and saw to his delight that she moved her
tail with an almost imperceptible motion.
Then he sat down beside her without
fear and began to play with her. He
grasped her paws, her rnuzzle, pulled her
ears, threw her over on her back and vigor-
ously scratched her warm and silky Sides
She let him have his way, and when the
soldier tried to smooth the fur upon her
paws sfe carefully drew in her claws, which
had the curve of Damascus blade.
The Frenchman, who kept one hand upon
his dagger, was still thinking of plunging
it into the body of the too confiding pan
Their, but he feared less she should strange
him in her last commissions. And, besides,
within his heart there was movement of
remorse that warned him to respect an in
offensive creature. II seemed to him that
he had found a friend in this vast desert.
whom he once had loved, whom he sarcas-
tically had nicknamed "Mignonne," from
her jealousy. which was so fierce that dur
ing the whole time of their acquaintance
he went in fear that she would stab him.
This memory of his youth suggested the
idea of calling the young panther by this
name, whose 1.-the agility and grace he now
admired with less terror
Toward evening he had become so far
accustomed 10 his perilous position that
he almost liked the hazard of it. At last
his companion had got into the habit of
looking at him when he called in a faIsetto
voice, "Mignonne"
At shutdown Mignonne uttered several
times deep and melancholy cry.
'She has been properly brought up"
thought the light hearted soldier: she
says her prayers But il was no doubt
her peaceful attitude which. brought the
jest into his mind.
"Ali right, my little pet; will let you
get to sleep first" he said, relying on his
legs To get away soon as she was sleep
ing, and to seek some other shelter for the
night
The soldier waited with patience for the
hour of flight, and when it came set out
full speed in the direction OF the Nile But
across the sand when he heard the panther
bounding after him, uttering at intervals
that sawike cry, more terrible even than
the thudding of her leaps
Well he said to himself. ''she must
have taken fancy to me. Perhaps she
has never Yet met any one. Its fiattering
to be her first love"'
At this moment tt Frenchman fell into
shifting quicksand, so dangerous TO the
traveller in the desert, escape from which is
hopeless. He felt that he was sinking; he
gave cry of terror. The panther seized
him by the collar with her teeth. and
springing backward with stupendous Wig
or, drew him from the gulf as if by magic.
"Ah, Mignonner' cried the soldier, en-
Enthusiastically caressing her, I'VE are friends
now for life and death; but no tricks, ehs"
and he retraced his steps
Henceforth the desert was as though il
had been peopled. 1t contained being
with whom he could converse, and whose
ferocity had been softened for him, with
out his being able to explain so strange a
friendship.
However great was his desire to keen
awake and on his guard he fell asleep. On
awakening Mignonne was no longer TO be
seen. He climbed the hill, and then per
ceIved her afar off, coming along by leaps
and bounds, according to the nature of
these creatures, the extreme fiexibility of
whose vertebrae prevents their running.
Aignonne came up, her jaws besmeared
with blood. She received the caresses of
her companion with deep purrs of salts
faction. Her eyes, now full of softness
were turned, with even greater tenderness
than the night before, to the Provencal,
who spoke to her as 10 a pet
"Ah, Beauty! you are a respectable
young woman, are you noty You like
petting. don't you? Are you not ashamed
of yourself? You have been eating a Maui
grabln! Well, they're animals, as you are:
but don't you go and gobble up a French
man. If you do l shall not love YOU
She played as a young pup PLAYS with its
master, letting him roll her over, beat and
pet her, and sometimes she would coax
him to caress her with a movement of en-
treaty.
"A few days passed thus. The companion
ship revealed to the Provencal the sublime
beauties of the desert. From the moment
when he found within 1t hours of fear and
yet of calm, suficiency of food, and a liv-
ing creature who absorbed his thoughts.
his soul was stirred by new emotions. 1t
was life of contrasts.
Solitude revealed TO him her secrets and
involved him in her charm. He discovered
in the rising and the setting of the sun a
splendor hidden from the world of men.
His frame quivered when he heard above
his head the soft whirr of birds wings
rare wayfarer; or when he saw the clouds
those changeful, many colored voyagers-
mingled in the depth of heaven.
In the dead of night he studied the effects
of the moon upon the sea of sand which the
simeon drove in ever changing fluctuations.
He lived with the oriental day; he mar
veled at its pomp and glory; and often.
after having watched the grandeur of q
tempest in the plain, in which the sands
were whirled in dry red mists of deadly
vapor, he behe!d, with ecstacy, the coming
on of night,for then there fell upon him the
benignant GOODNESS of the stars.
He heard imaginary music in the sky.
Solitude taught him all the bliss of reverie
He spent whole hours in calling trifIes to
remembrance. in comparing his past life
with his strange present. To his PANTHER