The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-26
DEATH IN A LIENS DEN.
Terrible Fate of Young Man on a
Texas Ranch.
From the 81. Louis Globe Democrat.

| T6xaS Ranch.
From the 81. Louis Globe Democrat.
Capt. Joselyn. a ranchmau living in the
edge of Val Verde county, Texas, has just
returned from an inspecting tour over bis
various outlying ranches, and tells, as fol-
lows, the story of one of his experiences:
mot more than a month ago l hired
good~looking young fellow-a New
Yorker, believe-who was out of money
and in distress, and 1 put him on my
little ranch in Crockett county. became
attached to the boy; he was a good one, 1
am sure, only down on his luck left him
there. getting along very well, and saw
nothing more of him. Last week 1 went
| down to the ranch to see how everything
was, and the first thing l heard was that
| Dounelly, the new man. bad disappeared.
"He had gone out three days before, the
men said, to look up a pony that had
strayed, and nothing had been seen or heard
| of him since. / was sure something terrible
had happened 20 him, and | determined to
find out what it was if it took ali the rest of
the year. | called one of the men, Mike
O'Leary, and we took guns and plenty of
| ammunition, besides hunting knives,
and set out on our search. We tramped
about through the mountains all that
| first day without finding the highest trace
Of him. On the morning of the second day
we took q new direction, and after awhile
Mike gave a shout of delight at finding a
small, jagged piece of clothing hanging to
| thorn bush beside the narrow trail 1t was
like the flannel shirt that Donnelly had on
the morning he went away. Then Mike
and l parted company, Mike taking the
lower road around the foot of tine
mountains, while | followed the
trail over the mountain itself. l had not
walked half an hour before all trace of the
| trail had disappeared. In searching for it
got hopelessly lost and couldn't even get my
bearings from the sun, because the sun had
turned around and was coming up in the
west / tramped around over that noun
| tain for don't know how many hours At
last came to the edge of cliff ten or flf-
teen feet high. the wall of which sloped
back out Of sight
INTO JAGUAR's DEN.
81 seized some vines to swing myself
down, and they pulled out by the roots and
| fell The worst of it was that instead Of
merely falling to the lodge below Istruck it
and rolled down slant and
fell again-into the very center of
the earth, it seemed to me- You un-
derstand that cave was back under that
slanting wall, and l had rolled into it.
When fell my gun few from my hand.
and there was no telling where it was. I
was bruised all over, but l managed to
scramble to my feet. Everything was dark
around me, out the opening through which
| had come threw some light upon the roof,
and showed that the cave ran back under
the mountain so tar that it was swallowed
J up in shadow.
GAS for getting out. l might as easily
have tried to climb out OF a we'll There
J was the sheer. rocky wall towering above
me. with not the slightest chance at hand
} or foot hold Yes, l admit that didu't
, feel very pleasant. While / was trying to
} think what it would be best to do I was
startled by growl aud, looking around,
saw pair OF large eyes shining out of the
darkness toward the other end Of the cave.
. / could not see the creatures form,
3 but knew one thing-I had fallen 10 the
den OF some wild animal, and probably a
3 savage one. and there was with no weapon
but hunting knife Now. anybody that
wants to may fight savage animals with q
knife, but that isn't in my line. A man
has to get into mighty close quarters with
an enemy TO use knife, and to tell the
? truth. didn't want TO get very close to the
! owner OF that growl
81 commenced siding slowly around the
cave. keeping close to the wall and holding
my knife ready in case of emergencies. The
fiery eyes turned with me, and l bad NOT
, moved many PAGES before, to my
horror, a second pair of fiery eyes sp-
a peared beside the first, and another
= growl broke upon the stiffness. After that
l gave myself up for lost As went siding
' along the wall the animals suddenly
changed their position, SO that their eyes
, were no longer visible. II anything could
Z have made my position more unpleasant
= that was what did it. Every moment ]
/ expected them to spring upon me-
s / had gone about half around the cave
5 l should think-at least, l was nearly
: opposite the opening through which
s had fallen-when found narrow cleft in
8 the rooky wall, and plunged into 1t with
: the energy of despair. 1t was not more
= than three feet wide; it might lead me into
8 unknown depths to perish miserably, but il
: couldn't be worse than this den. Instantly
: a loud, ominous growl arose behind me, and
= l knew that was being pursued.
CHASED BY THE LIONS.
'I stumbled along as hastily as / could
ALWAYS with that deepening growl following
me. and directly came upon a sharp turn to
| the right. To my amaZement a CLEAN OF
= light appeared away ahead of me. My
| How L did runi I don't think better
, time ever was made than / made the
= rest of the way out of that cave. A
glance over my shoulder as / went helped
: me along amazingly. My pursuers
d were two enormous Mexican lions. There
were two or three abrupt turns before
: reached the outer air. Twas just about tc
!. rluDRe into the warm sunshine when the
|. foremost lion hurled itself against me.
was thrown headlong, but the lion roll cd
Q twenty feet down the slope, 50 violent had
: been its spring. And right here occurred
one OF the most wonderful things that
ever knew. I mad fallen right across my
! gun, and as threw out my hand II touched