Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1892-07-29

Just at the summit. perched in the
crotch OF u big chestnut tree, and not
twenty feet from the track, we came
in sight of our second bear. I gave
a sharp toot with my whistle and
the bear tuMbled out of the
tree as If he had been shot,
and went shutting away in the woods
at race-hOrsc speed, never once look
ing back at the object that had
frightened him. l was beginning to
think that this vas a little the live
Hest r%ailroading that I had ever done,
and l hadn't gone a mile further
when I was still more satisfied Of the
fact. Just before we entered what is
called the Long Gravel Cut, a narrow
pass a mile long, with high, steep
banks on either side, out of the bushes
at the side of the track, and perhaps
a hundred feet ahead of my engine,
bounded a big buck right on to the
side of the track. The deer stopped
in frightened uncertainty, gazed fora
second or two in big-eyed astonish-
ment at the approaching train, and
then turned and entered the cut.
"That settles his hash!" exclaimed
my tlremen. s.Half-mile trestle starts
right from the end of this cut, and
unless thatdeerc a run a half mile of
open railroad ties or jump a forUy-foot
gully, he might as we'll stand still
and let us run over him."
"The road was down grade through
the cut, and l made up my mind to
see how much faster a frightened
deer could travel than a railroad
train, so l pulled her open and let her
slide. I'll bet we weren't a minute
going through that mile cut, hut the
deer kept a good ten yards space be-
tween himself and the engine with
ease. The road takes the long, high
trestle at the end of the cut by quite
a stiff curve, and at the left is Kane's
gulley, forty feet wide at the top if 1t
is a foot, and eighty feet deep. If
the buck attempted to cross the open
trestle he was sure to fall between
the ties to the bottom of the ravine,
and for him to leap the gulley seemed
utterly impossible. The deer knew
his capacity, however, and quitting
the track at the end of the cut he
gathered himself on the edge of the
gulley and shot across that forty feet
Of chasm as lightly as If he were
jumping a six foot ditch, clearing it
with a foot Or more to spare and
bounded away into the forest.
"Whatever happens ON this road
now won't surprise mel" exclaimed
my fireman, as he gazed with bullying
eyes after the fleeing deer.
ST thought the same then, but I
changed my mind afterward. The
rest of the down trip was quiet
enough, but coming back we had
plenty to keep us awake. We were
passing through a part of the hemlock
woods where there had been big slash
ing made by the tannery bark-peelcrs,
andhappening to glance back over the
train 1 saw n of the brakemen
struggling desperately on the top of a
freight car with the biggest bird 1
had ever seen. The brakeman had.
his stout brake stick and was ham,
mering the bird, which was q bald
eagle, wherever he could get a blow,
while the eagle was pitching into the
brakeman with beak and claws and
striking him with its immense wings.
The top of the freight car, with the
train running twenty-five miles an
hour, is not a particularly desirable
place for n to have a desperate
fight on his hands and I was about to
stop the train and give some aid to
the brakeman when the eagle came
running and %screeching over the tops
of the cars, jumping from to the
other, toward the engine. One wing
was dragging, showing that it was
broken. The eagle came right on to-
ward the engine, and the first thing
my fireman and myself knew it
had jumped into the tender
and dashed into the cab, where, being
unable to get any further, it con
tinued with us the fight it had begun
with the brakeman. The eagle
fought 80 desperately with the terri
BILE weapons at its command that in a
very short time my greasy engine
clothes yer hanging in strips about
me. My fireman retreated through
the cab window to the guard-rail at
the side of the boiler, and but for the
arrival on the scene Of the brakeman
and the flagman I would have either
had to desert my post or been roundly
whipped by the eagle. The two men
succeeded in overpowering the fierce
bird, and we tied him down. The
brakeman said the eagle had swooped
down on him from somewhere in tho
bark slashing and almost knocked
him from the car at the first assault.
1t was his lucky blow in breaking the
eagles wing with his brake stick that
turned the fight in his favor, for the
eagle beat a retreat, and being unable
to fy had endeavored to escape by
running, which brought it in close