The state capital., 1892-10-08


no to make alone.
But It was hard. steep; slick as glass
lii places for all this was passable; sd
many feet polished these Icy steps By
day; 10 one daring TO try the pass by
night for fear of sudden storms, III
| which at least a dozen men had already
died right along here. 1t was only the
dreaded Canas prairie, now far behind
me, that cut them off entirely from the
would cross the sea of snow by night
And no one could possibly cross it by
day, as l have explained.
The snow on either side of the mar
| row, steep and dark trail reached my
armpits, often my hat rim.
The bottom of this trail and ali the
little benches and breaks on either
side were black FROM millions and bil-
lions OF showsf1eas What these little
creatures are. or for what, who shall
say? But they, by their myriad pres
ence, have helped many poor fellow
from suffering from that one most in
describable agony-snUw blindness.
For as long as the eye can rest on some
dark object the .glitterinr lances from
the Snow do not pierce the eyes and
drive men mad from intense pain. And
this may be natures use for this snow
flea. But how shall we explain any
use for the red snow-hea on Mount
Shasta? They are infnitesimally
smaller than the black snow-feas of
the far north and comparatively inert.
You can hardly see the red flea move,
while the black fleas cover and make
as black as q hat the bottom of the
footprint III the SHOW from the man
who precedes YOU. And they remain
there almost until your descending foot
touches them, when they jump out in a
cloud and blacl1en the snow all around
the footprint. But come along
/ got to the top exhausted, dazed-in
fact, dizzy-from walking, climb
corl1screwing that black and slippery
serpent. My hands were both bleeding
from contact with the sharp edges of
the walls of SHOW, and had long since
stuck my pistol in my belt to surely
keep the powder dry. But only three
miles more and | would hail and shout
above the pine tops down Dead Horse
hill, and knew | would have answer.
| felt there was something behind
me; had turned not my head. was too
nearly dizzy already, and all my sense
and strength were now in demand for
the next few last miles. So knew l
had not looked back.
Now, l have met plenty of people
who have felt the nearness or the COM
ing of some person. This is not new.
Speak of the devil and he will appear"
Is an adage born Of this and is old, but
l have never met anyone who has felt
the presence of beast. / will not
dwell further on this than to say briefly
that / not only knew that | was being
closely followed by beasts, but knew
they were black; and l knew there
were three of them; and ] knew they
were not down in the trail. l did not
know what they were. But the one
thing that most startled me was the
ghostly fact that they made no noise.
A dog makes scratching sort of noise
on the snow crust as he moves over it.
A bears claws will rattle like bones on
the snow as he walks; all beasts, in
fact, except those of the cat family,
can be heard on occasions like thiS~
But these black and -ghostlu~heasflS =
ere as neiseiess as the dead. y
l found myself almost flying, six. c
ooter in hand, for the summit was in O
ght; and the top was almost bare of o
ow, swept by cyclone tempests. I
rang on, on, up on. of my chasm of s.
ow, and wheeled about. There they D
as l had seen them. Y
hey did not stop, and / fired instantly. f,
do not miss my aim with pistol. Il
here is more than one man besides
yself, however, to tell that. The r.
lunt, ugly beast threw his head q
ound. snapped viciously at compan- h
n, and then sprang twice or thrice +
ound, rolled down and was dead. a
Then all the picture and story books
hich had read about wolves came
.ck. / had expected to see the others
ar and eat him as in the books. They
d not so much as snap at him as he
,un about in his death struggles. | :,
I'd always seen wolves with red Ii
ouths wide open. The mouths of
|
APPS. We're they all males?
Five hundred yards more and l would
on the top of Dead Horse hill and
uld be heard. ran, flew. tried n
shout as l ran, but feeling my voice
,ne, wheeled about, n derringer in il
Y right hand, and blazed away. The
aggy brute fell, but was up and on t
e instantly ahead of the other one.
on see my right hand is not strong Or q
eady. Using the other struck him F
the teeth with my six-shooter; no
me to shoot now. These old pistols
ere a good arm indeed; better than
e new ones. But yor had to take
me to cock them, and it took two
inds to do it; and then the long barrel
ade the pistol useless in hand-to-
md fight.
But now the horrible part of the
hole story happened. The wedge
hich holds the pistol together by sad :
isfortune struck the teeth of the
ute and few out, leaving only the
eless butt of the pistol in my hand.
he wounded wolf seized this left hand
I'd piece of pistol in his long and :
oody mouth and held on like death. F
got the other derringer out, but the y
her wolf smelt blood, and thrusting &
S nose in, ! gave this brute the bullet, F
i'd he fell like stone. Victory! for
e other let go, as he couldn't swallow ?
e pistol, and / tore the air with my
Ills as sprang forward and down the s
eep hill. till literally fell into the F
ms of my brother and his friends.
Yes, they had heard the first shot, {
I'd had been shooting and yelling all
e time as they climbed as fast as they /
uld up the Dead Horse hill to meet
e. But the wind was blowing, and +
en- my heart had been beating like Z