The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-10-07


day; no one daring to try the pass by
night for fear of sudden storms, in
which at least dozen men had already
died right along here. 1t was only the
dreaded Camas prairie, now far behind
me, that cut them off entirely from the
world. For no one, not even an Indian,
would cross the sea of snow by night.
And no one could possibly cross it by
day, as | 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 all the
little benches and breaks on either
side were black from millions and bill
lions of snow-hcaS. 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-snow blindness.
For as long as the eye can rest on some
dark object the glittering 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-flea on Mount
Shasta? They are enthusiastically
! smaller than the black snow-fieas 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 hat the bottom of the
footprint in the snow from the man
who prccedes you. And they remain
there almost until your descending foot
touches them, when they jump out in a
cloud and blaclen the snow all around
the footprint. But come along.
l got to the top exhausted, dazed-in
fact, dizzy-from walking, climbing,
corkscrewing that black and slippery
serpent My hands were both bleeding
from contact with the sharp edges of
the walls of snow, 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 l knew | would have answer
l felt there was something behind
me; had turned notmy head. was too
nearly dizzy already, and all my sense
and strength were now in demand for
the next few last miles. SO knew
had not looked back.
Now, | 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 l knew
they were black; and l knew there
were three of them; and l knew they
were not down in the trail. ] 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 ghostly beasts
were as noiseleSs as the dead.
| found myself almost flying, Six
shooter in hand. for the summit was in
sight; and the top was almost bare of
snow, swept by cyclone tempests. l
sprang on, on, up out of my chasm of
snow, and wheeled about. There they
came-three-just as had seen them.
They did not stop, and fred instantly.
| do not miss my aim with a pistol.
There is more than one man besides
myself, however, to tell that. The
gaunt, ugly beast threw his head
around, snapped viciously at a compan-
ion, and then sprang twice or thrice
around, rolled down and was dead
Then all the picture and story books
which had read about wolves came
back. had expected to see the others
tear and eat him as in the books They
did not so much as snap at him as he
spun about in his death struggles. |
had always seen wolves with red
mouths wide open. The mouths of
these were all as tightly shut as steel
traps. We're they all males?
II i've iuliuicu ydTtlo moro anu would
be on the top of Dead Horse hill and
could be heard. ran. few tried
to shout as | ran, but feeling my voice
gone, | wheeled about, a derringer in
my right hand, and blazed away. The
shaggy brute fell, hut was up and on
me instantly ahead of the other one
You see my right hand is not strong or
steady. Using the other struck him
in the teeth with my six-shooter; no
time to shoot now. These old pistols
were good arm indeed; better than
the new ones. But you had to take
time to cock them, and it took two
hands to do it; and then the long barrel
made the pistol useless in hand-to-
hand fight
But now the horrible part Of the
whole story happened. The wedge
which holds the pistol together by sad
misfortune struck the teeth of the
brute and flew out, leaving only the
useless butt of the pistol in my hand.
The wounded wolf seized this left hand
and piece of pistol in his long and
bloody mouth and held on like death.
got the other derrincer out, but. the
other wolf smelt blood. and thrusting
his nose in, gave this brute The bullet.
and he fell like stone. Victory, for
= 81. . IT. Il