The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1893-01-06

ally he concluded to make a ''break"
and started up toward the mountain
side. "A half mile away his heart gave
a bound of JOY when he came across
the fresh tracks of man in the snow.
They must be the footprints of one Of
his friends, he thought, and moment
later the valley echoed and re echoed
with CampbelPs shouting But no
welcome answer came. Even a half
dolen shots from his rifle brought no
response, SO Campbell comforted him
self with the thought that he at least
had the mans tracks to follow and was
bound to come out right sooner or
later. He started onward, feeling
that at last he had found his way out
OF the forest. Suddenly, after walking
a half hour or more, he came to where
there were two tracks in the snow in
stead OF one, as originally, and the
similarity of the two attracted MS at.
tention.
Then the truth of the situation
dawned upon him. T.e had been
walking around in a circle. The
tracks which he had discovered were
his own, and in following them he had
come back to the very point from
whence he started. Again in desper-
alton he shouted long and loud and
fired off his gun repeatedly, but to no
effect. Then he concluded to start
off in an opposite direction, and he
was soon climbing the mountain side,
but whether the north or south slope
the bewildered man had no means of
knowing. The top reached, he found
nothing whatever on which to base
any calculation.
The valleys upon either side looked
exactly alike; darkness was slowly but
surely settling down, and in another
hour progress would be entirely out of
the question. Campbell then started
along the brow of the mountain at as
rapid pace as his now weary limbs
would permit with the hope that he
would come to some habitation Of
man before night hemmed him in.
DARKNESS CLOSED IN.
In this he was disappointed, for
after walking several miles dense dark
ness had overtaken him, and he re-
signed himself to fate. 1t was cold on
top of the mountain, so he concluded
to descend to the valley below, where
ne built fire Of pine knots and sat
down to watch it burn. Food he had
none, and as for shelter, the only pro,
lection afforded was the big hemlock
tree under which his fire burned.
About 9 o'clock snow began to fall
and it kept up steadily for nearly four
hours, during which time Campbell
was busy feeding his fire in order to
keep warm.
Once in the night an awful yell,
which seemed to come out of the
darkness not twenty five yards away,
chilled the blood in his veins, for he
was hunter enough to know that it
was the voice of a panther, and he
prepared for an attack Crouching
behind the big hemlock near the fire
Campbell waited and watched, but the
animal failed to put in an appearance.
AS soon as daybreak appeared
Campbell, after a night of untold
misery, started up the mountain. Not
fifty yards from his still smoking fire
he came across the tracks Of the pan
ther, which had circled about him
during the night, and close by were
the tracks Of still another, which show
ed that the animal had not been alone
He finally reached the top of the
mountain weak and almost starved,
and as he stood wondering what dir
ection to take there came family to
his ears, in the crisp morning air, a
long, low sound. 1t was locomotive
whistle on the road that runs into La
porte, and taking this welcome sound
as a guide he started in the direction
from whence it came. 1t was nearly
noon that day when he came upon a
small clearing, on which there was a
house, from the chimney of which
smoke curled skyward. Inquiry at
the door developed the fact that he
was within mile of the public thor
oughfare leading to Laporte, and after
getting something to eat he continued
his journey. He learned that he was
fully eighteen miles away from the
cabin, having travelled in the opposite
direction.
The practice of saying God bless
you ~ whenever a person SneeZeS must