Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1893-07-20
SPITFIRE.
Raftsmen'e Perilous Adventure
with an Angry Panther.

John CARING trapped that panther
back in the north swamp. This stroke
of good luck-as it was regarded then
-befen the old hunter early in Deem
ber The news spread rapidly, and
few days later Mel Drewitt and paid
him visit. His cabin was in lonely
bit of forest half dozen miles from the
river.
The panther was confined in a stout,
oaSen cage, built for the purpose. It
was then nearly full-grown, and was
unusually plump and fat; its sleek, red
dish-yellow fur was beautifully shaded.
and its thick powerful limbs gave evil
dence Of great strength It was almost
as large as Newfoundland dog.
But a more vicious and ill-tempered
beast Mel and 1 had never seen. It was
continually pacing up and down its mar
row limits, and whenever we ventured
near the Stats it snarled with rage.
CARING had the reputation of being
taciturn and little crusty, but on
this occasion he was quite talkatlve,
and gave us lively account of the
beasts capture.
THE crittur amt very good-tem-
pered," he concluded, ''but reckon I'll
tame him arter while"
do you intend to make a pet of
him?" asked Mel.
The old trapper eyed us for an in
grizzled features.
''Yes.s he replied, dryly, "Ill teach
him ter foller me round like a dog.
He'll be good company in the long win
ter evenings, and venison is SO plenty
that it won't cost much for his keep"
With this testing remark. CARING
warded off our inquisitive questioning,
though he intimated vaguely that we
''might know more long about spring."
"You ought to name your pet" 1
suggested, as we were about starting
homeward. '' 'Spitfire would just
suit
$50 it would. lad laughed the trap
per. much obliged for the idee. I'll
call the varmint 'Spitfire.''
Well. the winter months went rapid
ly by, and spring began to loom up in
the near future. Mel and l were kept
too busy to visit the lonely cabin. but
we heard from time to time that Spit
fire was thriving in his close quarters
and was growing more iil-tempered
every day.
L was just seventeen years of age,
and Mel was few months older. We
had been chums and inseparable COM
paniOns as long as we could remember.
We lived in little village near the
headquarters of the west branch of the
Susquehanna. Mr.. Drewitt owned ex-
tensive tracts of timber land in the
vicinity and carried on large rafting
business. Mel and / were working in
one of his lumber camps that winter.
The sawmill was located on small
creek. and it was our duty to cart the
pine and hemlock planks from there to
the river side. We had made our Gus
tomary cunning trips during Novem-
'ber and December, SO there was little
temptation to shirl1 our task. More
over, we had something unusual to
look forward to in the spring-a trip on
the first raft that started down the
river. For several years past we had
lived more or less among the lumber
camps in the winter, and the tales of
thrilling adventure narrated by the
grizzled raftsmen around the night
fires had aroused passionate longing
to see scpething of that kind of life
for ourselves. Consequently, we looked
forward to the promised trip with keen
delight.
About the middle of March arrived
the spring rains and thaws, and down
from the hills poured the torrents of
melted snow. The ice broke on the
river and was whirled away. The West
branch became a raging, yellow flood,
and forest trees, far up on the banks,
were Tapped by the swirling eddies.
When the flood had subsidized a little,
the scene of activity was transferred
from the lumber camp to the river.
The first raft was quickly built into
sections and bound together with hick-
DRY withes. 1t was of medium size and
contained selected pine planks. It's
destination was Columbia, town on
the lower Susquehanna, within forty or
fifty miles of Chesapeake bay. This
was as promising trip as Mel or I
could have desired for the distance was
all of two hundred and fifty miles.
The raft was fitted with two
sweeps as the gigantic steering-oars
are called. Near the stern was a small
cabin, containing hunks and cook
stove. 1t had sort of an annex at one
side, in which were stored potatoes and
slabs OF maple-sugar. These belonged
to the raftsmen, and were to be sold or
traded off at stopping places along the
way.
Three of Mr.. Drewitt's most tried and
trusty men comprised the crew. Hack
EFT and Fosdyke were gaunt, sinewy
fellows, a little gruf outwardly, but
sterling at heart. They were about
fifty years old. Grubb was a stout,
small-sizEd man, with pleasant, good
humored face He had plenty of
strength in his plump arms, but his
chief gu ALLEGATION was cooking. Hewas
ten years younger than his comrades.
One sunny morning, early in April,
Mel and stood aboard the raft, wait
ing for the mooring lines to be cast off.
Grubb and Fosdyke were ashore, talk
ing to little knot of lumbermen who
had temporarily stopped work on a sec
ond raft Mr.. Drewitt stood near by,
giving Hackett his final instructions.
81 wish they would hurry" ez-
claimed Mel, impatiently. '.Hullo!
Look there!' he added.
a queer-looking vehicle, drawn by
two mules, had just emerged from the
forest and was moving down the
rugged road to the river. With the
utmost surprise, we recognized Spit
fires cage mounted on four wheels.
John CARING was perched on top. driv-
inc We hurried over the n1ank tn