St. Landry democrat., 1893-07-22
snutfey OF of existence. As the day

L
had been traversing the ravine length
wise and in direction parallel to the
line of the mail road. was on the
point of changing my course when the
ground sloped abruptly upward, and,
scrambling up a bank of very greasy clay,
| found myself in clearing, one side Of
which seemed to me to stretch away in
definitely into the darkness. There was
smell of wet ashes and cinders in the
air, and the half burned trunks of fallen
trees were scattered about in careless,
unstudied manner.
For the twelfth time | cxtricated myself
from an involuntary embrace with Mother
Earth, and was cropping around for my
hat, which had been lost in the last tum-
bic, when my hand suddenly slipped
downward into space, and a black gulf
yawned before me, from falling bodily
into which I was saved only by throwing
myself heavily backward; in falling my
hand came il contact with partly con-
sumed pine not. This | grasped and
threw far out into the darkness. One,
two, three seconds passed, and then the
sound of faint splash came from some
where below. The missile had fallen
into the river.
Then for the first time I became Wv
idly conscious of the disagreeable fact
that | was lost, and had presented to
me the delightful alternative of perish
ing from cold if I remained much longer
in state of inaction, or of breaking my
neck if moved from the spot.
A. TO into tho dark
my eyes gradually becoming accustomed
to 1.-THE indistinct outline of the river
bank slowly unfolded itself to me.
Trusting to my keenness of vision to
keep me from tumbling over the bluff, I
arose and began making my way slowly
along it. knew that down stream lay
to the left, and l was making tolerably
GOOD time in that direction when sud
denly, from out of the darkness behind
mc, there came sound that seemed to
draw the last drop of blood from the
chilled extremities to the heart, sitting
that organ until I fairly gasped for
breath. = z: ~. 4:
| A laugh, q wild exulting laugh, rose
high above the roaring of the storm,
followed in the next instant by a sue
cession of unearthly screams that caused
each hair of my head to stand out as if
electrified. While my hand instinctively
ciutched the butt of the revolver, yet |
drew it forth with a feeling that had to
contend with something more than NOR
tai, against which earthly weapons would
be of no avail.
Cold, fatigue, the possibility of per-
ishing from exposure-all were forgotten
as l listened to that thrilling cry. It
was the cry of a panther-the mountain
lion of California, the puma of Mexico,
the jaguar of the Amazonian forests
and it came from the top of clump of
lofty pines not twenty yards away. Then
| knew that the dark object which had
giided past me in the darkness was no
creature of the imagination, and my
teeth chartered violently from something
besides cold when thought of how clost;
tie treacherous brute had been to me.
Passing the Colts into the left hand |
Drew the hunting knife and tightenin 2
thc loop around my wrist, / dashed awaE
down the river as fast as the roughncss
Of the country and the darkness would
permit.
had no hope of Guiding pursuit as I
tore through hazel thicNets, stumbled
over fallen trees, tumbed into slippery
:: cu:lics and scrambled frantically out CT
them again. But | knew that less than
mile down stream, Oh a narrow strip OF
! bottom land, | should fnd-lf | should
ever live to reach ia small block house
which for years had been occupied dur
my the hayirg season by laborers from
the Catholic mission at Fort William.
AS I sped along l seemed to see my
back trail stretching out in perspective
before me as if reflected in mirror. \
deep gully Winch | at once recognized
on account of having fallen into it
stood out with q startling clearncss, and
or it's farther edge saw the gaunt form
Of a gigantic panther, craning its long,
s:newy neck out over the gulf as it
shifted vigorously at the spot where J.
had fallen. Suddenly it gathered itself
up, gazed intently in the direction that
! | iiad taken, cleared the gully with a
yauiting spring and came bounding
after me, screaming at every bound
There was no mistake about the scream
ing, for the forest was ringing with it
when [ staggered out into the clearing
On the further side of which stood the
block house.
knew that on the left Of the clearing
a deep pool lay, bordered by quagmire,
which, at one point, was separated FROM
The river bya strip of low ground, scarce
~ ten yards in width This pool found
an outlet into the river by means Of a
sluggish creek, about twenty feet in
| width, with broad margin of deep
mire
Fortunately I had visited this clearing
early in the summer, while runnin g
"traii' lines out from Fort William, and
had taken many meal with the mission
lawmakers in the old log house. More
over, | had been specially assigned to
:i,c duty of charting the pool and its
outlet, to which circumstance [ am, no
doubt, indebted for not having died a
death by suffocation that night in the
almost bottomless mire of the creek.
Near the creek stood low haystach
with its "binding poles'' reaching nearly
to the ground. Thrusting the revolver in
its holster, and taking the knife in my
teeth, I seized one of these poles, tore it
from its fastcnings, and pushed it into
TIE creek until its outer end was clear Of
he strip of mire. Although the pole
sank under me until l was knee deep in
-. clinging mud, I managed to reach
tha deep, open water. knew that there
was good landing place near the mouth
OF the creek, so plunging in, I struck out
dawn the stream. l had taken scarcely
dozen strokes when my knees bumped
against a smooth, hard bottom. 7
reached the top of the bank with the ut