The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-07-03

$50 they laid for him in their cabin,
but they didn't git him. Nobody else'll
never git him, neither. Not unless they
dredge fer him. The ice broke with him
fore he'd gone 100 yareds, and down
he went under it and never come UP
ag'in. Nose no. Bill didn't dast go out
to try and save him, for fear they'd
break through too, and SO l can't sec
how Jake Bensley could a killed him
down in Lehman two weeks ago. And
| if Marcus Kellam seen him last week,
the old cuss' spook must be roamin'
round the county. Nose Coolbaugh's IS
him only last night tell about seein'
Old Golden drown'd in Porter's pond.
You mowt go up and ask him, if you
don't believe me-
"'Well,' said woodsman, whether
Old Golden was drowned last fall or
shot two weeks ago, it's good red
dance If he's gone
| 'T didn't know what Red Drake would
have said to all this if he had been
there, for according to him this mys-
terious and apparently ubiquitous out
law, or outcast, or whatever he was, was
even then in hiding in the woods hard
by. I kept Reds secret though, and
after the men had gone 1 said to Sim
Lord:
"'Who Is this Old Golden, anyhow ?
And what has he done?'
"'Who is hep said Sim. Why, he's
the biggest and ugliest and toughest
and smartest buck that ever bossed
things in anybody's woods. What has
he done? He's done most everything
but kill folks, and he's come pretty nigh
to doin' that. For more than ten years,
off and on, he's kept Pike county wor-
ried most out of her boots. Every time
he shows up in the district every con-
sarned other deer there is in it gifts out
of it as soon as he can. They can't live
in the same woods with him, he pitches
into 'em so. When he can't find his own
kind to rip and tear, he don't think moth
in O comm right into the settlements
and rippin' and tearin' folks cattle. He
skipped into John Kip's pasture lot once,
up in the Promised land neighborhood,
and Johns shorthorn bull, that was as
much ag'in bigger than him, made a
rush for the buck, to show him the way
out O. the lot ag'in. One O. Kip's boys
seen what followed. The buck danced
all around the bull and punched him so
full O. holes with his horns and his sharp
front hoofs that when they took the
hide off O. the bull an hour or so later,
it looked like big fish net. Kip's boy
said it wasn't hardly no time fore the
buck made the bull bite the dust-the
same dust he paved up so fierce when he
started in to show the buck the highest
way out O. the pasture.
"'When Kip's boy run home and told
what had happened, and they got back
to the pasture lot with the dogs and
| guns, the old buck was gone. The dogs
took his track and followed him. Only
one dog ever came back out of the four
that started in on the thail. The hunt
ers kept finding dogs on the trail, bored
through and through by the buck S
horns. When they met the fourth one
coming back on three legs and bleeding
considerable they gave up the chase.
""That buck has been hunted from
the Susquehanna to the Delaware and
back ag'in, and I'll bet that tons o.
powder and ball has been used up firm
at him, but none of it hain't never laid
him low yit. Somebody give him the
name of Old Golden, and his name has
been terror to everybody, and some
thin to scare young ones with ever
since. Seems to me that three-weeks-
old baby, even, will stop bawlin' if you
tell it Old Golden1l ketch it if it don't.
Five year ago this rampagin' old buck
had drove the deer out O. the county so
that some fellers at the county seat
offered $50 reward for his carcass. That
stands good yit.
"'Dicky Hoffman says Jake Benslcy
killed him two weeks ago. Jake didn't
do nothin' O. the kind. He killed a
slammin' big buck, but it wasn't Old
Golden. Nose Coolbaugh says that him
and Bill Overfeld seen him drowned
in Porter's pond three months ago
They think they did, but they didn't
A buck that's smart enough to get the
best of all the hunters and dogs that
has chased it from Dan to Beersheby
these ten years amt such a lunkhead
of blame fool as to walk out on thin
ice and drowned himself. Marcus Kel-
lam says he seen Old Golden last week
over on Panpack. That's more like It.
I shouldn't be surprised if he was prov.
lin round this end O. the country ag'in.
He's let us alone good while. He bet
ter keep his eye peeled, though, il
he's foolin' round where Marcus Kel,
lam ig.'
$50 Old Golden was q four-footed
desperado. felt relieved, and changed
my mind about being out of sight when
Red Drake came for me next morning to
go to the woods with him. was ready
when he got around, and the first thing
said to him was:
"'Red, did you hear that Old Golden
was dead?'
"Red dropped into the big barroom
chair as if he. had been knocked into
it. He stared wildly at me for spell,
and then gasped:
"'Who-who-who got him.
"'Word came last night that Jake
| Bensley shot him down in Lehman two
weeks ago.
"Red'S grin came back to his face.
"'Which it must been Old Golden's
ghost seen day afore Yesterday then,
not two miles from here said he. TT
mowt a been, and then ag'in it mowtn't
A little more mowtn't than mowt, I've
an idee.'
"Marcus Kellam says, though, that
i he saw the old chan over on Pannack