Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1896-07-25
The STORY Telter.
A WOLF HUNT.
A Story of Exciting Adventure.

we'll remember the morning we
started after that wolf. It was an old
she-wolf, and she had been doing mis-
chief for more than a year. 1t was
about the Goth Of April.
She had been about the farms the
fall before. As many as dozen sheep
and one calf had been throttled. Deer
had several times come out of the
woods and joined the cattle in the
psstures-through fright, it seemed, al
having been pursued. :,
During the winter large gray vol
had been seen three or four times near
the logging camp, 10 miles above
One night man shot at it from bis
camp door as it was snatching at some
SCRAPS of meat that had been thrown
out.
AS soon as the snow was off, and
the sheep and cattle had been turned
out again, the wolf renewed its depre-
dations. The second night our sheep
were out, three were killed and partly
eaten; and only two nights after this
a neighboring farmer lost four. That
same afternoon, too, one OF Mr..
Murch's-another neighbor's-cows
came to the barn worried and bloody,
as if she had been attacked by some
wild animal.
ut is that wolff" everybody said
and the following morning six of us
turned out to hunt it down.
Besides my cousin George and me,
there were Willis Murch, Ned Wilbur,
and young fellow named Walt Evans
Evans was a cousin of the Murch boys,
and was up from Portland to visit
them that spring. AL Churchill, a boy
who worked for US, was another of the
party.
Grandfather was too old for such
chase; Mr.. Wilbur was sick, and
Willis father was not living. The bus
mess of the farm fell largely to us
boys, and we thought it belonged to
us to rid the neighborhood of that
wolf.
remember carrying a double-bar-
relied duck.gun, both barrels loaded
with B. B. shot and bullet. George
had an old Sharp's carbine Walt
Evans carried, besides his gun, a po-
liceman's "billy" and a knife in belt.
Ned and Willis both had guns, but Al
Churchill had nothing but an axe.
We were a warlike party, so far as
weapons went, and we were determin-
ed to hunt the wolf down.
George and I then owned two
hounds. One of them, "Old Jim, "
was big, savage fellow. We took
him with US. Willis took along his
fox-houud, too, and Mr.. Wilbur's big
watchdog, "Beave," came on after us.
We went first to the pasture where
Mr.. Wilbur's sheep had been killed.
The spot was little hollow beside a
thicket of cedars and alders. The
sheep had been lying there, to be out
of the cold biting wind, probably. In
the dark the wolf had throttled one
after another of them for sheep, when
in the night, will rarely run
far, bus stand huddled together.
Cue of the sheep had been dragged
into the thicket and partially eaten.
Old Sim shifted eagerly about; then,
with loud, fierce challenge, he bound
ed off on the wolf g track. The other
hound and Beave followed.
You may be sure that six more thor
oughly excited boys never set off after
We ran through the brush
after them, down into swamp, cross
ed a muddy brook, and entered the
woods beyond. And it
was not till Ned's gun went off from
accidentally hitting the hammer against
a stump, and come near shooting AL
in the legs, that we settled down to a
more cautious and steady pace.
The hounds, of course, soon left us
behind. But we followed on, guided by
their loud baying. The old VOLTS lair
was nearer than we had supposed it to
be. We had not gone much more than
a mile through the thick forest, when
we heard Old Jim give prolonged
howl. The steady baying had ceased.
"They've run the old brute into some
ledge!" cried Willis.
We hurried on, and came 10 a deep,
wooded gully, between two high hills,
down the bed of which ran brook,
foaming over messy, shaded rocks.
The tracks led up this gully. George
was ahead, and we all followed as fast
as we could run. The hollow grew
narrower, with sleeper sides, and 30
rods farther up we came to what looked
to be huge jam of old stumps, logs
and brush, that filled the whole gully
to the height of Is to 20 feet. Some
heavy freshet had lodged it there.
The brook roared and gurgled beneath
it.
The hounds stood at the foot of this
jam of stumps and brush, near hole
between two messy logs. They whln-
ed when we came up, and Old Jim
gave another long howl. We looked
about the place. There were many
bones, old ones and fresh ones, with
bits of fur and wool scattered round.
"Here's her den ~ exclaimed Ned.
1t was dark, vicious-looking hole
under the old logs. AL and George
climbed over to the other side, to see
if there were more holes leading under
or ONT Sand and earth had been