Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-04-01
A BACK WOODS
MYSTERY.
a Brave Boy Solved the Mystery
and Won the Prize.

and Won the Prize.
- don't know What to think OF
it, MAJ said Henry b B'akcley, as lie
entered the house, with an anxious
look upon his face, and carefully
hung bis rife IN ifs place on hooks
near the open fireplace.
81 don't know what to think OF
IT, he repeated. CHATS he third
ii ne that crlttrr. wha'rver If Is,
has been around here this week
and time il has come COW or some
other domestic animal has been
killed bN it. LIS not a hear, thars
certain, for a bear d1n't make
tracks I'm the snow like "A wolf ;
nd vel it amt wO f, tor The w'li
don't live that dare come
alone iutO the clearing aud attack
the eatte. Pm clean beat oat, and
it begins to look as though we'd
hay G to do something desperate II
We expect to save anA of OuT
stock
Mr.. Blakeley was Que of the
pioneers OF northern Wisconsin,
having but a year before moved
linto the country with his wife and
9.year.old bOy, from Illinois. He
had been forced to IeaYe Illinois
because his farm had been taken
from him on a mortgage. His
present home consisted OF asnall
log cabin at the edge OF a clearing,
perhaps thirty rods across, from
which the timber had not long be
fore been cut. The place was any
thing bat a palace, bat IL was a
home, and this satisfied the
pioneers, who were willing to walt
for better times.
Of late dire misfortune bal
lsllen upon the family, and also
upon the other residents of the
scattering settlement. With the
winter had come a strange animal,
winch had not yet been seen bJ
any one, but which had made Its
preseuce felt by killing stock ant
proving about the cabins at nigh
IN any thing but reassuriug man
ner.
All efforts to hunt down th'
animal had proved OF no avail, ant
scarcely a night passed but the
settlement was visited by the un
known terror aud stock killed. Tn
pioneers had tracked the animal T.
I
a rocky ledge along the Brul
O. river, now noted as a trout strea II
but here all trace ended as CON
: plete!y as though the animal hat
taken wings and h)gn into tn
, air.
"Can't you set a trap and cate
the anlmalY' asked little JOhnni
2 Blakeley of his father, after tn
latter had put the rife in It's prOpe
place and was describing to hi
|. wife the great damage tue NJ
j, known creature was doing in th
neighbOrhOOd. According to Bldk'
lev. the animal was endowed wit
what see ed to be almost huma
cunning aud kept out of sight
the hunters IN manner that Wa
# at once strange and terrifying.
II ga traps 20 use,' reDhed b ak
'F ley, moOdily. "rhe brute know
}. too much TO run into any trap.
r. seems as though it we're the EV
One hlmself," and, with a scowl G
his face, the father turned to h
y supper.
N The whole settlement was in
state of terror and but few dare
- venture from their cabins at mig
for fear of the unknown creatur
which could be heard now and th'
in the woods, giving vent to loI
drawn howls, which ended in
curious, half-human. cry.
Search after search was ma
for the animal, but without socce'
The winter wore on, and at u
openlng of spring there vaa not
settler In the region who was not
heavy loser from the depredatlo
of the animal, which some othe
insisted must be an lndI
devil, the woodsmen's name for
animal of the cat family which