Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-23
VISITING COUGARS.

"a AtA 4ol2O OUuTutl.
VISITING COUGARS.
There had been for days a great fire II
the forest up toward Onion peak, and
strong wind was driving it so far towar'
the settlement on the upper Nehalem tina
some of the people watched it with fear
But to Jered Ames it was bringing a small
harvest of silver, for he was a guide a
we'll as a freighter on tho river, and fir,
on the Oregon heights meant game on tn,
lower, accessible levels. Jered had take,
two parties of hunters up the river already
Today he was away with the third, an(
on his return he must deliver three pig!
sent to him for a settler named Keegan.
Usually Jered's young wife did not FREE
at being left alone with the year old baby
but now the heat and smoke oppressed hel
imagination and made her think of thu
n OF the world and set her wishing fol
some neighbor to talk with. The baby
too, was i'll at ease in the sultry, smoke
scented air and cried fretfully as she tried
to rock it to sleep after her early supper.
From her seat, which was under a pine
behind the cabin, the little woman could
see a long stretch of the path on which hel
husband must return from his boat, but
she could not see his boathouse nor the
river. 1t was possible that he might come
home that evening, and her heart was sore
with longing to see his tall form striding
toward her. 1t wa possible, too, that
somebody, some messenger or hunter,
might come up the path to engage him as
guide or freighter, and she watched the
path lest some stranger should take her by
surprise.
While she rocked the little one and sang
to it, letting it lie unhugged on her lap
that it might be the cooler, its crying
ceased, and it seemed about to sleep, with
its face turned from her. But suddenly it
shrieked as if from some instructive alarm
and turned to her, clutching with its feeble
little hands and burying it's face in her
lap. The mother, wondering what had af-
frighted the child, stared down the path
and there saw a moving thing which in
stantly disappeared.
"a dog she thought, somebody's
dog. Its owner is coming for Jered. Who
ever 1t is will have to stay all night, for
it's too late now to go back to the settle
ment. l must hurry in. The man will
want supper"
She clutched the baby, and at her grasp
1t screamed, as II In the widest terror, a
note which made her again wonder what
allied 1t. Into the kitchen she ran, put the
kettle again on the stove and thrust In
some kindling. Then she went into her
ho1 uNn,,, i,,rk {f &l1 sAoI-x - - \ -
brush her hair and tidy herself with
one hand while she held the crying baby
with the other.
1t struck her after a little while that she
ought to have heard the footstop or voice
or knock of the stranger, and she turned
from her tiny looking glass toward the
door of the bedroom, beyond which was
the open door Of the kitchen. There stood
a full grown cougar, or mountain lion.
She recognized the beast at the first
glance, although she had never seen one
before, and in that one dazed glance she
wondered If all wild beasts were SO gaunt
and rusty looking.
In the next instant the wild shrek Of
her baby reused her to action, and she
threw her shoulder against the door Just
as the rusty, tawny, long body crouohed.
The latch snapped down; then the door
shook as If from n blow of a heavy wad-
ded mallet, and the thin partition of up
right boards ratified and creaked. The lit
tie woman stood In mortal terror, and the
baby, which had instinctively ceased to
cry, pressed it's head to her bosom and
with trembling hands.
For an instant the partition seemed like
~ to be pushed down; then the mother
heard the fierce sweep of wild claws across
the boards, and then there was a great
crash In the kitchen. Nothing but a fall
Of .crockery could account for such a noise,
and Mrs. Ames knew that her plates and
cups and saucers, her preserve dishes, her
admired glass pitcher and probably her
sirup Jug with the German sill
YER top had all tumbled at once from the
shelves fastened to the partition. In an in
slant she was as angry as If Jered had up-
Jet her cherished things. Her courage
back In full force, and she pulled
open the door recklessly to scold at the
He had been frightened badly already.
had leaped like a frightened cat out Of
The kitchen at a bound, but he had not
out Of the house. He had gone the
other way. His head had been toward all
open interior door when the precious
,rockery fell, and his leap had sent him
into the "front room," where he stood
surprised, alarmed, awaiting something
dreadful.
As angry Mrs. Ames, her baby fright
,ned into silence by the noise, opened the
nod rOnr, dam cho n in Tho L3foho,, 1oo1y
ng glass the reflection of the cougar in
be front room eying her, and sho screamed
It 1t with such shrillness that the scared
,east shrank into the dark space between
he "chest Of drawers and the north cor
The small woman understood in
that the cougar was frightened,
In the same instant, slipping forward
she shut th Q door of the front room
With q slam.
The other door and the windows of that
Dom were all closed, and now Mrs. Ames
cit that she was mistress of the situation.
The cougar seemed to feel so too, While
he listened and peeped at the keyhole the
vild creature shuffled around uneasily in
ide.
"Yes, you can snoop round in there,
my things over" said Mrs. !.
mes aloud and vengefully, "but when j
cred comes home he will teach you to
!
She gazed about at the relics OF her be- /
wed orockery. That awful spectacle made ,
or angrier than sver, and then she re- !
rendered a knothole in the partition
trough which, by standing On q chair, 9
could watch her foe and taunt him. .
Mrs. Ames had n foot on the chair j
hen a fearful scream came from the cou.
ar In the front room, which was instantly !
nswsred by just such another from q spot
OF ten feet behind her. She turned her '