Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1898-12-01
OUT OF THE JAWS OF A TIGER.
Terrible Adventure of Young British Telegraph
Operator


lessly as possible. Ihuddled all the
pillows and bedclothes up over my
head and face, actuated by the same
instinct, perhrps, which prompts little
boys and girls to dive under the bed
clothes when afraid of the bogeyman.
No sooner had I done this than the
tiger, with a horrible purr, purr,
grabbed me by the right shoulder and
dragged me out on to the floor, bed
clothes and all. The brute Immediate
ly commenced to suck the blood that
streamed down my neck and chest,
and every time 1 moved he bit them
more savagely; as raised my knees
to get into crouching protective posi-
ton, he gave me little pat with his
paws that nearly broke my leg, and in
fiicted dreadful wound. After mo-
ment or two of awful experience on
the floor of the hut the monster
dropped me out of his mouth, placed
one proud and massive paw on my
chest, and then, throwing back his
noble head, gave one, two, three, four
terrific roars of triumph and defiance,
As these mighty, reyerberating sounds
died away in deep, hoarse growls |
could hear a still more frightful up
roar outside. The Africans were firing
off their guns like mad-the wonder is
they never killed each other.
1t seems that Morkel was awakened
at the first roar, and without a mo-
ment's delay he got out of bed, put on
his trousers and hat, and then sailed
forth with his rife. thinking that the
tiger must at least be very close to the
camp, Judging from the loudness of
the roar he himself heard. He made
his way, or rather felt his way, over to
my hut, doubtless wondering why I
had not come out to meet him. He
was guided partly by the excited cries
of the Kafirs, and partly by the loud
purrs of the fearful brute that had got
me. When Morto, got to the door he
cried ont, 'orockman, where are your
sr .ak to me, for Gods sake" heard
aim, as, indeed, I had heard every
thing else, but was absolutely unable
to utter sound, though I was fully
aware that my life depended upon it.
Morkel must have worked around my
hut and fseen the hole made by the
tiger, which simply pushed the pole.
on one side, and then tore out the MAJ
walls and crawled in under my bed
Then, of course, poor Dan realized
what had happened, and he ran around
to the other side and kicked the dool
down.
All this time the only thing 1 seemed
: to take an interest in was the loud
| slipping suck, suck made by the tige,
, as he drew my life blood into his reek
: ing jaws, could not realize the full
| horror Of the thing. I had been lying
on my back on the floor of the hu
/ with my neck and head resting agains
the side when Morkel kicked in tn,
door. AS he did SO the tiger drove
his terrible fangs into my right groin
and next moment, with another lou(
, pur-r, he leaped out of the hut int,
the darkness-almost into Morkel'
face.
You may imagine Dan Morkel'
feelings as he grouped around in tn
: inky darkness, screaming out first tt
one African and then to another t.
bring lighted punches of grass, fol
] Gods sake. He found his way int
my hut, and on feeling in the bed b,
: placed his hand on large pool of blood
Z which gave unmistakable information
5 as to what had happened. The tiger raj
= across the clearing with me for abou
: thirty yards and put me down under
[ big baobab tree. Even as he ran b
s was sucking violently, and as tn
l flesh became dry in one place he lie
? me half drop out of his jaws, and the
/ hit savagely in another place and com
+ menced to suck again. 1 lay on m,
} back at the base of the tree with tn
tiger on the top Tof me, OCCASIONAL,
: gazing at me with his great, luminous
1 greenish-yellow eyes, which filed m
? with unutterable loathing and horror
: so expressionless and cold were they
/ yet SO diabolical in their ruthles
: cruelty. I ought to tell you that fror
/ the very first had not ceased to won
= der how it was that the tiger didn'
i kill me outright-either by biting M
: head or tearing me to pieces with hi
f terrible claws. But the tiger SCENE,
f perfectly content and quiet with hi
= prey. felt his long, rough tongu
!, scraping up my thighs and abdomen
+ and as it crept up higher and higher
V felt little gusts of his horrible, stinkin
b breath, which was SO utterly vile an
: loathsome that I thought I shout
t faint. so intense was the disgust tina
: filled me. I half-turned my head away
5 but still the long, greedy tongue ros
s higher and higher toward my throa
t Up to this time I had been refectin
S in a strangely calm manner on the cul
: ious aspects of this frightful affair
a precisely as though were disintel
q ested outsider instead of the dyin
q victim of the man eater.
: As I felt the tigers carrion-soile
= jaws near my face and throat, how
: ever, was seized with terror, and il
a stinctively I threw up both arms an
= thrus. them far in between his jaw
: and, indeed. almost down his throa