Arizona republican., 1899-04-22

made haste and hurried through the opening beyond, both of us evidently
 being moved with the same impression
 that the farther side would solve the i mystery of the boys absence.
 And it did.
 "A couple of hundred yards out in
 the plain we saw solitary poplar, con-
 siderably larger than the others there
 about. The first thing that drew our attention to it were the two black ob-
 jects on it's largest limbs. These ob- jects we speedily made out to be the
 missing children.
 But why were they there? And. casting our eyes about for the cause. it
 was at once made manifest by seeing
 three large, gaunt wolves sitting at
 the base of the tree, watching the forms above.
 We both simultaneously looked at
 the priming of our rifles. and. although
 the distance from where we stood was considerable for the muzzle- loading guns of those days. yet we had no op- tion but to try, as there was no other
 point of concealment between us and
 the tree bu- the place we were in.
 Jerome selected an immense gray fellow as his mark. and picked out one cf the others-a pure white, with black ears and muzzle. We each took careful aim and fired together at the word three
 'When the smoke cleared away from our guns we had the satisfaction of seeing both animals rolling and Snapping their great jaws in the death agony, and the third disappearing in full retreat over q distant knoll
 "Reloading our guns as we went, we hurried on with what speed we could toward the tree, the fathers heart in Jerome being stirred to it's depths by the awful dread he felt at seeing those motionless figures, which made no per ceptible move at our firing or approach.
 "The younger boy, Mark, was the uppermost, and tied to the tree trunk with his brothers belt, and, better to secure his safety, his brother sat astride of limb lower down and clasped the legs of Mark and the trunk of the pop lar with the same embrace.
 At first, as we gazeG up at the poor children, we thought they were both dead, but when l, the lighter man and the least overcome, ascended the tree, I found the younger long since past all assistance, for his body was frozen hard But Williams still gave out some warmth, but quite overcome with the stupor that precedes death by exposure to excessive cold.
 Fortunately, before leaving the house. I had showed into my pocket small flask of the very pnrest Branch brandy, some of a small quantity given to me by the cap tain of a Jersey vessel that had wis ited the coast the previous summer. As best I could forced a portion of this between his clenched teeth, which caused him to cough, and at the same time he opened his eyes for moment in q dazed way.
 Sufficient of the liquor had found its way down his throat to create gen tie glow through his body, and after moment or two he opened his eyes and cndeavored to speak, glancing up in mute and appealing way toward his brother.
 His fingers were frozen, interlaced, on the opposite side of the tree, but as they were past all chance of being saved, and especially as they gave him no pain, wrenched them apart without hesitation and lowered the boy to his i father.
 ''As we had all we could do to c1rry | the frozen boy to the house before night | set in, we concluded to leave the corpse i Ct little Mark secured to the tree as he | was. There, at all events, he would be | f. ee from any other wolves that might | be in the vicinity.
 ''While old Jerome built q fire to | make warm drink for the boy William, 1 ripped off the skins of the dead beasts, IS they were both beautifully furred md of uncommon size. These I made ID in ball and hung them up for safety fl om destruction until we came back he following day.
 "A trifle more of the brandy and some warm gruel brought William back to full consciousness, and we started for he house, bearing him between us on Tn improvised litter.
 ''What night we passed, with the railings and lamentations of the poor mother at the loss of one son and the efippling of the other.
 Having been Hn assistant surgeon in ny younger days, found on eXamina- ion of Williams frozen eXtrem'ties hat all his toes on both feet had to ome off and all the fingers of the left land. But managed to save the thumb md index finger on the right one. the possession of which has enabled him to To many things that the want of them T l. ,lishing.
 "A few days after I had performed he operation on his hands and feet which was quite painless to the boy). le told us that the wolves had s1vooped Lown on them all at once from the crest neighbof5ng knoll, and ill their taste to scramble up the tree their gun vas dropped. and the vicious beasts sat town on their launches to deliberately iarve them out.'' n 1 fr1I TOo 4To