The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1899-05-20
SAVED BY A. PANTHER
THRILLING EXPERIENCE OF a
= GUIDE AND TRAPPER..
An Indian Stood. Over, Him with Up
Il lifted Knife When the Beast Tackled
the Savage - Remarkable Story of
Frontier Life. z4

You want a story do you? Then
you shall have it. amt one that be-
lieves in being coaxed, when all, the
time your mind is made up to do as
you are asked. I don't want anybody
to spend words and breath on me for
nothing" -
So said the old trapper, Nick Ames,
to me, as we sat one night in the bar
room of a rude hotel on the verge of
one OF our far western states.
The best part of Nick's life had been
spent in the calling of trapper and
guide, and I we'll knew that, like all of
his class, he had met with many hair
breadth escapes in his time. He
knocked the ashes from his pipe and
laid it down beside him on the edge
OF the bench on which he sat. Then he
began:
One time I was off on a travelling
tour, away up on one of the branches
or the Yellowstone. My old partner,
John ellis, was with me. It was the
last trip he ever made. John was
good fellow and I couldn't have felt
worse when he died if he had been my
own brother. We had been together
for nigh ten years, and that is long
enough for fellows to take a liking to
one another if they are ever a-going
to.
L don't know what it was that allied
John. He was took sick sudden-like
one day, and although I done every
thing for him that I could think of he
grew worse and worse. At last he
died, and there I was alone with him,
With not human being, without it
was a redskin, within a hundred miles
Of me that I knew of.
You can believe that I didn't feel
over and above jolly then. A body
wouldn't be apt to get along with a
dead man, and he the best friend YOU
had in the world
i've seen a good many gloomy
hours, mister-times when I wouldn't
nave given straw for the chances of
my lfe-but I do believe that felt
more down to the bit then, when I see
John laying afore me, so still and
white, than I ever did before or since.
1T was hard work for me to put him
away under ground so soon, but there
was no help for it. I knew that the
wolves would be prowling around as
soon as it come dark, and that the
sooner I was through with the job the
better. So dug as good-looking a
grave as l could with the things I had
to do it with, and, wrapping his blan-
ket about him, laid him in it and COW
cred him up. -. .,-..=--,.-sr'
- etIt g.,rasfa tough Job for me, mister.
but got through with it, and then 7
kept watch over the spot all through
the night. I was afraid that the wolves
might scent it out and so make a feas~
OF what was left of poor john
The next morning I left the spot
and set my face toward the east Twas
mighty lonesome, and that day T wou1.1
have given every skin in my pack if 7
could have seen the face of a white
man.
Il Travelled on till night came. and
then, tired and sleepy, I laid down TO
rest. | ate little food that I had with
me- for didn't dare to start a fire. I
had seen too many fresh signs of red
skins that day to run the risk of that
Il was asleep in less than ten min
utes after struck the ground. I had
gone without any so long that T could
not have kept awake had it been to
have saved nv life.
II don't know how long it was that I
slept, but it must have been for num-
Der of hours, for the moon didn't rise
until after midnight, and now it
seemed to hang about yard above the
earth. walked up with start, and a
feeling that something was wrong It
seemed for all the world as though
some great danger was about me, and
I should have hard job if I got clear
of it.
ct rose up on my elbow, but saw no
.~o.~@~~~.~~~@~-~.~