The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1900-01-26
Tad and His Panther.

night, sergeant asked Tau, inc cap
tain's con.
mo" said tho sergeant, as he cut
at the top Of sagebrush with the
loose end of the lariat hanging at his
saddle. 81 didn't hear 1t, but it yelled,
l guess. Billy Murphy was on guard
down at post No. 2, and he didn't dare
walk the length of his beat"
Lets go there tonight and fetch it
in" said the boy.
"No-no"
The soldier rarely spoke in so posi-
tive manner to his younger COM
panion. They had grown to be quite
good friends. So Sergt. Gore looked
at the trim figure by his side, and adj
mired-as cavalryman would-Tad's
posture in the saddle. And then he
gazed down the long road to the bluff
on the shingly edges of which the
panther they had been speaking of was
said to prowl at night and call to the
echoes in that fearsome voice.
Gore was well-born, well-trained
young fellow who had enlisted in the
ranks of the regular army at time
when penniless and discouraged, as
has many another son of good fam
lily. He seemed peculiarly attractive
to this boy. Tad admired Gore be-
cause he was cleverer than the others.
Gore was a better shot and better
horseman, and he was the best wrest-
lpr in tho fort And thnra ic nothing
that SO appeals to the soul of the boy
as ability in that close struggle of
athletes, that embrace of gladiators,
out Of which comes the triumph of the
unarmed hands, the victory of the un-
aided muscle and skill.
And Tad's father, the captain, had
not discouraged an association which
gave his son pleasure and seemed to
make the lad more manly.
Couldn't we kill the panther, SER
geant?"
1--WE might, and we might not. The
last man in this troop who went out
to kill panther came back in a sling
between two pack-mules; and he didn't
get off sick report for three months.
Now, see here, Tad. Get that wrinkle
for me to risk the captains son out
there on the bluff at night? How
would I go to the captains wife and
explain it if"
Wouldn't need any explanation if
we brought the panther"
COR, how would l square matters
with the captain when the captains
little boy was lying in bed-and sur
geon-p plaster all over him?'
pretty nice thing to kill pan
ther!"
Eyes; and then"
Sergeant, are you afraid Of herr"
"I'm not afraid of anything alive"
said the sergeant, calmly.
''If you are not afraid, why don't
you go?"
1--WE don't do all the things we dare
to do"
what, for instance?"
well, 1 dare tell Higgins, when we
get to camp, that won't mount guard
lOluUTIOW.
"Then why don't your
Because it is my duty to mount
guard whenever he details me. He's
the orderly sergeant"
Il saw you throw him one time"
said Tad, irrelevantly; and then he
stopped to laugh at the recollection.
Higgins was very strong man; and
one day in spring, before mounted
drill was begun, the soldiers got up
tournament on the parade ground,
where the orderly sergeant challenged
any one to wrestle. Tad remembered
Cores acceptance, and how the bigger
man had strutted to the encounter;
how the two had gripped to the work,
and how presently Gore had caught
the huge weight on his hip, and had
flung the other heels over head in one
great sweep, and had landed him fairly
and finally.
But that was months ago. Tad
looked up at the distant bluff while
the buglers were blowing retreat, but
he stood in "the attitude of a soldier"
Wlen lne nag came uOWu u the DOOu-
ing of the evening gun. That night
he made his bed on the floor of the
upper porch, and lay there wondering
at the stars till long after taps. Time
and again he caught himself almost
across the border-land of dreams, and
it seemed to him the tagging midnight
must have passed when the sound for
which he waited reached his ears. And
then the suddenness of it, the savage
strength of the panther's cry, startled
the courageous little fellow till his
heart was still. The half-human quail
ity of the tone added to the terror
of it.
Then his breath came back. and with
it his daring. And the next time the
cry was raised he knew the shingly
shelves of the bluff were then a prom
enade for the panther.
Next night Sergt. Gore was on
guard. but the next after he was free;
and time and again he wondered where
Tad was In hiding, for he had not seen
the boy since dinner call.
Lang and Warner were up the gulch
with an eiPht-mule team and they