The Opelousas courier., 1900-12-15
I watched the 1.-THE, power

many steps In n direction, just so
many back over the same line. At one
point he avoided a projecting boulder;
sapling. He swung himself back and
forth with the regularity Of a pendu-
lum stroke.
Here, despite his infirmity, vas no
Gagged, hampered and rod-beaten crea-
ture Of the menagerie. By some means,
the blind lion had been well kept. His
red-yellow coat was sleek and hand
some, and his great muscles moved and
glided over each other like well-oiled
parts of perfect machinery. He drop
ped his lower jaw now and then, and
once gave a mighty yawn, displaying
lows Of fangs which might have rent
the skin of an alligator. Once only he
halted upon the stone in a horribly
suggestive fashion. I rejoiced, indeed,
that he was blind. And SO I lay
watching, while the big panther glided
back and forth and the whirling snow
fakes slipped off his glossy coat and
padded the path for his feet.
And now again the wind whirled by
in eddying gusts, finging snowfakes
and dry leaves across the notch; and
out of a cross current nearly in front
of his lair the lion caught my scent!
Instantly the gliding, graceful figure
was transformed, and a fierce, snarling
beast reared upon its hind feet, snuffing
in eager anxiety to find the prey. The
lion whirled about several times, then
made a leap to the right, then directly
toward me. Then he lost the scent and
crouched, his red muzzle quivering,
his ears twitching %curiously, while his
tail whipped to and fro.
Now he rose again and moved, sniff
ing cautiously along the rim Of the
gully. He seemed to reason that the
scented creature must have shifted it's
position. Again his nose took wind Of
me, and crouching, he shifted down at
the gaping cut as If to make sure Of
the direction. Then, as his ears were
laid fat, and his yellow talons were
unsheathed to take firm grip upon the
rock, I gave myself up for lost.
With his snarls menacing me and
growing louder and louder, 1 knew
the creature was certain of his ground.
He had not been blind always, and he
had leaped many times upon the shelf
where l lay. Horror-stricken, /
watched him gather himself, and then
vault in a sweeping curve above the
chasm and alight upon the rocks with
In four or five steps of where / lay.
l expected instant death. My nerves
We're suddenly racked with cutting
pains, which ran through my chest IN
til l gasped for breath. And yet the
snarling, shifting lion did not spring
upon me. He had jumped to wind
ward Of me, and the air currents no
longer carried the scent. He reared
again upon his hind feet, snufing anx-
iously. Then to my joy his bristles
lowered, his savage aspect changed to
one Of dlstrust, and he turned and
back across the'cut.
He stood upon the brink for a mo-
ment in a listening attitude of suspic-
ion, and then, trotting away, disap-
peared with his lair.
1t was now showing very fast, and
in the next few minutes, relieved of
reacting pains, / did some hard
thinking. / dared not shout to attract
the attention Of my fellow-hunters, and
| was in momentary fear of a reap
pearance of the puma, or, worse yet, of
Its mate.
The weather was warm, hardly at
the freezing point, and | was warmly
I might, / concluded, survive
twenty-four hours and longer If. let
alone by the lions, and long before that
time Curtis and Pete would be scour-
Ing the hills for me. Camp was not
more than two miles distant. 1 decid-
ed to lie quiet in the snow until l
hear some sound of searching.
Within half an hour the wisdom of
this course was made apparent. Then
saw, coming down out Of the storm
upon the far slope, two more red-yel-
Iow beasts, which soon proved to be
The blind lions mate and her WE'LL
grown cub.
/ shrank in fear under my covering
II snow. SOME faint of my presence
here was yet in the notch, for both
he lions paused, at twenty steps or SO,
s1s snarled angrily, with bristling
aaes and nervous twitching Of their
Eo4 moment the two seemed to be
IL s8E straight at me, and | closed my
Eyes in fearful suspense. | waited,
hardly breathing for some seconds
hen, hearing no more of the cougars,
looked again, to find that they had
passed ON and gone into their lair. It
VAS but a moment, however, before
hey r~eappeared, and this time the
blind male was with them. The three
passed together up the ridge beyond.
There had been a kill somewhere, and
he blind lions mate and cub had come
lutifully to conduct him to the feast.
Under safer circumstances, / should
felt the keenest interest in this
evidence Of family devotion among
ierce beasts, and, with perfect oppor-
unity, I should have hesitated to kill
,ither the dam or her cub. AS it was,
was to witness something very like
tragedy. R
The lions had been gone a half-hour, i