Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1900-11-08
AN UNUSUAL ADVENTURE j RE,
Sportsman Stumbles Into an Odd. Sort
of u Tran. 652s i35

Sportsman stumbles Into an Odd Sort
8I I3t of . Trap.
On Saturday aftern oon, as q gen
eral thing, q little group Of enthusi-
astic local sport smen fforeg gathered al
the office Of the Boss Hunter to swap.
yarns about flood and field. In the.
course Of the last symposium a rail-
road man, who loves his rod and gun.
told a story decidedly out of,the ordi-
nary. Speaking Of the queer things
a fellow sees when he has no artil-.
lery,0 he said, TsI'm reminded Of a
very curious experience Of my own in
the Blue Ridge mountains last spring,
I was spending a couple Of weeks
hunting and fishing, about 40 miles
above Asheville, and was putting up
at the cabin of old man Carr, whom.
/ dare say, some Of you know. He's.
the best woodsman in that whole re-
gion, and, while there's a very good
mountain hotel no great distance
away, I preferred to rough it at the
shack for the sake Of the old fellows
company and stories. One night,
after ] had been there about week,
the dogs around the house started a
'possum, and, just for the fun Of the
thing, took out behind them. They
led the way across broken stretch
Of country into pretty denseagrowth
of timber, and I went laundering
along in the rear, expecting every
minute to see them tree the game. Il
was pretty dark travelling in the
woods, and [ was pushing through a
bit Of underbrush at the foot Of lit
tie hill, when, all Of sudden, I heard
a sharp, metallic click like the cock
ing Of a gun, and instantly blaze Of
binding white fame seemed to strike
me right between the eyes. The thing
was SO terrifying and 50 absolutely
unexpected that for moment I was
literally paralyze1. Then I gave a
tremendous leap and fell backward
into the bushes. My first dazed idea
was that I had been shot through the
head. = III t..s y. .'.ss>
!, \. CAS- soon as I could pick myself
up" continued the railroad man, ct
turned around and ran like scared
rabbit. I had only one thought in
my brain and that was to get away,
and | suppose I must have covered
half a mile before I collected nv
senses sufficiently to pull up behind
big tree and try to recall exactly what
had happened. As nearly as I could
figure it out, somebody had fired "a
shotgun directly in front of my face,
probably from one side, as it didn't
appear to have any powder burns.
l couldn't remember what the ex-
plosion was like, but, under the cir
cumstances,H there was nothing re-
markable about that, and the chief
mystery Of the affair was why in the
world I should have been the object
of such a diabolical assault. The more
! thought aboutit the more profound
ly inexplicable it seemed, and at last
| gave up thinking and made my way
back to the cabin. Iforgot to say that
the dogs had abandoned their 'possum
and followed me in my flight, and
worse coWed animals I never laid eyes
on. They acted as if they had been
frightened half to DEATH. and that
circumstance Of itself was something
that puzzled me not little. The sud-
den report Of a gun, even at night in
a lonely wood, doesn't usually have
such an effect on dogs accustomed to
hunting. Old man Carr was asleep
at the house, and when I woke him
up and told him my story he looked
troubled. GU must have run into
a spring gum he said; but such
things isl dead agin the law, and, be-
sides, there amt no game fer 'em in
these parts. Pears like it was put
up job to kill somebody I hadn't
thought Of spring guns before, but the