The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-07

McMahon to see what kind of beast
 had come to visit him. The room was
 very dark, and he had not a firearm in 1 the house, nor a weapon of any kind ai ! hand. So he lay quiet and waited. The
 animal came up to the bedside, and in-
 stead of leaping upon him as he had feared it stood quietly looking at him.
 and finally laid it's head on the bed and gazed at him. Its action was So much
 like that of collie which MT. McMahon
 used to keep that he put out his hand
 to touch it. He put his hand on the
 animals head and stroked it down over
 the back, as he used to do to his dog,
 and he did this several times without a
 sound or a motion on the part of his
 strange visitor.
 Then the weirdnesS, the strangeness,
 the unnaturalness of the uncanny situ-
 ation dawned upon him and he was
 seized with terror. He was certain that
 he had either strange wild beast from the plains or mad animal to deal with.
 His two hired men were asleep in the second room from his, and he was alone in the darkness with this strange pres- ence. His overwrought nerves demand ed action, and would no longer remain still. Seizing blanket he leaped from the bed and protecting his hand with the blanket, he grappled in the darkness with the animal. Probably the challenge was accepted, and pair of great fangs pierced the blanket and sank into his right hand. With his left McMahon got a grip on the brute's throat and wrench ed his right free, tearing two long gash- es in the flesh. Then, still holding the throat with his left, he wound the blan- ket and coverlets around the beasts head in an endeavor to smother it. His frantic grasp on the throat of the ami nal was so fierce that his thumb was sprained and almost dislocated, yet that writhing, leaping form threatened mo- mentarily to get free from his grip and clutch his own throat. He screamed for his hired men to bring light that he might see, at least, what he was fight ing They were so slow in coming that he knew the battle would be over before they arrived, so he threw his antago- mist on the floor and got outside of the door.
 Then he told his hired men the situa tion. They lit lamps, armed themselves with clubs and peered cautiously in at the door, At first they could see noth- ] ing, but they finally made out the form of a very large coyote lying on the bed He lay outstretched, with his paws on the pillow and his head between them, just as the faithful collie used to lie. The men wanted to kill him with their clubs but MT. McMahon forbade 1t, and told them to drive him into a vacant room and hold him prisoner. MT. Me Mahon went to the kitchen and began to bathe his wounds while the men pre- pared the room for the coyote.
 Before they were ready he leaped out | at the window by which he had entered ! and walked round to the kitchen. stand ng on his hind legs the animal placed lis front feet on the window sill and | 'or several minutes stood gazing at MT. | McMahon as he cleansed his lacerated | land Then he got down and walked away over the plain and was OSt to sight
 MT. McMahon Is greatly exercised 'ver the affair, believing that the brute f vas suffering from rabies. Those who Ire disposed to delve into the weird be- iefs of the redmen are wondering if this nay not be the coyote who ate the heart f the collie, and is now inhabited by lis spirit.-Denver Times.