Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1902-11-13

back Presently he heard him neigh
about two rods away. Whooping WIN
J Joy. he made strides for him, and
fumbIed him all over for possible
wound. Finding one bleeding on the
neck, he rubbed handful of dust into
it.
'"Whooai" he yawned to the pow
ers of darkness, ~I'm tired 'nough TO
die" In spite of his fears, he followed
out a nest in the stack for a nights
lodging, and tied his buckskin to
willow tuft away from the wire. He
wriggled himself deeply into the hay,
for his blood was now too scarce to
feed a million mosquitoes. However,
he felt i'll at ease, expecting every
moment to be startled. He felt him
self in an atmosphere of folklore, on
the border of great, lost, black night
mare, alone, alone, alone, and thought
1 the elements and all wire fences were
| oonspirIng to brew occult mischief for
! him. Besides, had he not once been
| warned that timber wolves and Indian
chiefs Turk in thickets and haystacks
in the night, and that the grizzly bear
sometimes ventures out of the tim
bered foothills in the dark?
The more Pete thought of these
| things the less he could endure stay
| ing there and the less he dared to go
away. He had not lain there five min
utes when he felt the stack trembling.
Then he heard something rave. A
zero of fear froze him. Before he
could move some dreadful demon blew
ferociously above him, tossing the
hay on it's horns and boring for it's
victim. In a second Pete was on his
feet. At once he found himself
rammed against the stack, battered
and gored with the horns of what
seemed huge black bull. With des-
perate force he stabbed his shears
into one of those fiery eyes. This of
course maddened the beast still more,
but the pain caused momentary
fiinching and momentary blindness in
both eyes, SO that Pete escaped but
no sooner had he got outside the
fence than the bull came tearing
through, too. Having lost his shears,
Pete jerked off his jacket and brought
it down on the head of the terror so
violently that the horns pierced it
and held it before the remaining eye
so closely that by the time the bovine
monster had it shaken off, the man
had mounted his cayuse.
A hot chase it was. Zebe was tired.
Pete's light shirt kept him ever in the
pursuer's eye. Through darkness,
brambles and mire they dashed, the
bull coming ever a bit nearer the
ponys heels. The blood on the rider
had a maddening smell for the brute,
which had some hours before became
infuriated in corral on ranch where
dehorning was taking place, and had
broken out and defied recapture.
At last Zebe grew so weak that
| Pete feared he would get between
those horns again, which were now
prodding the cayuse's launches. The
| fiend snorted and fumed Pete thought
he would wither as the hot grassy
breath came in gust around the side
| of his face. The buli-s gaining ground
made him below with the fiercest
satisfaction. Pete stared back In a
| flash of lightning he saw the black,
raving, laundering thing, head down,
tail up and vibrating like a rattle
snake. In the glare the distracted
rider was sure he saw the nostrils
belching fire. He gave out a night
marish shrek. He threw his arms
toward the sky so pregnant with thun-
derbolts. which had dangerous af-
finity for the heated and electrified
animals. The pony's ear was capped
with purple, cracking globules of fire,
and the bull, Pete imagined, was grow
ing lurid as with phosphorescent
tongues.
Pete shrieked again. One horn was
goading his leg, ripping his overalls
open.
20 good spirits" he cried, brace
up my brave little Zebe, or spue a
thunderbolt at this monster"
"Hooh- hah-ber." Pete suddenly
hooted and gasped and shivered. He
found himself in mud and water up to
his hips. The cayuse, partly from
fear. partly to get rid of the mos
quitoes, had run into a miry slough
and thrown himself into the aIkali
slime. A new horror stung Pete
when he perceived that they were
slowly sinking, sinking. Into the
water he sprang like a pantehr.
struggling for the shore ahead, how
ever far and dangerous that might be,
for close behind him was still the
horned vampire Zebe could hardly
keep from sinking in that bottomless
cuagmire, and fell exhausted on
reaching the sod. The water was too
shallow to swim.
Another blaze of lightning made
Pete yell-with ecstacy. In the mid
! die of the slough there in the neither
! darkness, the savage beast was bawl.
ing and struggling in despair. already
sunhen into che pulpy ooze so that
only a pair of gaping nostrils. pitiable
: eyes and harmless horns could be
seen. The more he struggled the less
hope there was for him with his great
weight and cloven hoofs. Down. down.
until the fiercy roar died to stifed