The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1903-10-16

through that brush pfc or sufrocate;
and he'll come through the brush pile"
We backed off several yards, and
every gun was aimed at the point
| where the tiger was expected To aD-
pear. II was dark by this time-pitch
dark everywhere except around the
| fire. Tor a time we could hear the
| tiger growing under the rocks
We waited and waited. but still he
didn't show himself. The fire climbed
| among the loosely piled brush until
the whole pile was ablaZc. Finally
somebody-Simpson. believe it was
spoke up:
Hes smOthered 10 death. boys.
That's why we don't hear him any
more. No animal could live in that
hole with that fire In the mouth Of
IL. He was so afraid Of the fire that
he would rather suffocate than come
through It,"
After standing guard a while longer,
we all agreed that the tiger must be
dead. None Of us knew that there
was little cave under those rocks.
Now we closed up around the fire
and stood with our gunstocks on the
ground, warming ourselves. We felt
jolly over getting rid OF our trouble.
some, dangerous enemy, and were go
Ing TO pull straws for the skin. In
fact, Simpson was arranging the
straws, when suddenly something hap
pened TO the fire. AS nearly as / can
describe 1t. that blazing brush heap
exploded
There was n roar behind II. and the
next moment the brush was flying and
the panther's frightful form came
crashing through. AS the big savage
brute burst out OF the fire, he Knocked
one man down, and two or three more
fell over one another trying 10 get
out Of the way. | jumped back to
dodge the flying fire, and stumbled
over a dog
The dog howled, and as ! tumbled
backward the hammer Of my musket
struck something. and the old mus.
ket exploded with roar. The load
OF nails went off through the woods,
but thought | was killed.
The second leap carried the tiger
away from the fire, and another car
ried him into the darkness. About
this time the men recovered from the !
panic and began 10 shoot: and they |
kept banging away down the ravine. !
The heavily loaded guns spurted fire |
and roared till every report seemed TO |
split the very trees as it went echoing |
the woods.
When the excitement was past, we |
gathered round the fire again. Most !
ef us felt rather sheepish over the |
escape OF the tiger; but several de- |
rared that he must be mortally wound /
cd, and that we'd find him dead some
where. But as we couldn't track him
In the dark, we all returned TO our |
homes.
The next morning we came back and
took up the trail. We found several
badly Scared trees but there wasn't
any blood on the snow or any other |
evidence that the tiger had been hit.
In fact, there was pretty good evil
dence that he wasn't hurt at all; for |
we tracked him as far as we could |
into the swamp, and the last we saw
Of his trail he was still going. fifteen f,
feet at a jump. He must have been
pretty badly scorcheq, and ne was
certainly badly scared. -
For n year we half expected him TO /
come back, but he didn't; and after |
that night we never heard Of him |
again. ! suppose his experience with |
the fire convinced him that life on the |
uplands wasn't very attractive. So he |
went back to his native swamps and |
stayed therc.-Youth's Companion.