The midland journal., 1906-04-27

respect. His lips tightened when he
saw 1t double suddenly on it's course
and sreturn to the southwark, pitching
headlong to cover beyond point of
reeds some two hundred yards dis
tant. He would bag that longbill or
quit the business.
On the other side of the reedy point
ne came upon little bunch OF brows-
ing cattle-three cows and a pair of
staring-coated, thick-jointed calves.
They looked up, surprised and un-
easy, for the bar herds were almost
as wild and as unused to man as deer.
Three of them whisked their tails
and jumped for the reeds, leaving a
small, red, bright-eyed cow standing
over her calf. The little creature
was too young and too frightened to
know what to do; but the mother
knew well enough what to do, and
she began to go through certain for
malities that an experienced man
would have needed.
First she trotted forward few
PAGES, her tail uphelp in tense curve
and her black muzzle outstretched.
Then she stopped and swung her
head in a series of half circles, lower
ing it at every sweep. When her
nose just grazed the ground she ut
tered a broken, coughing sound, and
launched herself, nimbly as spring
ing cat, straight at Sawyer.
Up to that moment Sawyer had CIV
en- her only cursory glance. NOW
he stood still and looked at her. His
education in the matter of COWS was
very incomplete, but he realized now
that If he and the little red beast
should meet, the consequences would
be unpleasant. He dropped his gun,
quite forgetting it was possible
means of defense. and hoped into
the reeds. 1t seemed only few
seconds later when loud cracking
and splashing rose at his heels.
Really alarmed now, he ran as he
had not run since he was a boy,
throwing himself at the sea of reeds
that half-upheld, nalf retarded him.
His feet slapped a quick tattoo on the
hidden ooZe. He stepped on a wabply
"tussock," reeled from it to little
pool, splashed through the semiviscid
stuff in a shower of spray, and found
himself on the brink of wide, deep
drain, where unhealthy pinkish mud
glistened as if vanished, and seemed
to leer up at him through iridescent
eye-like bubbles.
1t was an unclean-looking sink, but
the red COW was behind him, and ne
went off the edge like frog. He
struck with the sound of an explod-
ing soda-water bottle, and kept on
sinking, through the rancid crust and
deep into the pudding-like mud. Then
something "whooshed" by him, and
landed with an explosive grunt and
a spatter of slime. 1t was the little
red COW.
Sawyer was rather amused at the
plight into which he had drawn his
pursuer, for she was begged to her
belly, as helpless as fly on gum
med paper. Then he discovered that he
was trapped himself. The mud held
him as if it were hot rubber. Wrench
and pull and sway as he would, he
was immovable from mid-thigh down.
The color receded from his ruddy
face in. streaks.
The little red COW, born to the
grim ways of the marsh, did not
struggle as an inexperienced animal
would have done. She knew that
would only cause her to sink deeper.
Occasionally she lifted one of her
shoulders and pulled slowly and even
ly on the imprisoned leg; but Saw
yer watching her anxiously, could not
see that she gained anything. At
each deliberate effort her long tail
stiffened sympathetically, and once
the brush of it almost struck Sawyer
across the face for she had fallen at
an angle across the drain, with her
stern toward the late object of her
pursuit.
That tail flashed in front of Saw
yer like a ray of hope. He watched
for it, his fingers set like springs, his
mind rigidly concentrated on every
ripple of the red cows skin.
At the same time he was curiously
conscious of little brown bird swing
ing and singing light-neartedly from a
reed on the bank, of the stir of lace
like yapor high in the blue arch over
head, and the insistent odor of sui
phur that rose from the mud.
He was conscious, too, that he was
settling deeper. 1t made him des-
perate, and he picked up handfuls OF
mud and threw them at the poor COW,
and reviled her. This startled her
out of her despairing calm. Her tail
flew out as she strained dumbly to
extricate herself, and as luck would
have it, Sawyer caught the tail.
He had learned from the red COW
that it was best to go at the busi-
ness quietly. Pulling strongly and
evenly on her tail, he wriggled his
feet until the pressure about them
was somewhat loosened. Then he