The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-06-16

direction OF the ANIMAL before one
could say scat" I didn't hit him but
| the fountain Of fire and noise caused
him 70 change his mind
He STOPPED midway between Us.
throwing quick elances trst al one.
hen the other. He was q beautiful
sho, a. he stood there. but the last
4 shell hai TANNED in tl.a ogr. and 7
/ Couldn't get il OFT to save ne. AS
: tuceet. At the ejee.or Jack began to
/ howl.
Shoot. Shoot, You idiot, WIZ
/ Con'J you shoot" he waved his ravol-
! ver over his head in frenzv
( drotFel nay rife ami regarded him
calmly Think a moment" said I.
Whats that in your right hand?"
he brought his hand down and look
ed at it, Then, am pleased to state.
he looked exceedingly foolish. "Oh."
said he, and pulled up to fire.
Before the hammer fell, though, the
cat had jumped-one last beautiful
spring Of al least forty feet, right
down into the open door of an ore
chute that seemed TO present means
OF escape
He landed fairly in the opening.
There vas a scratching and furry. and
then he slipped down to the floor be-
low
With whoop Of triumph Jack and I
rushed to the chute He was our cap
tive now, beyond peradventure, as the
chute, mere box OF wood. about four
feet square. that led from the TOD
floor OF the mill to the stamp floor be-
meath US. was closed at its lower end
by hOpper-shaped spout with an
opening too small for anything larger
than house cat to crawl through.
The ul!er part Of the chute. that
portion above the door. was filed with
partially crushed ore. which had lam
med instead OF sliding down, as it !
should have done we were ready at |
the doorway. in case the brute man
aged to crawl up the nearly perpen-
dicular sides. Thus his escape was |
cut off il every direction
We bent eagerly over the doorway,
and peered own through the dark
ness at our victim. There he was. his
eyes shining green in the candle-light,
growing and suffering
AS. rife in hand, | leaned to get a
better view, | lost my balance. and
nearly pitched head first down to that
incarnation Of fury below. | str.ck
Dat vigorously to recover myself. and
in the furry managed to discharge the
rife. The bullet smashed into the ore
y the top Of the chute In an instant
the whole mass, released by the shock
II the bullet, slid down the chute with
dull roar. Clouds Of dust puffed out
nto our faces, covering us with a
'oat OF CRIME. There came a sG,Iawk
rom beneath US
"Hooray!" said Jack Now we have
5ot him.
As there was about five tons of dirt
PRESSING down on the beast, | accept
d the conclusion
After the jubliation OF victory came
council Of war Should we leave our
ictim to die a prolonged death from
or pull d board of and
i've him a more me-ciful end by bull
ct? While we were arguing a bril-
liant thought came to me.
Why not take him a!ive?" said I.
Old Bronson, up at Deadwood, would {
i've twenty dollars for such an addi- i
ion to his melagerie." 6
That caught Jack Immediately. We t
eeded the money, for one thing. and s
len there was something novel in 6
apturing living puma {
We rushed down stairs and started Y
} hunt up material for cage. For T
Inc favored us. We soon found a t
rong crate, in which machinery had a
cen shipped, that with a little chang b
lg served the purpose well. We put t
he open end of this over the mouth |,
the hopper; then, working with a
'oWbar between the Stats. we pried p
le top board off the hopper a
A little round patch Of yellow head "
lowed above the smooth surface of p
e dirt. We dug round it with sticks c
It'll at last we had the whole head Ii
At first we thought the Il
ute was dead, but soon he opened O
5 eyes and gazed about him. S,
His expression was meek and hum t.
e. Indeed his experiences were D
ough to break the proudest spirit. n
was impossible for him to move in W
e closely packed earth. a
Then we fell to work, and completed d
e excavation. When at last the la
ma was free. he shook himself vi al
rously, walked into the cage and lay tt
wn. He paid no attention while we e,
owed the cage out and nailed the ii
mt on. r.
Willie and Jack went out to bring 81
IS. Stevens in. We had completely in
rgOtten that the coating of dirt al