Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-05-14

tween the nOrSeS, but raining partly On |
the wagon tongue, he recovered aim
self, sprang OF in advance ofsthe team,
and got the frightened animals-by the
bits. They reared, snoring. and SWING
the wagon out into the road again, for
they heard, or scented, the panther
stealing up behind. Coburn was
dragged along for some distance. 2
had all he. cou1d4do to prevent the
horses from getting clear away.
In the midst Of the scuf1e aud caat-
ter, he had heard a savage gToWl n
jumped to the top OF the crate, He
could see it there indistinctlYo n the
dim starlight. balancing itself. trying
tear ID the crate slabs. to get at |
the lambs. The horses now vent near
~ frantic, pushed violently back, then
sprang IN again, and going OF the
road on the other side, stuck the pole
back of a tree in such q way as to
bring the tree between them. With
his arms round the tree, Coburn now
got hold Of the bits of each horse n
held Nhem there. and after some mo-
ments-catching his breath-he pulled
the reins through the bits and tied
the heads of both horses close to the
tree trunk. They could not now get
away; in fact, they held each other
there hard and fast.
Meanwhile a frightful racket, accom-
panied by a loud bleating of the lambs.
was going on in the crate behind.
When the horses bumped off the
road the last time. the lion had fallen
or jumped off the crate. It was not now
in sight, and Coburn stepped cautions
ly back beside the nigh horse, to see
where the brute had gone and what it
was doing. By the sounds. the lion
was evidently in among the lambs;
and Coburn's first thought was that 1t
had torn the top of the crate Off.
In the wagon box, under the drivers
seat forward, was his coat and also his
belt, in which he was accustomed to
carry a revolver when out on the road
at night. The day had been so hot
that, while d~octoring his horse. he had
taken the belt off and put it in the box
with his coat. The revolver was what
he was now trying to secure. Creeping
low beside the horse, he reached up to
the box, and raising the lid, got hold
of the belt and pistol.
From the noise in the crate he was
Ire the panther was in it. killing a
lamb; and he slipped quickly along by
the wheels, to the rear end of the crate,
determined to risk a shot at close
range if he could see the animal. Now,
however, he discerned that the crate
door was open and that the lion had
| sprung in there. But the lambs ap-
| peared to be all huddled at the front
end, and it instantly occurred to him
to clap the door to and fasten it; for
he saw now that the top of the crate
| was still
While he was securing the door,
however, he nearly ran over two small
creatures close to the wagon-wheels.
They sprang away, but stood, snarl-
ing, a few steps off, looking in the
dim light to be no larger than house
cats. He at once surmised hat these
were cubs, and that it was an old fe-
male had attacked him.
He was not afraid of these little
fellows; but when he clapped the crate
door to, the old one suddenly dashed
back at it with a lamb in her mouth,
snarling frightfully. He fired at her
head as we'll as he could see-and then
pandemonium reigned inside the crate!
The alarmed lambs rushed to and
fro, bleating loudly, and the lion ap-
peared to be going heels over head
among them!
Coburn meanwhile was holding the
crate door, trying to get another shot
Some moments passed before matters
quieted enough for him to do so. The
awful snarls and growls Of the en-
trapped beast guided him as to it:
whereabouts, however, and at las
making out it's darker form among the
lambs, he fred again-several times
in fact.
None of these first shots appeared
to do the brute any harm, and afte
every flash lamb and lion went al
over the inside Of the crate again. I
is not easy to shoot with anything lik'
accuracy in the night, even at clos
range. He emptied his revolver, thel
recharged it, before a shot really dis
abled the lion and brought it to tn
floor of the crate. Even then i
thrashed about, making hideous out
cries, until, reaching in between tn
Stats, Coburn had fired several othe
shots into its body.
Satisfied at last that the beast wa
done for, he got his lantern from tn
box, lighted it, and opened the crate
The interior presented a sorry spec
tacle. The lion had killed two lamb:
and shots from the revolver ha
: wounded another-which had to b
killed later.
He pulled the body of the lion OF
r of the crate into the road behind til
: cart. 1t was a lean, bony beast, an
r would have weighed, Cohurn thinks, {
much as $50 pounds. AS he flung tt
g carcass off the highway, the cubs b