St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1909-04-10


one of these-a low, narrow hole
some rumpled shale.
Saint at once dropped on his knees
and began to crawl into the hole.
dragged him back by main strength
and planted myself before the opening.
Are you mad?" I cried. THAT crea-
ture will tear you into shoestrings if
you go in therei"
You l-I-let me fni" he demanded
pantingly, glazing at me; that thing
hurt Dandy and want to fight it!''
Before l could stop him he had
grabbed the lantern and disappeared.
l shall not attempt to relate what
happened in Saints own language, for,
considering his lingua1 misfortune,
that would hardly be kind. That which
| occurred, however, even as he told 1t
to me afterward, was stirring enough.
When he entered the cavern the
| lantern revealed no sign Of life. The
place was as the black mouth of some
great monster. The light shone on
| short stone pillars and ragged points
| that shut together along the walls
| like teeth, the roof was corrugated
| like the roof of some animals mouth.
| No cougar was there. Throwing the
! flare of light along the outer edge of
/ the floor he found an outlet, black,
sunken hole, into which he instantly
crept, pushing the lantern and rifle
| before him. 1t seemed the very in
sanity of courage, but the vision Of
| Dandy lying senseless with the red
rent down his neck and side goaded
the boy to battle.
Within half dozen feet his head
and shoulders emerged in a smaller
cavern, and IL or Is feet farther on
he saw two reddish-green stars
flaming In the gloom. Off to the left
| lay big hairy heap, which suddenly
stirred with a snoring suspiration and
rose up to the height of man. At
the top of the shape a mighty mouth
| opened with yawn and two little jet
like eyes widened with sudden inter-
est. The master of the house had
awakened to the fact that he had visi-
I tors.
| Pa1pab1y he did not like it.; the Ian
terms glow, and the baleful CLEAN of
the cougars eyes, and the strange
! white face thrust in over the threshold
of his private chamber, troubled him.
He growled and shifted and looked
angry.
The giant cat paid the bear no at
tention, but fixed its blazing eyes on
the light ard the human face at the
| entrance, wrinkling its sides and
working its claws as it prepared to
! spring. Saint drew the lantern back
under his arm, lifted his Winchester
and fired at the cougars head. The
report seemed as the crashing roar of
cannon, and with a snarl the big
cat apparently bounded against the
low roof of the cave.
Involuntarily Saint drew back as he
rested on his elbows and knees, and
with the movement the rife somehow
came across the mouth of the narrow
opening like bar. The accident
saved him, for the next instant the
mad and frightened cougar plunged
| against the bar The impact of its
breast bent the rife barrel far out of
line. Saints bosom and left arm
were slightly torn by it's claws.
That which Saint witnessed then.
fearful as it was, proved very much
to his liking. The mountain lion
bounced back and went round the
cave like flash, while the bear
danced across the floor with it's mouth
open as If laughing, but in reality
highly irritated. The next moment
| the cougar sprang upon the larger
animals back. The force of the plunge
carried the bear against the wall, and
they fell With wrench and twist
bruin got himself free, but instantly
closed again, and hugging and with
ing and bitter fighting began.
The Saint saw something that
opened his staring eyes wider. The
cougar was close in and seemed tear
/ ing at the bears vitals, when the
| bear seemed to wrench the infuriate
thing loose as with human hands and
| struck it resounding slap. The
cougar dropped lifeless.
Saint backed out of the hole with
all speed and came painting into NV
presence, his bent rifle in his hand.
The next moment an enormous bear
burst out of the opening and made
off down the slope. I threw my rifle
to my shoulder and aimed at the 10.
ping shape. Saint seized the barrel of
the gun.
'Dop's s-s-shoot," he gasped, "the
bear h-h-helped me kill the cougar!"
put down the weapon and we
looked at each other. We were both
trembling all over.
Some hours later we got the noun
tain lion from the hole. He was a big
fellow with superb skin. In remoy.
ing the latter we found that Saints
shot had done little damage, having
taken effect in the muscles of the hin,
The destructive agent had been the
bears terrible blow, which crushed
the great cats skull. Dandy recovered
in few weeks and joined us when we
were working up in Oregon.
Excitement in Florida.
In Florida town visitor from the
north hailed native.
What's the matter with the people