Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-05-23

to go home and then the propri-
etor tells me what had happened,
and smelling something rotten in
Denmark, | headed east too.
Spoonful evidently couldn't find
me at the other poolroom for he
was ahead of me and in the bright
moonlight | could make out his
form as he was giving his skis
all there was left in his steamed
up carcass. Somewhere ahead of
him was the Duke, who | couldn't
see, but who was evidently plainly
visible to Spoonbill who thought
it was | and was doing everything
but burning up the ice in his eff
forts to come. But even Old Man
Chain Lightning plays second fid-
die with the Duke when he tries
to show speed, so Spoonful was
rather tagging in the race, tho he
was still too fast for me to- over
take, even tho did my best,
thinking that he was the Duke.
And so our little procession pro-
crossed up the lake. First the
Duke, visible only to Spoonbill
who thought it was me. Then
Spoonbill who saw the Duke but
not me, and whom l thought was
the Duke, and lastly myself, not
invisible, but unnoticed by either
of the other two.
Finally when about a mile from
the shack the Duke leaves the
lake and heads cross country.
Both disappeared over small
moundshaped hill and it wasn't
until | had commenced the slide
down the other side that | became
aware that there was anyone near
me. | had just got we'll under
way going down, when in the
shadows at the foot of the hill
there breaks forth a regular mad
house. The first voice | recog-
nlze as the Dukes, and then
Spoonbill's hoarse below breaks
out and ends in an eerie strangled
scream-then silence-broken only
by the Kissing Of my skis as they
tore through the light crust of
the hillside.
Nearly to the bottom | saw a
dark mass ahead, and when | tried
to- steer around it | lost my bal
ance and dived head foremost onto
the crumpled form of the Duke,
stiffened out in one of his peri
odlc spasms, strange to say at
nearly the exact spot where he re-
ceived his first injury. Spoonful
was nowhere in sight. | turned
the Duke over and he groaned and
sat up, but no sooner did his eyes
rest on something over my shout
der than a look of horror and fear
came over his face and he Iapsed
back into unconsciousness again.
| turned my head and looked be-
hind me. Forty below on a hill
side is cold enough to freeze any,
one, but there is nothing that will
freeze and paralyze a fellow so
completely and rapidly as terror.
l felt the cold damp sweat break
out on my body and my hair
pricked and twitched and nv law
sagged in cold rank fear (and no
wonder) for there swaying to and
fro, just above me, his neck
stretched and twisted and eyes
glazed and staring was Spoonbill.
tight IN the grip of a giant deer
snare of his own setting.
jumped to my feet and reach
ed for the swaying form, but the
moose around the neck was too
tight and too high for me to loos-
en-. | tore open the mans shirt
and listened. There was no heart
beat. He was stone dead. Then
the terrible feeling of intense hor-
ror seized me, and throwing off
my pack | rushed to my senseless
friend and taking him in nv arms
| carried him away from that
grlsly terror swaying there in the
shadowy uncertain moonlight like
a gigantic pendulum.