A PANTHER ADVENTURE. 



14T 



those days, and feared neither man nor mortal in a scuffle, 

 but I had work to keep my feet under the weight of such a 

 beast. I had my knife out in an instant, and put into him as 

 fast as possible for dear life. So we tusseled away, and the 

 ground being sideling and steep at that, which increased my 

 trouble to keep from falling ; we gradually worked down hill 

 till I was forced against a log, and we both came to the ground, 

 I inside and the panther outside of it, he still keeping hold, 

 although evidently weakening under the repeated digs and 

 rips he was getting. I kept on knifing away till I found his 

 hold slackening, and he let go at last to my great rejoicing. 

 I got to my feet, made for my rifle, which I had dropped early 

 in the scuffle, got it and ran home. I gathered the neighbors 

 with their dogs, and on returning found the panthers not more 

 than fifteen rods apart ; the one I had knifed dying, and the 

 one I had shot making an effort to climb a tree to the height 

 of eight or ten feet, when he was speedily dispatched. Next 

 day I stripped them of their skins, which I sold to a saddler 

 at Lexington, for two dollars a piece. You may depend, I 

 never got into such a grip again with a panther. 



