200 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



putting spurs to our horses, we 

 galloped as fast as darkness and 

 the nature of the ground would 

 safely permit. We had not 

 proceeded far when we again 

 heard the signal, followed by a 

 faint, hoarse cry. What could it 

 mean? John was perfectly able 

 to care for himself under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, and we were ' 

 at a loss to account for this evi- 

 den e of his distress. Wasting no 

 time, however, we traveled for 

 about a half' mile before we came 

 upon the unfortunate hunter. 



Entering a small clearing just 

 as the moon peeped over the trees 

 to the east, we heard a voice from 

 the other side of the clearing 

 shout a warning in no uncertain 

 tones: "Look out, boys!" cried 

 John's familiar voice, and not- 

 withstanding the situation, we 

 were not able to suppress an ex- 

 clamation of delight to find him 

 still able to speak "What's the 

 trouble _ here?" I yelled. "Jav- 

 elines!" he yelle.d back. It was 

 still too dark for us to make out 

 the situation clearly, as the moon, 

 from it's low position, only filled 

 the clearing with long ghost-like 

 shadows; and after ascertaining 

 that John was in no immediate 

 danger, we decided to wait for 

 the moon to get in a more ad- 

 vantageous position before at- 

 tempting a rescue. 



During our wait, we found out 

 as much of the circumstances of 

 our freind's predicament as pos- 

 sible. It seems as if he was cross- 

 ing the clearing approaching the 

 thick brush along the swail of the 

 Q'pposilte side, >vhen lie Jnoticed 

 the form of a huge javeline 

 standing behind some brush, a 

 short distance from the edge, and 

 taking a hasty aim he fired — and 

 was rewarded by a series of 

 squeals from the only slightly 

 wounded javelin, quickly fol- 

 lowed by grunts and gnashing of 

 teeth from up and down the ra- 

 vine. Having previous experi- 



ence with wounded javelines, he 

 did not waste unnecessary time, 

 but immediately made a run for 

 the nearest tree — and that was the 

 reason of his distress — for the 

 tree was only a small mesquite, 

 and not high enough, to take him 

 entirely out of harm's way. The 

 rest of the adventure he told us 

 latei^ lor as the moon was now 

 shining brightly in the clearing, 

 we decided to work a little strat- 

 egic game on the peccaries, in 

 order to get John down from his 

 uncomfortable perch. The jave- 

 lines were still standing around 

 under the tree, looking with fierce 

 little beady eyes up at the hunter 

 who had been the cause of the 

 wounding of one of their number, 

 and the subsequent death of sev- 

 eral others. Occasionally one of 

 the javelines would leave the 

 rest and go to the brush where 

 the wounded javelin was still, 

 emitting occasional squeals — 

 seemingly with the devilish inten- 

 tion of goading his comrades on 

 to the destruction o fthe man who 

 had wounded him ; and he was cer- 

 tainly being rewarded well, for 

 every time he v/ould squeal, the 

 rest of the bunch would renew 

 their attack with new energy, and 

 for a while it looked rather diffi- 

 cult for anything in the way of a 

 rescue, and John had fired all 

 except one of his cartridges, and 

 had succeeded in killing several 

 of them: but when his ammuni- 

 tion gave out the jaevlins seemed 

 to realize the fact, and stood di- 

 rectly under the tree in which he 

 was confined. 



We decided that the only way 

 we could get John down was to 

 coax the javelines away from the 

 tree, and then one of us would 

 ride up and let him get on the 

 horse behind us, and it was finally 

 decided thati should be the one 

 to go to the tree after him. I 

 can't say that I enjoyed the job 

 much, for I knew as well as 

 anybody, the penalty of being 



