T WAS the first to awake, aud 1 did so with the unpleasant 
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^ er tf.^SJa»aito nor lightning, and the a.r had 
storm. ,. “ fppl " always discernible before the ap- 
pa“S? f£ deWflnng St» S S 
■ hoM / “ aleep ’ • , 11 
-tf eased cropping the gra , . • in aa( i mystify- 
ing in theii ^influeno^ wi mo^ h 4 U9hed in a we and nature ap- 
pfaStt hShL hreathaaii in expectation of eotne dread 
cat f t T°i P Q v e ;i^re mazing up and out into the darkness a strange 
As I lay there gMing up iog me almost to tremble, 
feeling of dread crept ove . though 1 know it is like 
On one occasion a tremor, and more 
certain death and .me hich other9 have pronounced 
than once have I rut “ “ kich on thi8 occasion, caused me 
reckless. N<» aB ilaythere trembling. I knew there 
to hold my breath as 1 f r0 m wild beasts or 
might be dangers in before i eaV mg Texas 
■wilder men. I had heard m y lerg tbroug h that ter- 
of the Ch^taw9 , nur iDg lhe woods around a host of 
ritory. But had I known t gh j do not tbiuk it would 
painted de^ls were lurtog n am hack as they did. 
have caused the ^S^^Xn of fear. The intense 
It was a feeling rather o ... working ou my half fevered 
darkness, the grave-hke sUllneM, wor b J made me an 
system, had ^ ^^eeg^^^^^y e nerv0U9D ess (I smile 
e^Fre^/f&SSyhid and rested it upon 
now to recall it) that l pu j alone. Somewhat 
sgas b?«s& poaitio ° aad ttied 10 
torget >uy surroundings m sleep. ^ Qf dftnger oppressing me 
But , T, the bidding of Morpheus. Close my eyes 
•» wSt srss 
on hearing the 
easier positions. Thiswa . Q the direction where the 
noises. J k ” u t atl 5 j p b g uTadmit of no other interpreta- 
horses should stand seemed t they been 
tion. I could not see them intensity of the 
standing within teQ J|f t 0 £JJ^ uZ direction from our bed in 
ISIpSIMSS 
tSu*^ SSi a» it the object 
lowed by a nan uugry, ““ ® nr nresence had grown 
feM fuSdSe a< I ■ wTcoivinU tfa^e had neighbors 
y 1 whfrh it would he prudent to prepare. I reached out 
f S^And Took up my rifle, at the same time giving Nichols 
my n^^h a raroused him from his slumbers. 
matter?” he growled, rubbing his eyes as 
«- &— • ; ,J “p‘ ler! “•> 11 
da . r . k S h I Do you hear’those sounds?'- 
“ What sounds? 
“Out where the horses are. - 
“ I don't hear anything except the horses stampipg around. 
“ Nor do I, but did you ever hear horses stamp in that way 
when there was nothing around? There I did you hear 
frightened rush was heard at this instant, followed by the 
angry snort above mentioned. 
“ I tell you, Morg., there’s something dangerous out there, 
and we'd better get ready for it.” 
“ But what can there be 2" 
“ Well, there might be a heir, or a panther, or a Choc aw, 
or the devil, but whatever it is it is dangerous or our pomes 
would not act so." .... 
“Good Heavens!” said Nichols. “There it ia! Dont 
you see it?— right over where the horses are— up from the 
ground— two balls of fire!" 
I looked in the direction indicated, and there, sure enough, 
heheld the objects which had evidently frightened the pomes. 
Gleaming out of the iutense darkness were two large round 
orbBof fite. They were up some ways from the ground, and 
appeared to be about, three inches apart. They were not 
motionless, but seemed to sway from side to side, and at 
times to move on their axes. Once they disappeared for a 
moment, but soon re-shone with all their 
They were apparently full and round, though they at times 
assumed oval and oblique shapes. 
Both Nichols and myself knew very well what the phe- 
nomena were. We knew that the fiery globes were not 
balls of fire, but the dilated eyeballs of some night-prowl- 
ing animal. What animal we were not sufficiently skilled 
in woodcraft to determine. It might be a bear, or a panther, 
or a murderous Choctaw, or something different from all three. 
We knew that bears and panthers were both abundant in 
those woods, or at least we had been told bo and both are 
tree climbers. An old hunter could have told us which 've 
were now gazing at, at a glance, but we were not old h°ntan. 
I will not say we — myself at least-were not frightened 
I was, but not to such an extent as to lose control of my 
senses. I retained sufficient coolness to realize that, unless 
interrupted by some move on oor part, our nocturnal visitor 
was likely to make away with one or both of our horses, and 
this was a contingency to which I could not consent. I 
termined to take the initiative. Telling gichols to ge b 8 
rifle ready to support me in case I missed the mark, 1 
adjusted a fresh cap, and, lying over on l 
the barrel across my knees, and as well as I could in the tiara, 
took aim at the two glaring eye-balls. Then, waiting a mo- 
ment to be sure my nerves were steady, I pulled the trigg . 
As the sharp crack rang out upon the air, the hosts of chir- 
nfping insects seemed to awake and filled the woods with 
their cries 'At the same moment, so simultaneously, I thought 
surely I had missed my aim, the two eye-balls leaped upward 
and outward, and the next instant we heard a dull thud, M of 
some heavy body falling upon the ground. At tbc same 
time the two ponies, with frightened snorts, 8 PJ*J g a nd & were 
the opposite side from where the eyes had eeu. and^e 
heard to bring up with a jerk as they came to the end of their 
tethers. There they stood stamping nervously, long after 
nthpr sounds had again subsided into silence. 
For some time we lay with bated breath, listening for some 
sien which should show the effects of the shot, but we did 
not hear a sound, save the dull thud spoken of. I had been 
so occupied with my rifle that I had not followed the after- 
movements of the object aimed at, but Nichols declared that 
by the flash he liad seen the monster in the act of 
find that the spring and the 6hot bolh came togethe . 
could not tell what the animal was, but it was at least twenty 
SrtloSg! I tried to induce him to go out and see what had 
become of the game, but he persistently dec ined an.l us l 
felt about as he did on the subject, we concluded to wait till 
morning before stirring from our couch. 
Bv the first flush of morning light we were on our feet, 
and having reloaded my rifle, we walked out to the i «*“® 
the night's adventure. As we approached the Bpotwhereth 
nonies were tethered we could see that the grass had been 
trampled down considerably, but it was still U>0 J" gk 
cover whether or no there was any ^ °M^ hat 
visitor. It was not until we were almost up to it that we 
held it. We had reached a spot directly under the : Umlj of a 
rather low-growing oak, one of which limbs his 
feet from the ground. There, just out from under t • 
lifeless body damp with dew, lay *h e “°“ 81 " Swiss was 
skin I have said now adorns my library. lhej» r oass 
doubled up in a heap, as though life had departedbef ^the 
body struck the ground. It was evidently an oWnn-J men 
had escaped being hunted to any great 
ditions favorable to development, had grown lo an annormaa 
size. My bullet had entered the skull directly ! et ween Jhc 
eyes, and hadcauBed instant death. I ^“^tionallvTkilled 
at the precision of the shot, for I am not 
in marksmanship, and had the wealth of the 
ferecTme to repeat the shot, I could not have^mplshed^t 
It was simply a lucky accident, such as often °^ ure 
who use fire-arms to any great extent. ^ 
ting off a woodpecker's head, at a distance c^f tliuty feet wun 
a small pocket revolver, and yet a* hour later, wu h to 
pistol, I fired more than twenty sho s at a hUgB bul 
ameter. and failed to even scratch it ! It was noi sum 
accident that controlled these cases. 
While Nichole was picking up our traps, I proceeded to 
skin the panther, for I wes determined not to lose auefi a 
trophy. I bad nothing but a dull jack knife, and the akin 
was terribly tough, and it took me nearly four hours to ac- 
complish tbo task. I left the claws and skull lu the hidtk in- 
tending some day to have it stuffed. After scraping oil all 
the flesh I could remove, I rubbed the inside of the skin with 
toilet soap— 1 ho only chemical I had about me— in hopes it 
would help preserve the skin until I could get some oreeuic. 
Then I rolled up the trophy, and having eaten a few homes 
Nichols had picked, wo were ready for another day s Journey. 
But before starting there was an important question to he set- 
tled, aud that was which way wo should go. 
high in the heavens, and we could easily tell the points of the 
compass. But where was the road we had traveled the day 
before ? Wc bad left tbe road aud ridden a ouartur of a uule 
or so to one side, in order that our ponies might not nil met 
the attention of some wandering semi-savage, .hut the ewLnlB 
of the night had mude us quite forget which side of the road 
we had turned to. I was certain we hud turned to the right, 
while Nichols was equally certain we had turned to the left, 
and as both of ns could not bo right, and as we both had rair 
memory under ordinary circumstances, wo could not agree as 
S which was the proper direction to take. At last, however. 
I gave in to my more enthusiastic companion, and wo turned 
our horses’ beads to the southward. . Af»« r 
Sure enough, he was in the right, or seemed to ho. Alter 
riding about a quarter of a uiilo we came to a road leading in 
a direction east by north. 1 say a road, but i . was oniy by 
courtesy it could claim that title It was merel^ dim v.sta 
through the woods, with licro and there ft tree trunk on either 
side showing the well-known "blnzo.” There wua not a 
track on the ground to show that the road hail ever been 
traveled. Along this road we started, and rode on for several 
hours without halting. The scenery waa tlhc same “ ^ 
nrevioua day— the same green carpet of grass, the name teem 
Fngly endless grove of oaks. It looked like a likely place for 
game, but we did not wish to lose any time to hunt it and 
though we were getting rather hungry, we lho ^ 1 ^ e COU r ld 
stand it till we reached some place where wo could biiy P™ 
visions, or until some game should show itself along the road. 
This last was what we expected. We had Jjj' ' 
fore leaving Ited River that we would have no d '^Uy what- 
ever in finding an uhuudance of gamo without leaving the 
trail. 
After traveling for several hours the disagreeable thought 
intruded itself that the road wo were on was not t he right 
one We had been told that it was only forty miles from 
Shawnee Town to Graham's Ferry, and if this wm the case 
we should bave reached the latter place by this time. Be- 
sides. tbe road, after the first few miles, did not run In the 
right direction. It tended too much to tbe South, “ ^ough 
ruuuing to some point on Red River. However, there waa 
no help for it now, and, whether right or wrong, the chcap- 
est plan was to go on. About three o clock we halted fora 
short time to r^t our horses, ami while I watched them, 
Nichols strolled out into the woods to sec if he could scare 
up any game. I heard the report of h.s gun after a. while 
and he soon returned with a raccoon, the only liv ‘"8 Uu °B bo 
had seen and even this he had secured at too great a cost, 
for on discharging his rifle, the nipple hud broke off close to 
the breech, auWwe had no wayof cxlniciing Utjreni.lmn g 
piece, the weapon was for the tune n ra ® dc ^ r ^® le “' kinK t ha 
After resting awhile wc resumed our ipurncy, tuning 
coon with us, intending to make a supper off of it UlouJd 
Sing betted show itaelf. At intervals tbe road was crojwd 
by foot-paths or trails running in various directionfl- 
trails form a perfect network all over this part of the nation. 
as? ss •Aays 
nhabited In front of 1 this was grouped a parly of Choctaws 
Ssistine of a ‘'buck," a squaw, and several papooses o dif- 
ferenfages- These last, as soon ns we appeared, made them- 
Sm See iu all dlrecllou. Wc addr^cd oursclvca to the 
^3? ^ “ SfWi 
.land English, and all our loqmnes 
rjts 
tie tricks of iDd.an d.plomac), we ^ere^^ ^ iQ lhe 
our route “° e “ k f v h e ^ D a f w hat seemed to he a river “bottom,” 
afrernemn we arrived at wtaijje ^ u WHfl a dUmal nlace 
through or i nto . . wor ,h The grass ceased, and we 
in the full “1,“® 7? tract of hard packed mud, the 
found ourselves nding o .. The oaks gave place to 
Burface of wh.^ ;B^ e c r k cd 81 ;^ ftrd Tb a ^ their 
^LeSle^c’ovired tops scores of yards above our heads, 
SStsas, 
?„™hn t“= from Sl.hhd City to Shawnee Town, weto 
here wholly absent. 
