reached the ground I noticed a form slowly I finally found thought and voice to
coming down from a tree near the one I was say,
leaving. I hastily rushed back to the tree and
“Sh-sh-o-o-o-t — the — p-p-an-ther,
began to “shin” up again, thinking it was the Zill, o-r-r—it—will—e-e-at us both u-u-u-p.”
panther, when 1 discovered it was Zill, not
“Shoot him yourself, if you want him
hurt at all.
shot,” replied Zill, pulling the blanket tighter In my joyful surprise I ran to him, and
around his head and repeating the grace again.
exclaimed,
The suspense made me desperate. I felt
“Where is the panther, Zill?”
a great weight choking me, and as the growls He seemed equally surprised and
and gnashing of teeth grew more distinct I overjoyed, and answered,
reached out and slowly grasped my gun.
“Why, if that wasn't you he was eating,
Carefully turning on my stomach, I
as I thought, all that noise must have been his pointed the gun in the direction whence came dying. I guess your shot hit him. Let's look for the sounds, cocked both the barrels, and pulled him.”
both triggers. Before the report was fairly Slowly and cautiously we began the
heard I was up and running for a tall tree I saw search, after securing our guns and reloading near by.
mine.
Never did youth climb so nimbly or
Sure enough, there lay the monster, not
more quickly up a tree than I did then, and the far from the head of our beds. We could see its echoes of that gun, the noise of which had great tawny hide exposed by the now rapidly
The Argosy
6
dawning day, with a crimson patch where my As I looked at the awful beast I saw
buckshot had torn a hole in it.
that it was one of old man Moran's red, razor Zill rushed, and looked first at me, and
backed sows we had killed. She was
then at the varmint. Then he said,
devouring our provisions, which had waked
“Abe, those boys will be more stuck
me up.
up than ever after this, and we can never take We did kill some good game on the
those girls to singing school nor parties any trip (that day—as we never spent another
more.”
night in the woods) but it was many a week
“Why?” I asked, walking over that before we heard the last of that old sow we way.
took for a panther. And we never ventured on
“Look at what we’ve done. We can’t
another hunt by ourselves.
keep them from finding this out.”