Experiences with Wild Cats.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5211, 19 March 1895, Page 1

Experiences with Wild Cats.

(Illustratod American. In the early part of September, 1887, 1 was at Grand Junction, Colorado, on my first trip aa travelling agent for the South Omaha Stock Yards Company. In Grand Junction I met a Btockman named Wilson, who3e ranch lay about seventy miles in a Boath-easterly direction, and together we rode to his place. The trail led through a dreary, rugged and mountainous country, the home of beare, mountain lions and wild cats, the latter almost as large and ferocious as tigers, and the most dangerous of the three. About halfway between Grand Junction and Wilson's ranch was aßolitary log cabin, used by big cowboys as winter head quarters, bu'j at this time unoccupied ; close by it stood a rude stable. In this cabin we spent the night. We reached his _ ranch the next day, and after looking at his cattle and making arrangements with him for their shipment I started back alone on the return trip. My sole protection was a Smith and Wesson thirty-eight calibre revolver containing but one cartridge, the rest of my amunition having thoughtlessly been fired away in SHOOTING AT SOME CHIPMUNKS. I reached this half way cabin late in the afternoon, cooked my supper, stabled my horse and prepared to spend the night. The house was a one-story affair built of logs, about fifteen by twenty-five feet in size, with a ridge roof, the interior being divided by a broad partition into two rooms— one used for cooking, the other for sleeping. The vindow had originally consisted of two large panes of glass, each about twelve by eighteen inches in size; but one of these panes was entirely gone, leaving an opening. As night came on I began to grow nervous. I was inexperienced in mountain life, and knew not what dangers there might be about me. To these conditions were added the awful solitude of the place, the dreary and lonesome character of the country and the distance that lay between me and any human voice. I tried to read, to write; I found come company in the stable with my horse, but finally sought oblivion from my surroundings in sleep. I had just fallen into a doze when I was suddenly awakened by the sound of a heavy body violently thrown or hurled againsc the cabin door. I was upon the floor in an instant, revolver in hand, expecting something further to follow. I "WAITED ASV IISTBNBD, but all was quiet. I again lay down upon the bed, revolver in hand, containing that one precious, solitary cartridge, upon which so much might depend. No sooner had I done so than I was startled by a cry close by — something wild, weird, inhuman, unearthly, gradually swelling into a long, loud, continuous scream. Then ensued a aeries of moaning, . wailing, sobbing sounds, like a child in distress. What little reason was left me by this time was used in trying to determine whether these awful noises came from human beings or wild animals. I felt, rather than knew, that it must be wild cats. Then followed same of the most piercing, blood curdling, soul shivering shrieks that ever fell upon mortal eats. A short silence intervened then a large, dark body suddenly appeared in the window opening, poised itself for a moment upon the sill, and dropped to the floor. A aecond one almost immediately followed it, as if it were the shadow of the first. I realised the situation in an instant. The wildcats had found the opening in the window and were then with me in the cabin. Alone in a cabin in the mountains at midnight, two great wild cats almost within arm's reach of me, A SOLITABY CARTRIDGE in my revolver, and no aid to be looked for ! My mind was fast becoming a chaos, my reason a wreck. My heart seemed to literally fill my throat and to almost choke me. I was incapable of motion, and lay in a cold tremor, scarcely daring to' breathe for fear of attracting the attention of the animals. I heard them rush to the other side of the partition, upon which hung a large piece of bacon. This they pulled down upon the floor and fought over it until it was devoured. After upsetting the cupboard in their search for something further -in the line of food, they sprang upon a table in, the room and from there to the timbers overhead, upon which they immediately began to walk back and forth in that restless way familiar to one who has seen them in a CBge. Their bodies, however, were invisible to me in the darkness, and I followed their movements by their blazing eyeballs, which glowed with that INDESCRIBABLE tfUP.Y AND FIEBCENES3 seen only in the eyes of wild beasts. I sbill lay upon the bed, huddled in a corner, the blanket drawn entirely over me, except my face and right arm and hand, in which I held the revolver. My only hopa of safety seemed to be in complete and perfect silence. I feared to make the slightest movement lest it should attract the attention of the wild cats and bring upon me an immediate attack. Back and forth, back and forth, they moved above me, nothing visible but those luiid balls of fire which, in the awful darkness and silence of the night, held me in fiieir power and fascinated me as a snake charms a bird. My eye 3 never left them. I had no conception of the time that passed. I was in-capable-of telling whether what seemed to me a minute might not have been en hour, or what Boomed an hour might not have been ci minute. I lived my life over a dozen t : niss. I waa nlone with death, expecting, that every moment would be my laßt. And such a death — there in that far-off spot! Then came the thought of suicide, of emptying the contents of that revolver into my temple. Better an instantaneous pang and an ending of all suffering than to be torn to pieces by these wild beasts, to be LACERATED BY THEIR CRUEL CLAWS, and to feel their frightful fanga upon my throat. I feared not death then s:> much aa mutilation. The thought of death alone at that time seemed far from fearful. Thus the night wore on ; the hours passed away — at least, they must have done bo. There came a time, however, when I felb more than saw that the night waa ending and daylight waa near at hand. Ab the first grim gray streaks of dawn appeared in the east one of the aniam's leaped down upon the table, from there to the window, and was The oilier immediately followed. I lay quiet for a time, fearing to move lest they should return. It was broad daylight when, weak and exhausifd, I nlowly staggered from the bed and looked into a glass huns* upon the cabin wall. The face that looked back upon me wiiß that of a man grown old before his time. It was months before my nsrvous system wa9 restored to its normal condition ; and long afterwards I could see the fiery eyC3 of those monsters of the night as they passed before me in the shadowy dreams of sleep.