It will be remembered that upon the appearance of the strange
animal, during the preceding spring, one member of the party, (Teddy
O’Doherty,) was asleep, and failed to see it.
But he heard enough of it continually. It was described and conjectured
upon again and again in his hearing, until he came to look upon it as
an old acquaintance; but having never set eyes upon it himself, he
attached little credit to these numerous accounts, and supposed it was
a bear or something similar.
“A pecoolyer-lookin’ critter, as everybody obsarved when they viewed
me; but a critter, fur all that, that nobody need be afeard of.”
So, when a short distance from the camping-ground of his friends, he
left them and started in quest of the antelope, he had no thought of
the other dreaded creature that had been seen in this region, and that
made its home so near at hand.
Passing over the ridge, he found himself in such a heavily-wooded
country, that he dismounted and continued his hunt on foot. His horse
was thus left but a short distance from the camp, and the Irishman
understood well enough that he would not increase the distance.
The sun was low in the horizon, but, looking westward, Teddy caught
sight of the faint column of smoke that had arrested the attempt of old
Stebbins. He paused a moment and looked earnestly toward it.
“Red naygurs,” he concluded, “and they’ve squatted down rather close,
as Bridget used to observe, when she sot on one side the house in
Tipperary, and I on t’other. I will go and inthrodooce myself.”
The intervening ground was very favorable for a reconnoissance, and
he moved along with little fear of being discovered. It was fully
dark when he reached the strange camp, where not a single person was
visible; but a few minutes examination showed that a large number of
Blackfeet Indians had encamped there, but all had been gone several
hours.
A little careful examination of the surrounding ground, by means of a
torch, showed further that they had mounted their horses and gone due
westward, exactly in the opposite direction from their friends, and the
very course they would have desired them to take.
This was a pleasing discovery for Teddy, but he was reminded that
he had started out to procure a much-needed supper for himself and
friends, and that night had closed around him without his having done
so.
But good fortune awaited him. This was a country of bountiful game, and
the Blackfeet had evidently been feasting, for they had left behind
them such an abundance of buffalo-meat and venison, that Teddy found no
difficulty in picking up an all-sufficiency for his friends.
To make the load as convenient, however, as possible, he put his share
within, making a hearty and enjoyable supper, and made sure that he had
secured to his back all that Stebbins and Black Tom could dispose of,
and then he started homeward.
In his explorations around the camp fire, he had given it such a
stirring up that it was burning vigorously, and threw quite an extended
circle of light though the surrounding gloom.
Teddy was standing by the fire, looking in upon the embers, and
reflecting how good he felt after his dinner, when it suddenly occurred
to him that he was a fine target for any foe that might be lurking in
the vicinity.
The thought had scarcely crossed his mind, when he saw something
flickering before his eyes; he heard a whizz, and knew on the instant
that an arrow had missed his face by scarce a hand’s breadth.
Instinctively he threw his head back, and then jumped back in the
darkness.
“Be the Vargin, but that’s a _leetle_ too close, as me uncle obsarved,
when by mistake he shaved off his nose, instead of the mustache on his
chin. Begorra; if I kin only get a chance at the spalpeen.”
He understood from what direction the deadly missile had come, although
he could not tell how far away the Indian stood that had fired it. The
Irishman was now enveloped in the gloom of the woods, and his self
confidence returned. The experience which had been his with the veteran
prairie-men had taught him to move over the ground with the stealth and
silence of the Blackfoot himself, and were he so fortunate as to be
approaching his treacherous foe, he was certain there was no danger of
his betraying himself.
“I’m moving as silent as a fairy,” he reflected; “it’s a handy thrick
fur a chap in my sitooation--bad luck to it!”
In the darkness his foot caught in a projecting root, and the
consequence was, Teddy was thrown forward flat upon his face.
“Bad luck to it!” he repeated, as he hastily scrambled to his feet,
“hilloa, there! hold on I say!”
He heard a hurried tramp, and in the gloom caught a flitting glance of
an Indian speeding rapidly away from him.
“Howld on, ye dirty coward!” called out the irate Teddy, dashing after
him, “howld on, I say, or I’ll bate ye, and I’ll bate yees if ye do.”
It is hardly worth while to say that the Irishman’s command was
unheeded. The red-skin whisked away, like a flitting phantom, and
almost instantly vanished. Teddy pursued him for a short distance, but
he was not much of a runner, and his pursuit could not result in any
thing but a complete failure.
He was not given time to aim and fire his gun. His “short and decisive
campaign” against the Blackfeet was a defeat!
“Bad luck to that rut!” he muttered, as he made his way back to it; “it
was all through that!”
He groped around until he discovered the scene of his mishap, when he
revenged himself by tearing and ripping the mute offender to pieces.
“It was yees that saved a coward’s life!” he exclaimed, as he finished
his self-imposed task, “and yees shall niver do the likes ag’in.”
It may be said that it takes a hungry man to appreciate the same
gnawing want in another, and so Teddy almost forgot that he had a
couple of friends, something over half a mile distant, who were looking
longingly for his coming.
“They kin wait as well as mesilf,” he concluded, when he recalled the
fact. “Thrue, I have a sooper within, and be the same towken, their
sooper is without--but, then, what’s the difference?”
However, he concluded that, as the night was now quite well advanced,
there was no objection to his rejoining the trappers, and so he started
forward.
There was a moon above the tree-tops, and where the country was open
he had quite a clear view for a distance of several rods; and, as he
recollected very well the route taken in his hunt, there was no fear of
his losing his way.
As he moved along, he could see the dark line of the ridge outlined
against the sky beyond, and he knew that only a short distance on the
other side, his comrades were looking for his coming.
Teddy had a pretty correct idea of the gastronomic capacity of his
friends, and so he had loaded himself down pretty heavily with the
plunder found around the Blackfoot camp-fire. All that he carried was
cooked and prepared, ready for eating.
He was scarcely half-way to the ridge, when he became sensible that he
had a very heavy load upon his back; and, coming across a large, flat
rock, he sat down upon it for a few minutes’ rest.
“Begorra, if the spalpeens ate all of that, it’ll do till they raich
the States ag’in. Hilloa, there!”
This exclamation was caused by the sight of a man walking in a
direction at right angles to his own, and only a rod or two in advance.
He was walking leisurely, like some one who was returning from a
wearisome hunt; and, what surprised Teddy, he was certainly a white
man, rather young in years.
“Hilloa, I say!” called out the Irishman, again.
The stranger abruptly paused, and looked inquiringly toward him.
“Well, what is it ye want?”
“Who the blazes be yees?”
“I don’t know as that concerns you,” replied the stranger, resuming his
walk, and almost immediately disappearing in the darkness.
The exasperated Teddy shouted to him to hold on, calling him a coward,
and seeking by every means imaginable to bring him back. Had it not
been that he was so heavily loaded, he would have sought to follow and
bring him to terms; but the Irishman scarcely had time to rise to his
feet, when the man had vanished.
“Jist me luck!” he growled, as he sunk back again to finish his
rest. “I once walked siven miles to attind the wake of Micky
McMaghaghoghmoghlan, and whin I got there, found he hadn’t died at all;
and so, whin I was felicytaterin’ mesilf on a fight wid this impudent
spalpeen, he walks away, widout exchanging a crack of the head wid me.
Bad luck to him! but I’ll have a muss wid somebody, if it’s wid old
Stebbins or Black Tom, and then I’ll be sure to get whopped, which is
better nor not fightin’ at all, at all.”
Teddy was about to resume his walk, when a peculiar sound, something
like the bark of a dog, caught his ear.
“What the dooce is that?” he exclaimed, staring about him. “Who’s got
dogs in this part of the world?”
His inquiry was answered by a sight of the creature itself. He saw
a large, clumsy-looking animal, with an immense head and a most
frightful-looking body, spotted and striped in the most terrible
manner, coming straight toward him.
“Begorra! but it’s the divil,” was the Irishman’s conclusion, as he sat
like one transfixed, staring at it. “It’s the divil himself, dressed up
in his bist soot, and going to the circus.”
It can not be said that Teddy was particularly frightened, for he had
his loaded gun in his possession, and with that he was justified in
having confidence in his powers of attack and defense.
But suddenly, he recalled the stories he had heard of the strange
monster that haunted this portion of the North-West.
“It’s worse nor the divil,” he muttered, “fur it’s _that_, be the howly
Vargin!”
This discovery caused the Irishman some little trepidation, but, at
the same time, he was rather pleased that he was about to have an
opportunity to try his gun upon it.
Indeed, as the nameless beast continued his leisurely advance, his
appearance would have struck terror into the heart of any one. The
fantastic, extraordinary hue of its body and legs, the immense tail
curved over the back, and its ponderous build, were such that, once
seen, no one ever could forget them.
“An’ they say he ates min whole,” thought Teddy, as he silently drew
his rifle around in front of him. “His head is big enough, be the
powers! Wonder, now, if he isn’t a shark that’s immigrating from the
Atlantic to the Pacific.”
The fearful brute continued his leisurely advance, as if he saw not,
or, at least, cared not for the man who was seated almost in his path.
His course was such that, if unchanged for a few seconds longer, would
lead him about a rod to one side of the amazed hunter.
The latter, as may well be supposed, scrutinized it most sharply as
it approached, and under the dim light of the moon, he had a good
opportunity to notice its characteristics.
Its head and body have already been described; its short, dumpy legs
very much resembled those of an elephant, while, barring the trunk
and tusks, its head was not very dissimilar. It had the same immense
palm-leaf like ears; but its mouth looked like that of an alligator--so
that its cannibal propensities did not seem so unlikely after all.
It moved heavily and somewhat awkwardly, but its appearance was that of
an animal of prodigious strength, much the superior of the famed grizzly
bear, and a creature to be shunned in a hand-to-hand encounter.
The idea that would naturally suggest itself upon a glance at this
strange creature, would be that it was a cross, combining in itself the
characteristics of several animals; but men who had spent years in the
West, and understood its native inhabitants thoroughly, declared that
such could not be the case. Its build and appearance was unlike any
thing that had ever been seen in these parts. It was _sin generis_, and
unlike any thing else.
Some believed that it belonged to an extinct race; probably to the era
of the mastodon, and other monsters whose remains are found in the
earth; that by some strange providence, it had escaped the destruction
of its kind, and still wandered over the world, like a lost sheep,
looking in vain for its fold--the last and the least of its race.
But this was a fantastic theory--so utterly impossible, that it
deserves no more than simple reference here.
There certainly were some established facts regarding this monster
which are utterly unaccountable. It had been fired at again and again,
by the most skillful hunters, and yet never gave the slightest evidence
of being hurt. Bullets that would have bored their way through the hide
of the rhinoceros, and torn on through bone and muscle to the seat of
life, seemed to glance aside, as harmless as the tiny hailstones.
There was many a man, certainly, who had tried his weapon upon it,
and it still walked the earth to defy their skill and efforts.
There were hunters who said they had seen it bite a man in two at
one mouthful--just as the alligator or shark serve the swimmer that
ventures into their domain.
But while we have drifted into this digression, the situation of Teddy
O’Doherty has become more and more critical. He sat with his gun in
hand, with his eyes fixed upon the brute, waiting for the opportunity
to fire.
He had determined that if it headed straight toward him, he would
be polite enough to step aside, for _that_ certainly was not the
antagonist to engage in a close fight; but it did not swerve an inch
from its path.
And walking thus, it passed about a rod to the left of Teddy, who
cautiously raised his gun and took aim.
What better opportunity was possible? It was so close that he could
have tossed his hat upon it, and was turned broad-side toward him. If
he could stand a shot then, surely he was invulnerable to powder and
bullet.
The hunter aimed directly behind the fore leg--that spot which is the
vital one to the most dreaded animal, and through which the messenger
of death makes his way without challenge. He waited until the foot was
thrust forward, and his aim was absolutely certain.
The next instant his piece was discharged.
“Thar! be the Virgin, if that doesn’t fotch yees--”
Heavens! what did he hear and see?
He heard that same bark-like cry that had first caught his ear, and saw
the brute coming straight toward him!
Flesh and blood could not stand it; and with a howl of terror, Teddy
broke in a run for the camp. A few furious bounds carried him to the
bottom of the ridge, when his bad luck overtook him.
Glancing back, he saw the dreadful beast close upon him, galloping
along like the cat, when frolicking with its prey. The load upon the
back of the fugitive made him somewhat awkward in his movements, and he
stumbled and fell flat upon his face. Ere he could rise, his foe was
upon him!