The Broncho Rider Boys Along the Border

  CHAPTER VI.

  A LIVELY SCRIMMAGE.

  Even as he dropped flat, and felt that lithe body pass swiftly over him,Adrian heard a shout. Of course this must mean his chums had made thealarming discovery that he was up against a hard proposition; they hadbeen watching him closely from a distance, and when the deer fell inresponse to his shot doubtless they were about to give a whoop ofdelight, but at sight of the leaping panther this was changed into a cryof alarm.

  Adrian did not deceive himself.

  The fact that he had a couple of good, trustworthy friends so close athand would not cut much of a figure in his little affair with the hungrypanther, perhaps nothing at all.

  They were some distance away, and even though making all the hastepossible, they must consume several minutes of precious time in reachinghim; before that came about his business with the gray-coated terror ofthe canyons of the mountains would have been finished.

  Accustomed to depending on himself in every emergency, the boy was notat a loss as to what he should do under these trying circumstances.

  It was lucky, of course, that in making an involuntary duck of his bodyhe had caused the panther to miss his aim. The creature had leaped trueenough, but having once left the limb on which he must have beencrouched, watching the advance of the human deer-hunter, he could notalter the nature of his spring.

  But just as soon as he landed on the ground the chances were the agilebeast was going to whirl around, and make another try. It was to meetthis attack that Adrian got himself in readiness, thrusting out hisrifle so as to ward off the savage claws until such time as he couldthrow out the old shell, and pump another one into the firing chamber ofhis gun.

  It is true that this operation may be mechanically performed, and thatit really consumes a brief space of time; but there may be occasionswhen even a second counts for a great deal. Adrian considered this sucha time, for it was of more importance that he face about and make readyto keep the animal away, than that in the desperate attempt to get hisrifle ready he allow his side to go unprotected.

  An old hunter would understand the instinct that caused the prairie boyto act in this way; for he could place himself in a similar situation,and realize just what a part instinct rather than reason would be apt toplay.

  It turned out to be a wise move, too; for hardly had he thus whirledaround with gun extended, than the panther, having recovered from hisdisappointing leap, came straight at him again.

  It was far from a pleasant task that the boy had on his hands, trying tothrust that clawing, growling beast away with his gun, all the while hewas fairly wild to work its mechanism, and get a good cartridge into thechamber.

  You may not suspect what a powerful beast a panther is, just by watchinghim pace restlessly back and forth in his cage when you visit the Zoo,or see him in a menagerie; but those hardened muscles of his are capableof a tremendous force, once the beast is aroused to a state of fury.Many an unfortunate hunter has rued the day or night when he found sucha beast attacking him in the forest; and if he lived through the battleit was to find his garments torn almost to ribbons, while his flesh wasbadly lacerated by the keen-pointed claws that were in action everysecond of the time until a fortunate shot or blow from a knife laid theanimal out dead.

  While he continued to thrust out with all his strength, in the endeavorto keep the beast away from close quarters, Adrian was yelling at thetop of his lungs, not for help, but in the hope that the sound of ahuman voice might gradually wear upon the nerves of the beast, and causehim to slink away.

  All the boy wanted was just a few winks of an eye, in order to get thatrifle in readiness for action; but as long as he was compelled to useevery atom of his strength in fending off these constant attacks, hisambition did not seem likely to be gratified.

  After all, the coming of Donald and Billie, also shouting like wildIndians as they skipped over rocks, and rushed headlong toward the sceneof action, may have been a factor in deciding the result.

  Adrian himself, calmly reviewing the whole affair later on, when hecould do so in a spirit of fairness, was ready to acknowledge that hewas indebted to them for the chance he yearned to grasp.

  Hearing them coming may have slightly disconcerted the panther. It hadnot been wounded thus far, so that its rage was only that of beinginterfered with while stalking its legitimate prey, the feeding deer.Consequently it might not be of a mind to face several enemies at once;though a tiger-cat that has been made to feel the agony of a gunshotwound will leap into a regiment at times, and start to make a cleansweep, until borne down by force of numbers.

  The animal hesitated at one point in its attack. Adrian was quick tonotice this little but significant fact; pressing his advantage he gavea particularly loud whoop, and instead of standing on the defensive asheretofore, he actually assumed the aggressive.

  That proved to be the crux of the whole exciting little affair, for thepanther was surprised at the turn of events, and gave evidences of adesire to retreat.

  By now the boy's fighting spirit had been wholly aroused, and he wasdetermined that under no circumstances, if he could help it, should thatimpudent panther get away unscathed. It had attacked him unprovoked; andnow he meant to see that the fighting cat got full measure, presseddown, and running over.

  Watching his chance Adrian suddenly jumped back, and at the same instantthere was heard the click of his gun's mechanism working.

  It was all done like a flash, and he had timed his movement with suchprecision as well as sagacity that before the beast could recover, andeither resume the attack or jump away, the young hunter was ready to putthe finishing stroke to his warmly contested game.

  The other pair, having covered about half the ground by this time, andstill coming on wildly, saw their chum once more thrust out his gun; butthis time it was with a far different manner than before. There was alsoa confidence in his action that told the experienced Donald what sort ofchange had come about during that second or so of time.

  Had he been given time to shout no doubt Donald would have voiced hisbelief to the effect that Adrian had succeeded in rendering his magicfire-stick serviceable again, by those few quick movements of his hands.

  Of course it was as good as over now. At such close quarters Adrian,being so accustomed to firearms, was not apt to miss a vital spot. Andwhen the discharge was heard the panther sprang into the air, rolledover on the ground, clawing desperately, while Adrian stood close by,though out of reach, his faithful weapon again in readiness to be usedin case of necessity.

  But it was not required of him, for by the time Donald and Billie camepanting to the spot, the fat boy blowing like a porpoise with hisstrenuous exertions, the gray-coated beast had stiffened out in death.

  "Hurt any, Ad?" gasped Donald, as he surveyed his chum anxiously;because he knew only too well how difficult such wounds as those givenby the claws of a carniverous animal are to heal, and what danger ofblood poisoning always hangs over the one who has received the same.

  Adrian laughed as well as he was able in his nearly exhausted condition.

  "Not a scratch--never touched me!" he managed to tell them; at which boththe others took off their hats, and gave a faint cheer.

  When they had managed to in part recover their wind they bent over toexamine the cat, which both prairie lads declared to be the largest theyhad ever seen.

  "The nerve of the rascal, jumping at you just because you knocked over adeer he had his eye on," remarked Billie, as he poked his toe into thesleek skin of the slain beast.

  "Well," said Donald, laughingly, "just put yourself in his place,Billie, and think how ugly you'd feel if you had your mouth made up fora certain sort of meal, and just when you were going to reach out tograb it, some fellow stepped in and scooped the prize. Chances are you'dfeel like tackling him, and trying to take it away, now wouldn't you,honest Injun?"

  The fat boy screwed up his red, good-natured face as though ponderingover the subject; then he nodded his head like one of these a
utomaticdolls you see in the shop windows along about Christmas time.

  "P'raps I might, Donald; mebbe you're right about that," he went on tosay presently; "because it sure is a mighty aggravating thing to haveyour mouth made up for a mess of fried onions, and then not get 'em; andit must be worse to be cheated out of everything at the same time. Yes,I don't blame the scamp so much after all; but say, he sure barked upthe wrong tree when he thought to scare one of the Broncho Rider Boysoff, didn't he, fellows?"

  "Looks that way," Donald replied.

  "But we got the deer all right, and that means a feast of venison rightalong now, the balance of our trip to the Zuni village, don't it?"continued Billie, his blue eyes fairly snapping with delight; for whilethey had had an abundance to eat thus far, fresh meat had been onlynoticeable, as Billie would say, by its absence.

  "Yes," Adrian went on to remark, "we'll have plenty of venison; and I'llget busy cutting the animal up, if you boys will look after the horses;and Donald you might slip that fine gray jacket off my panther; I reckonit'll be worth keeping as a sort of reminder of the sassy way he tackledme."

  "I'll take care of the horses, all right," ventured Billie, who knewvery little about removing the skin of a dead animal, and moreover wasnot anxious to take lessons in that line.

  So it came about that for some little while all of them were more orless busy, Adrian in cutting off the choice portions of the deer; Donaldin depriving the unfortunate panther of the sleek covering he had borneall his life; while Billie led the horses, and after them the mule, towater, which he found trickling down the face of the rocks near by.

  "And," said the fat boy, after he had completed his part of theprogramme, "seein' how close to noon it is right now, why not stop longenough to let me make a little cooking fire out of these dead branchesunder the cedar, and try a piece of the venison?" and silence givingconsent, he proceeded to immediately get busy.