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Show A COWBOY'S RIDE. Ha Mounted a Hirer Wheat t ha.rd b a Urlsaly. Jack Bean formerly lived in the little lit-tle vilsjige of Tapper's plaints. Ohio, und u cleverer, iure jovial, and pmd-nat pmd-nat tired fellow it would bo difficult to lind. but ho became one of the uiot daring- individual, for with many years of roiifrh and ready exerience in the far west during- the lime when ppurajfe and bravery were neeeary qualifications to even maintain ttn existence, ex-istence, ho naturally became almost, if not quite, devoid of any fear and seemed to bo endowed with nerve of nteel in any sudden or extraordinary emergency. emer-gency. However, this imee in his lifetime he udmitted that he was Kind to even have an opportunity to flee, for it was only by accept in;r one of the narrowest chances of escape on record that he saved himself from what might have proved a horrible death. Jack, with some other eowlniys. wan out on the rimre rounding up some cattle, and hod gotten a pretty good bunch of the horn and hoof quiulru-peds quiulru-peds together and started them in the direction of the round-up corral, when for some unknown cause they became frightened and dashed through the line of "punchers" in a perfect panic creating cre-ating a wild stampede that was intens- ly exciting. In vain the cowboys rode their ponies with the greatest fury to ?h ei'k and turn the truttlo from their mad career, the latter only increased their npoed. and for miles they tore along with an awful, horrid rush, bellowing bel-lowing and roaring, until ut hut they reached tho brink of a Hinall precipice, from which they dropped upon each other, killing ncores. and even hnn-dreds, hnn-dreds, and crushing them with hoofs and horns into an almost unrecogniz-itblo unrecogniz-itblo mass. Fortunately tho crush of tho leaders stopped the further progress pro-gress of the stampede, mid an hour later tho cowboys were busily engaged gathering up the remainder of the herd und hurrying them on to their destination. While rio engaged Jack started to bring in a few cattle that hud become depurated from the rest, and were draggling along in the upper part of a deep coulee. They refused to move at the tones of his voice, and us the ground was too rough for Ihe usual skillful maneuvering; with a broncho. .lack thid'W his lariat, which was attached to the pony, to the ground, leaving Ihe latter standing and feeding while he rushed in the coulee with w hip in hand, tind with wild gesticulations hurried the cattle to make a move. Just as he had gotten the cattle well tinder way-he way-he heard a loud growl of rage behind him, which arrested his attention, and jn looking back he saw a huge grizzly boar emerge from some bushes and start toward him. The animal had doubt less been lying in wait to capture some one of the cattle, cat-tle, and when it discovered Jack fright- ening ofT its prey it prow angry. Jiick was so well aware of the terriblu nature na-ture of the animal thai he felt that there was a rather slim chance of escape, es-cape, for the bear was fast closing the distance between them, and that only an extraordinary effort on his part and great presence of mind could save him. As he sprang from rock to rock and from little hillock to hillock in flying from his pursuer lie reached a small knoll that terminated very abruptly, ab-ruptly, and just beneath it was a huge wild steer moving leisurely along a if entirely unaware of either Jack's or the bear's presence. In an instant Jack resolved on his plan of action, and with a jump he alighted on the steer's back a-straddle. The sudden and unexpected change of Jack's position posi-tion for a second seemed to paralyze the steer, but, immediately recovering his cattle wits, the steer gave a wild spring that nearly unhorsed his rider, and a little later made a mad dash 'lown the coulee to get rid of the unwelcome un-welcome intruder. Jack had not time to look back and notice whether the grizzly was still pursuing pur-suing him or not, but he clung to the back of that steer with all his might and determination until at last his strength gave way and he was compelled com-pelled to relinquish his hold, and was tumbled off in the midst of the steer's frantic leaps and rapid gyrations. The steer, however, continued on in its wild course, bellowing and roaring until it at last mingled with the balance of the herd, where its excitement was abated. A few minutes later Jack was found by his companions badly bruised and insensible, in-sensible, but after he was carried to camp and had been resuscitated he informed in-formed the rest of the outfit"1 of his singular adventure, and the next day there was another grand round-up. and the big grizzly was overtaken, lassoed, and, with a wild hurrah, dragged to his death because of his unprovoked effort ef-fort to take Jack at a disadvantage. |