Part 22

Before he could recover from his amazement and shoot, the greycoated monster sprang over the foot-board, and through the window, carrying the sash with her. The other men appeared just in time to see the brute’s long tail disappearing through the casement.

Quickly turning, they seized the dogs by their collars and pushed them down the narrow winding stairs. Outside, in the fading light, the spoor could be seen at the side of the house where the lioness bounded over the lawn, and down the bank, and crossed the stream on the ice.

The dogs took up the scent, and were away, the hunters following gamely. The baying of the hounds echoed and re-echoed through the narrow valley; by their volume the quarry was not far ahead. The snow was deep and very soft in the woods, and it was getting very dark. Perhaps the chase would have to be abandoned, and the panther or spook, whichever it was, got away after all.

Soon the barking of the dogs indicated that the beast had been run to cover. It was just at dark when the hunters saw the pantheress crouched in a rock oak at the forks, on the steep, stony face of the Keating Mountain, with the dogs leaping up frantically, the monster feline hissing and growling savagely.

Jake Hamersley was selected to give the death shot, “taking” the brute between the eyes. She fell with a thud, and with a few convulsive kicks, expired on the snow. Major Stewardson built a military campfire while Hamersley and Vallon carefully skinned the carcass, and fed the flesh to the dogs. The Nimrods offered the hide to the young Major as a trophy, but he declined with thanks. He could not bear to have such a remembrance of a creature that had disported itself so recently on his loved one’s little four poster bed. Perhaps it had partaken of her spirit, from absorbing the environment where she had pined away to death.

He only wanted to visit her grave, above the meeting of the waters, to drop there a few tears, a part of the boundless water of life. His heart would always be a Haunted House.

It was verging on the “witching hour,” and an ugly winter drizzle had begun to fall, as the triumphant hunters ascended the soggy bank, and stood before the portals of Castlecloyd, undecided as to whether they should bivouac there until morning. Major Stewardson was muttering to himself the concluding lines of that Ode of Horace,

“Not thus forever can I lie and quake, Nor thus remain, Before thy threshold for thy love’s sweet sake, Soaked by the rain.”

Transcriber’s Note

Compound words that are hyphenated on a line or page break retain the hyphen if warranted by the preponderance of mid-line instances of the same word elsewhere. Where hyphenation is inconsistent in mid-line occurrences, the text is given here as printed.

There are numerous instances of commas appearing as full stops, which we attribute to the printing process (vi.6, vii.31, 16.5, 26.1, 30.25, 46.2, 108.4, 114.30, 115.23, 121.18, 292.11, 350.27).

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted below. Where the apparent error occurs in quoted text, we defer to the text as printed.

The references are to the page and line in the original.

v.5 to issue no [no ]more books Removed.

vii.28 the meanings of the book may be arrived at[.] Added.

34.7 but the brid[g]egroom was well to do Removed.

37.29 [“]That’s enough of your drivel, Adam,” Added.

40.11 betwe[e]n the Wyandots and allied nations Inserted.

40.15 the handsomest of the es[oc/co]rt Transposed.

44.22 The [The ]fact that it is a Prostrate Tree Removed.

46.7 Surveying the [gorey] scene _sic_

47.19 fall to the ground outside the st[a/o]ckade. Replaced.

47.27 had been gr[i]eviously hurt Inserted.

49.7 I am glad that our enemies were beaten and Added. annihilated.[”]

52.19 we sh[a/o]uld mention Replaced.

53.22 was a decrepit old man.[”] Added.

55.18 make the house “general hea[r/d]quarters” Replaced.

58.20 the exigencies of his strenuous c[o/a]mpaigns Replaced.

58.28 which his wea[l]th had enabled him to purchase Inserted.

65.6 [s/S] said she herself was dead Replaced.

65.23 that in ten years he [r/h]ad sold Replaced.

71.7 The Elma Hacker of those days had a Replaced. swee[a/t]heart

72.14 to keep on good terms with the in[n]keeper’s Inserted. family

82.9 about their inglenooks and home-garths[,/.] Replaced.

83.22 by a homespun cap of the tam o’shant[t/e]r Replaced. pattern

83.27 until joined by the surp[r]ised Viscount. Inserted.

91.25 a few days in the future.[”] Added.

105.19 the sleeper’s temples like an eg[g]shell Inserted.

106.22 was forced from In-nan-[ag/ga]-eh’s Transposed. In-nan-ga-eh’s hand

107.13 their bodies to com[m]ingle> with earth until Inserted. eternity.

110.8 losing his equilibr[i]um Inserted.

114.10 to leap about th[t/e] horses’ throatlatches Replaced.

116.10 she was again urged by Phillis and her father, Inserted. se[e]med disinclined

117.16 prepared to make that break first[.] Added.

124.15 have maintained in the fore[t]sts Removed.

131.31 Meanwhile he had to live some[w]how Removed.

135.10 I had heard from[ from] Billy Dowdy Redundant.

140.3 “The world is aesthetically dead[”!/”] Transposed.

145.1 Som[e]times the Indians notice Inserted.

149.24 into the valley of the shadow[,/.] Replaced.

153.6 a big bonfire was to be started later[,/.] Replaced.

153.11 whose face showed every sign[s] of intense Removed. terror.

153.12 From words that he could understand, and the Removed. g[r]estures

161.6 there are postoff[i]ces, hotels, streams, Inserted. caves and rocks

161.22 Unfortun[at]ely for Simon Gerdes Inserted.

165.17 mounted on a superbly c[om/a]parisoned, Replaced. ambling horse

173.4 he realized how foolish it would be to[ to] Redundant. journey

175.3 in the ‘North American[’]” Added.

177.30 are in a sense correct[,]. Removed.

179.8 other times his n[ei/ie]ce Transposed.

180.30 [pearched] on one of his wrists _sic_

181.28a made a confidante of by Herbert [( /,] who Replaced. offered her five dollars

181.28b a [collosal] sum in those days _sic_

182.24 too high for these days of conservation[.] Added.

183.19 she received her [grevious] hurts _sic_

188.1 the centre of the greensw[o/a]rd Replaced.

191.9 he would take[ take] her by force Redundant

194.29 with rare dex[i]terity Removed.

195.18 his lion-hear[t]ed sachem Inserted.

199.22 with tolerable fluen[e/c]y Replaced.

200.26 invited the redmen to climb ab[r]oard Removed.

213.19 was called away[ away] during a heavy flood Redundant.

219.10 The passage of time had obli[t]erated it Inserted.

237.7 but where there[ there] were so few neighbors Redundant.

238.1 while [t]he stroked his long black beard Removed.

239.22 in tones as melanc[oh/ho]ly Transposed.

245.28 Some instinct mad[e] her open the wrapper Added.

246.15 “Say, folks,” she said, coldly,[,] Removed.

250.2 the supreme d[ie/ei]ty of the Scandinavian Transposed. mythology

253.4 “It> was a perfect square Added.

256.6 her tearful, piqua[i]nt face Removed.

257.22 for they had sworn to de[il/li]ver her Transposed.

259.6 “only don’t cast me off[.]” Added.

269.10 the face of N[i/a]ganit’s Replaced.

269.18 N[i/a]ganit looked at the Indian woman. Replaced.

287.15 when he r[e]ached the opening Inserted.

291.15 it did not en[c]ounter the dense foliage Inserted.

295.26 now [gutteral], now sharp and loud _sic_

296.5 approached the battle-g[r]ound Inserted.

296.28 As soon as he had recovered from the Added. blood-curdling episodes, [he ]built

298.23 the proud tuft[s] itself was growing sparse Removed. and weak

299.14 That Annapalpete[a]u had a cavalier Removed.

300.2 he wanted to be v[e/i]rile and win Replaced.

300.3 the beautiful Annapalp[a/e]teu. Replaced.

307.3 [“]I have come Added.

310.4 to be engaged in riva[rl/lr]y Transposed.

312.13 On one occa[is/si]on when the two young men Transposed. started

312.20 vernacular of the Pennsl[y]vania Dutch Inserted.

315.6 [Cincinnatti] or at Louisville _sic_

317.8 rafted lumber down the Alle[hg/gh]eny Transposed.

335.30 after the ar[r]ival of a ship from China Inserted.

319.17 and carried home [unconscious the] next thing _sic_ was

320.2 with the stalwart young pilots a[t] the sterns Added.

320.11 franti[c]ally waving red and green shawls. Inserted.

320.15 the absence of Anna from the signaling part[y] Added.

320.20 and the do[c]tors said she could not live Inserted.

320.25 until the out[c]ome of the case Inserted.

321.7 The old grandmother watched McMeans[’] face Added.

331.21 in his spir[i]tual loneliness Inserted.

334.4 Years pass[s]ed Removed.

338.21 to use [y]our words Added.

End of Project Gutenberg's Allegheny Episodes, by Henry Wharton Shoemaker