in a
few rods of the cabin, and the carcass dragged off toward the swamp,
some two miles distant, leaving a broad trail to mark the destroyer's
path; this being pointed out to us, Ned and myself resolved to execute
our enterprise without delay--this was to "beard the lion in his den."
Having carefully charged our rifles and pistols, and seen that our
bowies were as keen as razors, we set out on the trail, which soon
brought us to the edge of the Bayou Manlatte swamp--which covers a
surface of some thousands of acres, being a dense muddy hammock of teti,
bay, magnolia, cane, grape vines, &c. A perpetual twilight reigned
beneath the dense foliage supported by the rank soil, and our hearts
beat a few more pulsations to the minute, as we left the scorching glare
of the noon day sun, and plunged into the gloomy fastnesses of the bear
and alligator; to these latter gentlemen, whose clumsy forms were
sprawling through the mud on every side, we gave no further heed other
than to keep without the range of the deadly sweep of their powerful
tails, with which they bring their unsuspecting prey within reach of
their saw-like jaws; the bears we did not happen to meet, or we should
most assuredly have given them some of the balls designed for
the panthers.

Well, we followed the trail half a mile into the swamp, when on an
elevated spot, we suddenly encountered the half-devoured body of the
unfortunate heifer, apparently just deserted by the captors. We
cautiously advanced a few paces further over a pavement of bones, "clean
scraped and meatless," and entered an open space, when a sight met my
eyes which certainly made me wish myself safe at home, or in fact,
anywhere else but where I was. About twenty-five feet from us we saw,
instead of one, an old she-panther and two cubs nearly grown, while
directly over them, on the blasted and sloping trunk of an immense
gum-tree, crouched the "old he one of all," lashing his sides fiercely
with his tail, and snorting and spitting like an enraged cat, an example
which was imitated by the three below. Here was a dilemma, on the
particularly sharp horns of which we found ourselves most uncomfortably
situated. To retreat would induce an immediate attack, the consequence
of an advance would be ditto, so we stood _en tableaux_, for a brief
second, our guns cocked and aimed, Ned drawing a bead on the dam, while
I did the same on the sire. It seemed madness to fire. We were not long
uncertain as to o