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i Most Remarkable Evening n.(
It was a still night in early fall.
The moon hung low in the clear
sky, looking like an outsized pump
kin, and you could hear a dog’s
bugle for half a mile.
My friend, Jim, and I were in the
middle of twenty square miles of
swamp land on the Eno River,
which is known as • Austen Bend.
Austen Bend is about ten miles
from Bahama, as the crow flies. It is
a little known place, for the swamp
makes it useless for farming, and it
is frequented only by occasional
trappers and coon hunters like our
selves. We had done some hunting
here before, but lack of time had
usually prevented us from penetrat
ing deeply into the main swamp it
self. Therefore, we were that night
in a region little known to us, hop
ing to hear some good runs with the
fat swamp coons.
We had three dogs. They all be
longed to me, and I had trained
them to trail and fight together. I
had won several field trials with
these dogs, and they were recog
nized at that time as the best coon
dogs in the state. They were Red
and Queen, both Redbones, and
Rock, a big black and tan. All of
these dogs had pedigrees as long as
a lover’s goodnight.
We hit the swamp about eight
o’clock, turned the dogs loose, and
in about fifteen minutes we were
listening to the sweetest music this
side of heaven. There is nothing in
this world that can compare with
the music a bell-mouthed hound
makes when he is running on a
straight and hot trail. You can tell
exactly what a dog is running, how
old the trail is, and how smart the
animal is by listening to the dogs.
We listened to some good runs
that night, tr^d four coons, and
kept one in order to make my little
brother a hat from the skin. Then,
about eleven o’clock, old Rock
jumped a deer, and I called the dogs
in before they got more than a mile
away from us. We built a fire and
brewed some coffee to keep us go
ing the rest of the night. I gave
Rock a good cussing for running a
HILLTOP—PAGE TEN
deer when we were after coon. I
was proud of Rock. That dog had
a mouth like a bell and a heart of
steel. He could outrun anything on
four legs or two.
About eleven-thirty we turned
the dogs loose and started off again.
The dogs cast around for almost
half an hour without finding any
thing. And, as it had turned cloudy,
we were thinking about starting
back to Durham when Rock struck
a hot trail. We could tell by the way
the dogs were making tongue that
it wasn’t a coon that they were trail
ing. Rock sounded like he didn’t
know what it was; and that puzzled
me, for Rock had run just about
every kind of game there is in the
eastern states. Rock and Queen,
both wise dogs, were going slow
because they were trailing a strange
scent. But the red puppy was tell
ing the world in no uncertain terms
that, even though he didn’t know
what it was, he had a hot trail and
he was all for it. The time was close
to midnight.
The dogs ran the trail out for a
few minutes. Then they really op
ened up. They were running wild
and free, and it was beautiful to
hear. In a few minutes we heard
the short, choppy barking that
meant they had treed.
We marked the place by ear and
struck out through the woods to
see what the dogs had treed. What
ever it was started fighting. It was
then that we heard the sound. It
was the sound of some animal that
was mighty angry, but I cannot de
scribe it, except that I had never
heard anything like it before, nor
since. Thar sound stopped us in our
tracks. Then whatever it was killed
ht they wil
Richard Phil ^^wi
sal estate, w
in every
ch other of
one of the dogs. We heafsession has
scream in mortal pain, several of ou
scream will break your by long tim
were making all possible c do enriche
the place where the fight and then
on, when suddenly there delightf
plete silence except for of the garni
ning. The noise of the Hhers into ij
stopped suddenly, as if it jealously
cut off with a knife. 'ictor, as he j
When we reached the ds cash and
found three dogs that hah '^Fe variou
fire beaten out of them. 1
bone puppy was dead, ^poly of our
lost an ear, and Queen h4 is demand*
gash in her side. Their ass^e^ which is a
completely disappeai We all ha’v
patched up Rock and QWaste of tim
best we could and tried to 1 but still it
back on the trail. They ssignate tim
take the trail. I had nev«;o that we
Rock to refuse to follow our evening
and I knew that anything dthe end of
scare Rock that badly We game is c
thing I would hate to taflb extension
All we had in the way obd the game
tion was a single shot .22 ished everyo
we decided to take the trah which is,
I won’t admit that I wdid we was
but I was somewhat wordhis?”
cially when we saw the trbe Mars Hi
the animal had left clearly er groups b
ed in the mud. The mud oHow this v
soft to tell much about thc ormitory dc
they were plenty big. We bd while the
the trail about sixty yar^lbges. The ^
middle of a clear place abo%alled a sinf
yards around. There the takes from
appeared completely. I w'i matters is
quit and go home right tie during e:
my curiosity wouldn’t let twisted outsi*
We used the old w'brhich stated
trick of circling to pick up Vould not 1
In a few minutes Jim call%pants of t
He had found more tracks, )ur games
the middle of another cR^ debates o\
This space was as big as hporarily ha
clearing if not bigger. Tbjunction of
started right in the middR- this does :
clear space. The ground W%e positive ;
harder there and the tra^e said tha'
(Continued on Page
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