The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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HE IMAGINED THAT IT WAS A PANTHER AND FLED THROUGH THE
DARKNESS
By S. C. Turnbo
In Barry County, Mo., is a small stream called Rockhouse Creek which empties
into Big Flat Creek of White River. Mr. Steve Sisner, a former resident
of Barry County, tells the following story of a night’s hunt for possums
on Rockhouse Creek. He said that he took his dog he called Sharp and an
axe and along in the night the dog treed a polecat and after I had captured
it the dog treed again. He let on like something was up a tree and I cut
the tree down, but finding nothing in the shape of game I picked up a small
club and whipped the dog for lying and he left me and ran back home. The
night was dark and I was left alone and I felt lonesome enough to pick up
the ax and skunk and start for home, too, which was a half a mile distant.
I had not went but a few yards when I noticed the object of some big animal
come up near me and squat down on the ground. I could not make out its color
exactly on account of the darkness, but it looked like it was yellow and
that was enough for me for I imagined that it was a panther and about this
time it began to put its feet against the ground and I moved away from there
as fast as I could go. I done some tall running. The animal followed me
close up to my heels and I could see its form as it darted along behind
me. I was certainly scared and went through the woods at headlong speed.
The animal did not try to catch me but I thought it was going to nab me
every moment. Onward I rushed over the rough ground shunning trees and low
limbs the best I could. I leaped off of a cliff of rock 5 feet high which
was in 30 yards of the house and off jumped the beast right after me. On
reaching the house I dashed in and found all the family asleep. As I got
into the house the animal run in onto the porch, then it flashed over me
that it was Tom Smith’s big yellow dog he called Shep and so it proved
to be. I never told this for two months afterward. This was 1 ½ miles
east of Mineral Springs," said Mr. Sisney.
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