Once in New Orleans I met a fellow who said he was half horse, half alligator, that he could either claw to death the best man living, stamp him to pieces or eat him alive.

I invited him to do any one of these things or all three of them to me." "What happened ?" asked Ned.
A broad smile passed over the man's brown face.
"After they picked up the pieces an' put him back together," he said, "I told him he might try again whenever he felt like it, but he said his challenge was directed to human beings, not to Ring Tailed Panthers.

Him an' me got to be great friends an' he's somewhere in Texas now.

I may run acrost him before our business with the Mexicans is over, which I take it is goin' to last a good while." It was now late in the afternoon, and dismounting at a clump of trees the Panther lighted the end of a dead stick and waved the torch around his head many times.
"Watch there in the west for another light like this," he said.
Ned, who sat on his horse, was the first to see the faint circling light far down under the horizon.

It was so distant that he could not have seen it had he not been looking for it, but when he pointed it out the Panther ceased to whirl his own torch.
"It's some friends," he said, "an' they're answerin'.