pwrnjivnfmiiww mwwmmmi), jlFTJI " ;"! Mspwiin SPV , r .irWu,'M EVENING LEDGER-PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1917 THE GRIZZLY KING .i i 'WS Z Jamer Oliver Ciirwood COMPANION 3T0RY TO "KAZAN" f"if (Bi'MHi 7 ssm&ms N msSmrsvmfrrMrj fiMJsWJ.JIsMssU ' Cam t r- f ' -it a. -v. jf i 11 v t ' ,v.Uni. i f a; . 7 ,w . jMtmm -c"m m& jsvbhbjbibib. - w r m i r vjt - r. - imamm' -i'j-v ,j - , . Mirimr . - - t. hd - - -.vsm PREFACE n (j wilfc somethinj; like a conejon (Kal offer this second of m nature looks J" l, public a conCMlon, and a hope; ;!, confttsion of one vho for vcara hunted d kitted before he learned that the wild eflereia mora thrilling Uort than slaughter lani the hove that what I have lorilfen .., m0fce others feel and utulertland that l, artaleat thrill of the hunt U not In titling, hut in letting live It U true that to the great open spaces one must kilt to Uvel one must have meat, and meat is But killing for food is not the lust ti 'slaughter! It Is not the lust tohjch cil Imui recalls to me that dag in the llrltlsh CoIumHo wountalns when, in less than two our, IHeit Z1""" grizzlies on a mountain ,b4ta destruction of possibly a hundred tnd tuienlv gears of life in a hundred and twenlV minutes And that Is onlj one n itancs of many (it which I now regard mvtelf "' having hten almost a criminal killing for the crcilemtnt of killing can ll little less than imnrcr In their small vail mil animal books are the reparation I om nolo itrli'lnj; to make, and it has Iten my earnest desire to make them not only of romantic interest, but reliable in tntlr fact. As in human life, there are tragedy, and humor, and pathos In the life of the wild; thetc ure facts of tremendous Merest, real happening! and real lives to he written about, and very small neces sity for one to draw on imagination In "Kotan" I tried to giro the rtadcr a pic ture of my years of experience among the lelld sledge dogs of the Xorth. In '"The Gristly" 1 have scntpulously adhered to facts as I have found them In the Uvea of the wild creatures of which I have written, Utile lluskwa was iHth mr all that eummer and autumn in t , Canadian Rockies. Pipoonaskoos li burled in the Firepan Range country, with a slab over his head, fust like a white man The two gHtzlv cubs we dun out on the Athabasca are dead And Thor still I'vcs. for Ms range Is In a country where no hunters go and when at last the opportunity came 1.. AtA m I'ilf him TliJt. t.Hn .u f..l.. KC Ul" IIV, fVllt MIM lM mui iw iimy vj I Mill I am going back Into the country of THor ana liusxwa 1 inink I would know Thor If I saw him again, for he was a monster full-grown. Hut In two years itutkica lias grown from"citbhood into full Itarhood. And yet I believe that Muskwa icoulit know me thoulil we chance to meet Cialn. I like to think that he has not forgotten the sugar, and the scores of times he cuddled up close to me at night, and the hunts wc had together after roots and berries, and the sham fights with tohlch ut amused ourselves so often In camp. But, after all, perhaps he wouUl not forgive me lor that last day ichen we ran away from him so hard leaving him alone to his freedom In Ae mountains. JAMES OUVUR CVRWOOD CHAPTER ONE (Cnpjrlrht I'.iect Newspaper S.-rlce) IW VI 1Til 'he silence and Im mobility of a. great reddish - tinted rocl;, Thor stood for many minutes looking out over h!s domain He CJuId not see far, for, like all grizzlies, his cye3 were small and far apart, and hi? vision was bad At a distance of a third or a half mile ho could make out a goat or a mountain sheep, but beyond that bis world was n ast t,un-fllled or night darkened mystery through which ho ranged ntoitly by the guidance of sound and smell It was' the sense of smell that held him till and motionless now Up out of the Talley a sense had come to his nostrlU that he had never smolled before It was bome tMng that did not belong there, and It tlmd him strangely Vi'inly his slow working brute mind struggled to compre hend It It waB not caribou, for he had killed many caribou; It was not goat; it w not sheep ; and It was not the cmell of tie fat and lazy whistlers sunning them lelvea on the rocks, for ho had eaten hun drede of whistlers. It was a scent that iii not enrage him, and neither did It frighten him He was curious, and yet he 4U not go down to ieek It out. Caution held him baclt. If Thor could have seen distinctly for a fc'le, or two miles, his eyes would have dis covered even less than the wind brought to h((n from down the "valley He stood at Ine edge of a little plain, with the valley n eighth of a mile below him. und tho weak over which ho had come that after Moo an eighth of a mile above him The Wain waB very much like a cip, perhaps " aore In extent, In tho green slopo of WJ mountain It was covered with rlc'i, aoft grass and June tlowerB, mountain vlo U and patches of forget-me-nots, and wild asters and hyacinths, und in tho center CI. . was a fifty-foot 6pattor nf soft mud jalcn Thor visited frequently when his feet Mcama rock-sore TO the east find tfio u,h ni, tha nnrlh ef him spread out tho wonderful panorama the Canadian llockles, Boftened In the lowtn tunahlne of a June afternoon. From up and down the valley, from the rak between the peaks and from the llt- plllts cleft In shale and rock that crept J to the Bnow-llnes camo a soft and dron g murmur, ft was tho music of running 7tUr- That music was always In the air, TOr thft rlVftrH !ha nranla n,ri lha Hnv fc '!',1Jn Bushing down from the snow that Jf """"' "P near the clouds were never TO There were sweet perfumes as well as nujie In the air. June and July the last " ?rln anl the first of summer In the UOribArn mnitnlMM. . , I, "iwiiitniiiia wuru cuimpuiBiiuis I m earth was bursting with green; the " early naivg &. .. , -.. i 1 . - -- cw kuiiiiuB uio sunny sialics SS.I rea Pla!nes of red and white and pFi ' and everything that had life was th. gtne '' whistlers on their ronks, e Pompous little gophers on their mounts, ''- thVi flower ,h9 hawks In the valley and h J vcr ,ne ueas' Even Thor was iSSfJl 1 hl war' ,or ne hatl paddled UySr thB ,ort mucl a 'ew minutes before Mfiaa rumbled curiously deep down In his Akl. : "! (t wa th0 nol he made when . w. nwo ,, Bullet titJi. n?w' tor BOm9 myaterlous reason, aM... """"on' 4om a change In this tauvS'ft! day 'or h'm. Motionless he still mL?A 'k,8 w,nd- " PutzleU him. It dla Sw Jt j"m w''out alarming him. To the 1: "" irange smell that was In the air i,4 keenly sensitive as a child'! if R i the flr8t han touch of a drop Wi; y' AM then- at lat, o low and ttin?.."?"" came "k a distant roll of C'' 'fm out of his chest. He was hlrk v ' ncr snouiu pa no smeii Vhickv'1 ooulcl "t comprehend and of wcl hf) Wfjg not lh( maitet 'ifei . I'' UP "lowly, until the whole r -" eet Of him TmiA n hi l,Mh aJ."'" like a trained do, with his areai KK'Ii. . vy yrlth muiJ' droouinr in front '-' cntat For tan vura ho v.. I IIvkiI In ne ,-. ij : j-- - '-" -t-.: 1 7-M.,,m ana never had it anieliea iu .' ,J ,ne t. He waited for It wwe Wthi9T H4 nerr. Ho did ,..,,, vwn-ct a wMwrut MHter im aJaawa ktuaw 77? m gMJB ACy J HHHHnHHK 1 SlW If J iAammm mssssas g&flrffl?reNfe w3mm&m&&A?j'r&rxffl u&st&mm June coat bhone a golden br iwn in the un His forearms were almost as large as a man's body, the three largei t of his five k'MfclIke clawf wero five and ,t half Inches long In the mud his feet hail left tracks that were fifteen Inches from tip to tip He was fat and sleek and powerful Ills eyes, no larger than hickory nuts, were tight Inches apart Ills two upper fangs, sharp as stil etto points, were as long us a man's thumb, and between his great jaws he could crush the neck of a caribou. Thor's life had been free of the presence of man, and be was not ug y I.Ike most grizzlies, he did not kill for tho pknsuru of killing (Jut of a herd ho would take one caribou, and ho would eat that caribou to the marrow in the lust bone He was a peaceful king. He had one law. "t.et me alone!" ho said, and the volco of e'.iat law was In his attitude as ho sat on his haunches sniffing the btrango smell. In hlB massUc strength, In his alonenesj and his supremacy, the great bear was like the mountains, unrlva ed In tho valleys as thev were In the skies. With the mountains, he had come down out of the ages. He was part of them. T'he history of his race had begun and was dying among them, and tlity were alike In many ways, yntll this day he could not remember whn nn thing had come to question hlB might and his right except those of his own kind With such rivals he had fought fairly and more than once to the death. He was ready to fight again. If II came to a ciuei-tlon of sover eignty oxer tho ranges which he claimed as his own Until he was beaten he was dom Inator, arbltor and despot, If he chose to be He was dynast of tho rich valleys and tho green slopes, and liege lord of all living 'things about him He had won and kept these' things openly, without strategy or treachery. He was hated and he wd3 feared, hut he was without hatred or fear of his own and ho was honest. Thereforo he waited openly for the strange thing that was coming to him from down the valley. As he sat on his haunches, questioning the air with his keen brown nose, something within him was reaching back Into dim and bygone generations. Never before had ho caught tho taint that was In his nostrils, yet now that It came to him tt did not seem altogether new. Ho could not place it. He could not picture 11 iei nu wmv mai . was a menace and a threat. For ten mlnutcB he sat like a carven thing on his haunches. Then the wind shifted, und the scent grew less and less, until It was gono altogether. Thor's Hat oars lifted a little. He turned his huge head slowly bo that his eyes took In the green slope and the tiny plain. He easily forgot the smell now that the alt was clear and swcot ugaln. Ho dropped on his four feet and resumed his gophci hunting. There was something of humor In his hunt Thor weighed a thousand pounds; a mountain gopher Is six Inches long and weighs six ounces. Vet Thor would dig energetically for an hour, and rejoice at tha end by swallowing the fat little gopher like a pill ' It was his bonne bouche, the luscious tidbit In the quest of which he spent a third of his spring and summer digging. Hei found a hole located to his satlsfac tlon and began throwing out the earth like a huge dog after a rat He was on the crest of tho slopo. Once or twice during the next half hour he lifted his head, but he was no longer disturbed by the strange smell thut had come to him with the wind CHAPTER TWO MILE down the valley Jim Iangdon stopped his horse where the spruce and balsam tim ber thinned out at the mouth of a coulee, looked ahead of him for a. breathless moment or two, and then with -. .'-lbl- - ' pleasure swung hi right lee over so that .. cruxtfeu real- fully about the horn of his saddle, und WTwo'or three hundred yards behind him. .till buried I in 1 the timber. Otto was having .rouble wlih Dlshpan. a contumacious pack mare Langdon grinned happily as he lis tened to "he other1, vociferations, which threatened Dlshpan with every known form $ torture and punishment, from Instant aUemboweUttent to the more merclfut ,d of losln her brain through the jriedluni of a cluti He Brtnned because Otto's vocabu fary de.Priptlv of lerrlb things lw mMndlwr ovir th Jieada of hta alee and He knew thut if llipaii sh ,uld ol ii turn Bomertaults while fll.nnind-hitrhd under her pack big guod-nitured Iitu.e Otto would do nothing more than make the welkin ring with his terrible, bloud-cuidllng protest One after another the uix horses of their outfit appealed out of the timber, and last nf all rode the mounta'n man He was gath ered Uko u partly released tpr.ng In his saddle, .an attitude born of jeaia In the mountains, und bic.iuso nf u ivrtnln (11111 culty he had in distributing giaccfully his Kl.-foot-two-'nch length of llesh and bune natrido a mountain caytise. Upon his appearance l.augdon dismounted and turned his eyes ugaln up the nllLy Tho stubbly blond beard on his face did not conceal the deep tan pilntccl there bv wcilcs of exposure In the mountains ; he had opened his shirt at the throat, exposing 11 neck daikemd by sun and wind, his I'jcsn ivera of u keen, sparchlng blue-gray, and they quested the country ahead of him now with tho Joyous inieutness of tho hunter and the ndentuier. l.angdon was thirty-five. A part of his life ho spent In the wild places; the other part he spent in writing about tho things lie found there Ills companion was (he jeais h's Junior In nge, but had the better of him by six IncluM In length of anatomy, if those additional Inches could be calkd ui nduntuge lliure thought they were not "Tho devil of It Is I ain't done growlu' yet !" be often explained He rode up now- and uullmbeied hlmsell l.angdon pu'ntcd ahead "I)ld you ever see anything to beat that?" he asked "Fine country," agreed Urucc, ."Mighty good place to camp, too, Jim. There ought to bo caribou In this range, an' bear Wo need some freHh meat Gimme 11 match, will you?" It had coma to be a habit with them to light both their pipes with one match when possible They performed thl.i ceremony now while viewing the Bltuatlon As ho puffed the first luxurious cloud of smoko from his bulldog, Langdon nodded toward the timber from which they had Just coine "Fine place for our tepee," he said. "Dry wood, running water, and the first good balsam we've struck In a week fur our beds. We can hobblo the horses In that little open plain we crossed u quarter of u mile, back I saw plenty of buffalo grass and a lot of wild timothy." Hu looked at his watch "it's only 3 o'clock. Wo might go on Hut what do you say? Shall we stick for a day or two and bee what this country looks llko?" "Looks good to me," said Bruce. Ho sat down us he spoke, with his back "to a rock, and over his ktico he leveled a lung brass telescope. From his saddle Langdon unslung a binocular glass Imported from Paris. Tho telescope was a relic of the Civil War. Together, their shoulders touching ns they steadied themselves against the rock, they studied the rolling slopes and the green slides of tho mountains ahead of them. They were In the big game country, and what l.angdon called the Unknown. So fnr as he and Bruce Otto could discover, no other white man had ever preceded them. It was a country shut In by tremendous ranges, through which It had taken them twenty days of sweating toil to make a hundred miles. That afternoon they had crossed the summit of the Great Divide that split the sklcB north and south, and through their glasses they were looking now upon the first green slopes and wonderful peaks of the Firepan Mountains. To the northward and they had been traveling north was the tikeena Illver; on the west and south were tho Babine range and waterways; eastward, over the Divide, was tho Drift wood, and still farther eastward the Omln- 1, 1 range and Hie tribuiarie: nf the Ftnle The had started front civilization on the tenth day of May and this was the thirtieth of June As l.angdon looked through his glasses he belleed that at last the) had reached the bourne of their desires For nearly two months they had worked to get beyond tho trails of men, and they had succeeded There wero no hunters here There were no prospectors. Tho uilley ahead of them was tilled with golden promise, and as he sought out tho first of its mystery and Its wonder his heart was filled with the deep und satisfying Joy which only men llko l.angdon can fully understand To hla friend and comrade, Ilruce Otto, with whom ho had gone five times in the North country, all mountains und nil vallejs were very much alike ; ho waB born among them, he had lived among them all his lite, and he would probably die among them. It wns Hruce who gave him a sudden sharp nudge with his elbow. "I sco tho heads of three caribou crossing a dip about a mile nnd a half up the val ley," he said, without taking his eyes from tho telescope "And I see a Niinny and her kid on the black shalo of that first mountain to the light" replied l.angdon "And. by George, thero's a Sky I'ilot looking down on her from a crag 11 thousand feet nliovc tho rhalo! lie's got a beard 11 foot long Ilruce, I'll bet we'c struck a regular Garden of Uden!" "Looks It." vouchsafed Hruce, colling up his long legs to get a betcr rest for his tcleFCope "If this ain't a sheep an' bear country l'e made tho worst guess I ever mado In my life " 'I seo a grizzly as big as n house!" Hruce seldom allowed his equanimity to bo disturbed except by tho pack horses Thrilling news llko this ho nlways Intro duced at unconcernedly as though speaking of a bunch of vIoletK Langdon sat up with a Jerk. "Whero?" ho demanded. Ho leaned over to get tho range of tho other's telescope, every nerve In Ills body suddenly aqulver "Seo that elope on the second shoulder. Just beyond tho ravine over there?" said Hruce. with ono eo closed and tho other still glued to the telescope. "He's halfway up, digging out n gopher." Langdon focused his glass on the slope, and a moment later an excited gasp came from him. "See Mm?" asked Hruce. "The glass has pulled him within four feet of my nose," replied Langdon "Bruco. that's tho biggest grizzly In tho Itocky Mountains '." "If he ain't, he's his twin brother," chuckled the packer, without moving a muscle. "He beats "your eight-footer by a dozen Inches. Jimmy! An'" ho paused at this psychological moment to pull a plug of black MacDonald from his pocket nnd blto oft a mouthful, without taking tho tele bcopo from his cyo "an' the wind Is In our favor an' he's as busy as a flea!" ho finished. Otto unwound himself and rose to his feet, and Langdon Jumped up briskly. In such situations as this there was a mutual understanding between them which mado words unnecessary. They led the eight horses back Into the edgo of the timber and tied them there, took their rifles from the leather holsters, and each was careful to put ft sixth cartridge In the chamber of his weapon. Then for a matter of two minutes they both studied the slope and Its approaches with their naked eyes. "We can slip up the ravine," suggested Langdon. Bruce nodded "I reckon It's a three-hundred-yard shot from there," he said "It's the best we can do. He'd get our wind If we went below 'ssssssssssssSMsssssssksskksskssksmswksskwsskssm 1 r tin If it was a coup.e o Hours earlier Wed climb oe the mountain and come down on him from nboe exclaimed Lang don. laughing Bruce sou re the most senseless Idiot on the faun of tho globe when it come, to climbing mountains You'd climb ocr HurdebH or (ielkle to shoot a goat fiom nboe. even though ou could get him from the valley without any work nt all I'm glad tt isn't morning Wo can get that bear from the ruvlne!" "Mcbbe," said Bruce, nnd they btartcd. They walked openly over the green, How-er-caipcted meadows ahead of thein. Until they camo within nt least half a mile of tho grizzly there was no danger of Ills seeing them The wind had shifted, and was nlmost In their faces. Their swift wall: changed to a dog-trot, and they swung In nearer to the slope, so that for fifteen minutes a huge knoll concealed tho grizzly. In another ten minutes they camo to the ravine, n narrow, rock-littered and precip itous gully worn In tho mountainside by centuries of spring rlcods gushing down from tho snow peaks above Here they made cautious observation. Tho big grizzly was perhaps six hun dred yards up tho slope, and pretty closo to three hundred yaids from the nearest point reached by tho gully. Hruce spoko In a whisper now. "You go up an' do the btalkln'. Jimmy," he said "That bear's goln' to do one of two things If you miss or only wound 'im ono o' three, mebbo: he's going to investigate you, or he'H going up over the break, or he's comln' down In tho valley this way Wo can't keep 'im from goln' over the break, an' It ho tackles you Just summerset It down tho gully. You can beat 'lm out. He's most npt to come this way if you don't get 'Im. so I'll wait here. Good luck to you, Jlnimj '" With this he went out and crouched be hind a rock where ho could keep an eye on tho grizzly, nnd Langdon began to climb quietly up tho boulder-strewn gully. CHAPTER THREE F ALL the living crea tures In this sleeping vnlley, Thor was tho busiest. Ho was a bear with individuality, you might say. Like some people, lie went to bed very early ; he began to get Bleepy In October and turned In for his long nap In November. He slept until April, and usually was a week or ten dav,s behind other bears In waking. He wns a sound sleeper, and when awako he was very wldo awake During April and May he permitted himself to doze con siderably in tho warmth of sunny rocks, but from the beginning of June until tho middle, of September he closed his eyes In real sleep Just about four hours out of every twelve. He was very busy as Langdon began his cautious climb up the gully. Ho had suc ceeded In getting his gopher, a fat, aldcr manlc old patriarch who had disappeared In one crunch and a gulp, and he was now ab sorbed In finishing off his day's feast with nn occasional fat, white grub nnd a few sour ants captured from under stones which he turned over with his paw. In his search for these delicacies Thor used his right paw In turning over tho rocks. Ninety-nine out of every bundled bears probably a hundred and ninety-nine out of every two hundred are loft-handed ; Thor was right-handed. This gave him an advantago in fighting, In fishing and in stalking meat, for a grizzly's right arm Is longer than his left so much longer that It ho lost hla Bixth sense of orientation ha would be constantly traveling In a circle. In his quest Thor was headed for the gul His luge head hung close to tho ground At short distances his vision was microscopic in Its keenness; his olfactory nerves were so sensitive that he could catch ono of tho big rock ants with his eyes shut. He would choose the fiat rocks mostly. His huge right paw, with Its long claws, was as clever as a human hand. The ston6 lifted, a sniff or two, a lick of his hot, fiat tongue, nnd he ambled on to the next He took this work with tremendous seriousness, much like an elephant hunting for peanuts hidden In a bale of hny He saw no humor In the operation. As a matter of fact Nature had not Intended thero should be any humor about It. Thor's time was more or less valueless, and during the courso of a summer he absorbed In his system a good many hundred thousand sour ants, sweet grubs and Juicy Insects of vari ous kinds, not to mention a host of gophers and still tinier rock-rabbits Theso small things all added to tho huge rolls of fat which It was necessary for him to store up for that "absorptive consumption" which kept him alive during his long winter sleep. This was why Nature had made his little greenish-brown eyes twin microscopes. In fallible at distances of a few feet, and al most worthless at a thousand yards. As he was nbout to turn over a fresh stone Thor paused In hlo operations. For a full minute he Etood nearly motionless. Then his head swung slowly, his nose close to the ground. Very faintly he had caught nn exceedingly .pleasing odor. It was so faint that ho was afraid of losing It If he moved So he stood until he was sure ot himself, then he swung his hugo shoulders mound und descended two yards down the slope, swinging his head slowly from right to left and snlfllng. Thu scent grew stronger. Another two yards down tho slope he found It very btrong under a rock. It was a big rock and weighed probably two hundred pounds. Thor dragged it aside with his ono right hand as If it were no more than a pebble. Instantly there was a wild and protesting chatter, and u tiny striped rock-rabbit, very much like a chipmunk, darted away Just as Thor's left hand came down with a smash that would have broken tho neck of a caribou. It was not tho scent of the rock-rabbit, but tho savor of what tho rock-rabbit had stored under the stone that had attracted Thor. And this booty still remained a half-pint of groundnuts piled carefully In a little hollow lined with moss. They were not realty nuts. They were more like dim inutive potatoes, about the size of cherries, and very starchy and sweet, and fattening Thor enjoyed them Immensely, rumbling In that curious satisfied way deep down In hu chest as he feasted. And then he resumed his quest. He did not hear Langdon as the hunter came nearer und nearer up the broken gully. He did not smell him, for the wind was fatally wrong. He had forgotten the noxious man-smell that had disturbed and Irritated him an hour before. He was quite happy ; he was good-humored ; he was fat and sleek. An Irritable, crocs-grained and quarrelsome bear Is always thin. The true hunter knows him as soon as he sets eyes on him. He Is like the rogue elephant. Thor continued his food-seeklnk, edging still closer to the gully. He was within a hundred and fifty yards of It when a sound suddenly brought him alert. Lang don In his effort to creep up the steep Bide j 01 me guuy r a buui i.au Bcciaeniauy loosened a rock. It went crashing down the ravine, starting other stones that followed In a noisy clatter. At the foot of the coulee, six hundred yards down, Bruce swore softly under his breath. He saw Thor sit up. At that distance he "was going to shoot It the bear made for the break. For thirty seconds Thor eat on his haunches, Then he started for the ravine, ambling slowly and deliberately. Langdon, panting and Inwardly cursing at his 111 luck, Btruggled to make the last ten feet to the edge of the alone. He heard Bruce yell, but he could not make out the warning. Hands and feet he dug fiercely Into shale and rock aa he fought to make those last three or four yards aa quickly as possible. , He was almost to the top when he paused for a moment and turned his eyea upward, His heart went Into hla throat, and he started, For ten second he could not move. Directly over htm waa'a monster head and a huge hulk of ahoulder. Thor was look ing down on him, hla Jaws agape, hla finger-long fanga snarling, hla eyes burning with a greenish-red fire. n that moment Thor saw Ms first of man. Hi treat lung were filled with the hot imU of htm, and iuddnly he turned' away from that m! aa M frewi a pltiijua, With hla; rlfU halt KMfer- Maa . lo had has aa opportunity U , WWty fa clambered up the remaining few feet. Tb. sb.ilo nnd stones slipped and slid under him It was a matter of sixty seconds be fore he pulled himself over the top.' Thor was a hundred yards away, peedJnft In a rolling, ball-like motion toward th break. From the foot of the coulee came the sharp crack ot Otto's rifle. Langdon squatted quickly, raising his left knee tor n rest, and at a hundred and fifty yaraf began firing. Sometimes It happens that an hour a minute chances the destiny of man;and tho ten seconds which followed swiftly after that first shot from the foot ot th coulee changed Thor. He had got his fill of tho man-smell. He had seen man. And now he felt him It was ns if one of the lightning: flashes he had often seen splitting the dark aklef had descended upon him und had entered his flesh llko a icd-hot knife, and with that first burning agony of pain came' the strange, echoing roar of the rifles. He bad turned up the slope when the bullet struck him In the fore-shoulder, mushrooming lt deadly soft point against his tough hide, und tearing a hole through hla flesVti!.t without touching the bone. He was tyro hundred yards from the ravine when It hit, he was nearer three hundred when tho stinging fire scared him again, "this time In his Hank. Neither shot had staggered his huge bulk, twenty such shots would not have killed -Jilm But tho second stopped him, and he turned with a roar of rage that was UK tho bellowing of a mad bull a snarling', thunderous cry of wrath that 'Could hkv been heard a quarter of a mile down the valley. Brue heard It as he fired hla sixth una vailing Bhot ut seven hundred yards. Land, don wns reloading For fifteen seconds Thor offered himself openly, roaring his defiance, challenging the enemy he could no longer see ; and then at Langdon's seventh shot, a whiplash of fire raked his back, and In strange dread of this l'ghtnlng wMch he could not fight. Thor continued up over the break. He heard other rifle shot whlcn were llko a new kind of thunder. But ha was not hit again. Painfully he began the descent Into the next valley. Ho reuched tho bottoms and burled him self In the thick timber, and then, cross ing this timber, he came to a creek. Per haps a hundred times he had traveled up and down this creek. It was the main, trail that led from one half of h's range to the other. Instinctively he always took this trail w hen he was ready to den up for the winter. There was one chief reason for this; ha was born In the almost Impenetrable fast nesses at the bead of tho creek, and hla , cubhood had been spent amid Its bramble! of wild currants and soap berries and Its rich red ground carpets -of klnnlklnlc. It was home In It he was alone. It was the one part of his domain that he held In violate from all other bears. He tolerated other bears blacks and grizzlies on the wider and sunnier slopes of his range Just so long as they moved on when he ap proached They might seek food there, and nap In the sunpools, and live In quiet and peace If they did not defy his suzerainty. Thor did not drive other bears from his range except when It 'was necejsary to demonstrate again that he was High Mogul. ' This happened occasionally, and there was a fight. And always after a fight Thor came Into this valley and went up the creek to cure hlo wounds He made his way more Blowly than usual today. Thero was a terrible pain In hla forcslnulder. Now and then It hurt him eo that his leg doubled up and he stumbled. Several times he waded shoulder-deep Into pools and let the cold water run over his wounds. Gradually they stopped bleeding. But the pain grew worse. Thor's best friend In such an emergency was a clay wallow. This was the second reason why he always tocfc this trail when he was sick or hurt. It led to the day wallow. And tho clay wallow was bis doctor. The sun was setting before he reached the wallow. His Jaws hung open a HttU. His great head drooped lower. He had lost a great deal of blood. Ho was tired and his shoulder hurt him so badly that he wanted to tear with his teeth at the strange fire that was consuming It. The clay wallow was twenty or thirty feet In diameter and hollowed Into a little pool In the center. It was a soft, cool, golden-colored claj', and Thor waded Into It to his armpits. Then he ro'led over gently on his wounded side. The clay touched his hurt like n cooling Balve. It sealed the cut and Thor gave a great heav Ing gasp of relief For a long time he lay In that soft bed of clay. The sun went down, darkness came and the wonderful stars filled tho bky. And still Thor lay there, nursing that first hurt of man. CHAPTER FOUR N THE! edge of the bal sam and spruce Lang don and Otto aat amok thelr pipes after supper with the glowing em bers of a fire at their feet The night air In theee higher altitude of the mountains bad grown chilly and Bruce rose long enough to throw a fresh armful of iW rSM f r, EvV. .? dry spruce on the coals, stretched out his long form Then he again, with his head and shoulders bol- stered comfortably against the butt of a tree, and for the fiftieth time he chuckled. "Chuckle an' be blasted," growled Lang don. "I tell you I hit him twice, Bruct twice anyway; and I was at a devilish (Jlflr advantage!" " 'Specially when '0 was lookln' down r grinning' in your face," retorted Bruce, who had enjoyed hugely his comrade'a 111 lt- "Jimmy, at that distance you should a'mbu. ha' killed 'Im with a rock!" "My gun was under me," explained Lang don for the twentieth time. "W'ich ain't Just the proper place for a gun to be when yo'r hunting a grixily," reminded Bruce. Langdon aat up, knocked the ash out of the bowl of his pipe and reloaded It with fresh tobacco, "Bruce, that's the biggest grlnly In tb Rocky Mountains 1" "He'd 'a' made a fine rug n your den, Jimmy If yo'r gun hadn't 'appened to 'ave been under you." "And I'm going to have him In my den before I finish,' declared Langdon. "I've, made up my mind. We'll make a permanent camp here. I'm going to get that grlfajy It It takes all summer I'd rather have hlm than any other ten bears In the Firepan Jtange. He was a nine-footer If an Inch, His head was aa big an a bushel batket, and the hair on hla shoulders was four Inches long. I don't know that I'm sorry I didn't kill htm. He's hit. end he'll aure-ly fight shy There'll be a Jot of fun In aei ting him." COJiTINUEt) (Mm- Rr 1 till
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