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EVENING LEDGER-PHILADELPHIA, SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 1917
THE GRIZZLY KING
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Z Jamer Oliver Ciirwood
COMPANION 3T0RY
TO "KAZAN"
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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