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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11135-0.txt b/11135-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b5ae2c --- /dev/null +++ b/11135-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2166 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11135 *** + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 11135-h.htm or 11135-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/3/11135/11135-h/11135-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/3/11135/11135-h.zip) + + + + + +MONARCH, The BIG BEAR of Tallac + +With 100 Drawings + +by Ernest Thompson Seton + +Author of +Wild Animals I have known +Trail of the Sandhill Stag +Biography of a Grizzly +Lives of the Hunted. +Two Little Savages. Etc. + +1919 + + + + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + +To the memory of the days in Tallac's Pines, where by the fire I heard +this epic tale. + +Kind memory calls the picture up before me now, clear, living clear: I +see them as they sat, the one small and slight, the other tall and +brawny, leader and led, rough men of the hills. They told me this +tale--in broken bits they gave it, a sentence at a time. They were +ready to talk but knew not how. Few their words, and those they used +would be empty on paper, meaningless without the puckered lip, the +interhiss, the brutal semi-snarl restrained by human mastery, the snap +and jerk of wrist and gleam of steel-gray eye, that really told the +tale, of which the spoken word was mere headline. Another, a subtler +theme was theirs that night; not in the line but in the interline it +ran; and listening to the hunter's ruder tale, I heard as one may hear +the night bird singing in the storm; amid the glitter of the mica I +caught the glint of gold, for theirs was a parable of hill-born power +that fades when it finds the plains. They told of the giant redwood's +growth from a tiny seed; of the avalanche that, born a snowflake, +heaves and grows on the peaks, to shrink and die on the level lands +below. They told of the river at our feet: of its rise, a thread-like +rill, afar on Tallac's side, and its growth--a brook, a stream, a +little river, a river, a mighty flood that rolled and ran from hills +to plain to meet a final doom so strange that only the wise believe. +Yes, I have seen it; it is there to-day--the river, the wonderful +river, that unabated flows, but that never reaches the sea. + +I give you the story then as it came to me, and yet I do not give it, +for theirs is a tongue unknown to script: I give a dim translation; +dim, but in all ways respectful, reverencing the indomitable spirit of +the mountaineer, worshiping the mighty Beast that nature built a +monument of power, and loving and worshiping the clash, the awful +strife heroic, at the close, when these two met. + + + + +In this Book the designs for cover, title-page, and general make-up +were done by Grace Gallatin Seton. + + + + +List of Full-Page Drawings + +"The pony bounded in terror while the Grizzly ran almost alongside" + +"Jack ate till his paunch looked like a rubber balloon" + +"'Honey--Jacky--honey'" + +"Jack ... held up his sticky, greasy arms" + +The Thirty-foot Bear + +"'Now, B'ar, I don't want no scrap with you'" + +"Rumbling and snorting, he made for the friendly hills" + +Monarch + + + + + +List of The Chapters + + + I. The Two Springs + + II. The Springs and the Miner's Dam + + III. The Trout Pool + + IV. The Stream that Sank in the Sand + + V. The River Held in the Foothills + + VI. The Broken Dam + + VII. The Freshet + +VIII. Roaring in the Canon + + IX. Fire and Water + + X. The Eddy + + XI. The Ford + + XII. Swirl and Pool and Growing Flood + +XIII. The Deepening Channel + + XIV. The Cataract + + XV. The Foaming Flood + + XVI. Landlocked + + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The story of Monarch is founded on material gathered from many sources +as well as from personal experience, and the Bear is of necessity a +composite. The great Grizzly Monarch, still pacing his prison floor at +the Golden Gate Park, is the central fact of the tale. + +In telling it I have taken two liberties that I conceive to be proper +in a story of this sort. + +First, I have selected for my hero an unusual individual. + +Second, I have ascribed to that one animal the adventures of several +of his kind. + +The aim of the story is to picture the life of a Grizzly with the +added glamour of a remarkable Bear personality. The intention is to +convey the known truth. But the fact that liberties have been taken +excludes the story from the catalogue of pure science. It must be +considered rather an historical novel of Bear life. + +Many different Bears were concerned in the early adventures here +related, but the last two chapters, the captivity and the despair of +the Big Bear, are told as they were told to me by several witnesses, +including my friends the two mountaineers. + + + +I. THE TWO SPRINGS + + +High above Sierra's peaks stands grim Mount Tallac. Ten thousand feet +above the sea it rears its head to gaze out north to that vast and +wonderful turquoise that men call Lake Tahoe, and northwest, across a +piney sea, to its great white sister, Shasta of the Snows; wonderful +colors and things on every side, mast-like pine trees strung with +jewelry, streams that a Buddhist would have made sacred, hills that an +Arab would have held holy. But Lan Kellyan's keen gray eyes were +turned to other things. The childish delight in life and light for +their own sakes had faded, as they must in one whose training had been +to make him hold them very cheap. Why value grass? All the world is +grass. Why value air, when it is everywhere in measureless immensity? +Why value life, when, all alive, his living came from taking life? His +senses were alert, not for the rainbow hills and the gem-bright lakes, +but for the living things that he must meet in daily rivalry, each +staking on the game, his life. Hunter was written on his leathern +garb, on his tawny face, on his lithe and sinewy form, and shone in +his clear gray eye. + +The cloven granite peak might pass unmarked, but a faint dimple in the +sod did not. Calipers could not have told that it was widened at one +end, but the hunter's eye did, and following, he looked for and found +another, then smaller signs, and he knew that a big Bear and two +little ones had passed and were still close at hand, for the grass in +the marks was yet unbending. Lan rode his hunting pony on the trail. +It sniffed and stepped nervously, for it knew as well as the rider +that a Grizzly family was near. They came to a terrace leading to an +open upland. Twenty feet on this side of it Lan slipped to the ground, +dropped the reins, the well-known sign to the pony that he must stand +at that spot, then cocked his rifle and climbed the bank. At the top +he went with yet greater caution, and soon saw an old Grizzly with her +two cubs. She was lying down some fifty yards away and afforded a poor +shot; he fired at what seemed to be the shoulder. The aim was true, +but the Bear got only a flesh-wound. She sprang to her feet and made +for the place where the puff of smoke arose. The Bear had fifty yards +to cover, the man had fifteen, but she came racing down the bank +before he was fairly on the horse, and for a hundred yards the pony +bounded in terror while the old Grizzly ran almost alongside, striking +at him and missing by a scant hair's-breadth each time. But the +Grizzly rarely keeps up its great speed for many yards. The horse got +under full headway, and the shaggy mother, falling behind, gave up the +chase and returned to her cubs. + +[Illustration: "THE PONY BOUNDED IN TERROR WHILE THE GRIZZLY RAN +ALMOST ALONGSIDE"] + +She was a singular old Bear. She had a large patch of white on her +breast, white cheeks and shoulders, graded into the brown elsewhere, +and Lan from this remembered her afterward as the "Pinto." She had +almost caught him that time, and the hunter was ready to believe that +he owed her a grudge. + +A week later his chance came. As he passed along the rim of Pocket +Gulch, a small, deep valley with sides of sheer rock in most places, +he saw afar the old Pinto Bear with her two little brown cubs. She was +crossing from one side where the wall was low to another part easy to +climb. As she stopped to drink at the clear stream Lan fired with his +rifle. At the shot Pinto turned on her cubs, and slapping first one, +then the other, she chased them up a tree. Now a second shot struck +her and she charged fiercely up the sloping part of the wall, clearly +recognizing the whole situation and determined to destroy that hunter. +She came snorting up the steep acclivity wounded and raging, only to +receive a final shot in the brain that sent her rolling back to lie +dead at the bottom of Pocket Gulch. The hunter, after waiting to make +sure, moved to the edge and fired another shot into the old one's +body; then reloading, he went cautiously down to the tree where still +were the cubs. They gazed at him with wild seriousness as he +approached them, and when he began to climb they scrambled up higher. +Here one set up a plaintive whining and the other an angry growling, +their outcries increasing as he came nearer. + +He took out a stout cord, and noosing them in turn, dragged them to +the ground. One rushed at him and, though little bigger than a cat, +would certainly have done him serious injury had he not held it off +with a forked stick. + +After tying them to a strong but swaying branch he went to his horse, +got a grain-bag, dropped them into that, and rode with them to his +shanty. He fastened each with a collar and chain to a post, up which +they climbed, and sitting on the top they whined and growled, +according to their humor. For the first few days there was danger of +the cubs strangling themselves or of starving to death, but at length +they were beguiled into drinking some milk most ungently procured from +a range cow that was lassoed for the purpose. In another week they +seemed somewhat reconciled to their lot, and thenceforth plainly +notified their captor whenever they wanted food or water. + +And thus the two small rills ran on, a little farther down the +mountain now, deeper and wider, keeping near each other; leaping bars, +rejoicing in the sunlight, held for a while by some trivial dam, but +overleaping that and running on with pools and deeps that harbor +bigger things. + + + +II. THE SPRINGS AND THE MINER'S DAM + + +Jack and Jill, the hunter named the cubs; and Jill, the little fury, +did nothing to change his early impression of her bad temper. When at +food-time the man came she would get as far as possible up the post +and growl, or else sit in sulky fear and silence; Jack would scramble +down and strain at his chain to meet his captor, whining softly, and +gobbling his food at once with the greatest of gusto and the worst of +manners. He had many odd ways of his own, and he was a lasting rebuke +to those who say an animal has no sense of humor. In a month he had +grown so tame that he was allowed to run free. He followed his master +like a dog, and his tricks and funny doings were a continual delight +to Kellyan and the few friends he had in the mountains. + +On the creek-bottom below the shack was a meadow where Lan cut enough +hay each year to feed his two ponies through the winter. This year +when hay-time came Jack was his daily companion, either following him +about in dangerous nearness to the snorting scythe, or curling up an +hour at a time on his coat to guard it assiduously from such +aggressive monsters as Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks. An interesting +variation of the day came about whenever the mower found a bumblebees' +nest. Jack loved honey, of course, and knew quite well what a bees' +nest was, so the call, "Honey--Jacky--honey!" never failed to bring +him in waddling haste to the spot. Jerking his nose up in token of +pleasure, he would approach cautiously, for he knew that bees have +stings. Watching his chance, he would dexterously slap at them with +his paws till, one by one, they were knocked down and crushed; then +sniffing hard for the latest information, he would stir up the nest +gingerly till the very last was tempted forth to be killed. When the +dozen or more that formed the swarm were thus got rid of, Jack would +carefully dig out the nest and eat first the honey, next the grubs and +wax, and last of all the bees he had killed, champing his jaws like a +little Pig at a trough, while his long red, snaky tongue was ever busy +lashing the stragglers into his greedy maw. + +[Illustration: "JACK ATE TILL HIS PAUNCH LOOKED LIKE A RUBBER +BALLOON"] + +Lan's nearest neighbor was Lou Bonamy, an ex-cowboy and sheep-herder, +now a prospecting miner. He lived, with his dog, in a shanty about a +mile below Kellyan's shack. Bonamy had seen Jack "perform on a +bee-crew." And one day, as he came to Kellyan's, he called out: "Lan, +bring Jack here and we'll have some fun." He led the way down the +stream into the woods. Kellyan followed him, and Jacky waddled at +Kellyan's heels, sniffing once in a while to make sure he was not +following the wrong pair of legs. + +"There, Jacky, honey--honey!" and Bonamy pointed up a tree to an +immense wasps' nest. + +Jack cocked his head on one side and swung his nose on the other. +Certainly those things buzzing about looked like bees, though he never +before saw a bees' nest of that shape, or in such a place. + +But he scrambled up the trunk. The men waited--Lan in doubt as to +whether he should let his pet cub go into such danger, Bonamy +insisting it would be a capital joke "to spring a surprise" on the +little Bear. Jack reached the branch that held the big nest high over +the deep water, but went with increasing caution. He had never seen a +bees' nest like this; it did not have the right smell. Then he took +another step forward on the branch--what an awful lot of bees; another +step--still they were undoubtedly bees; he cautiously advanced a +foot--and bees mean honey; a little farther--he was now within four +feet of the great paper globe. The bees hummed angrily and Jack +stepped back, in doubt. The men giggled; then Bonamy called softly and +untruthfully: "Honey--Jacky--honey!" + +[Illustration: "'HONEY--JACKY--HONEY'"] + +The little Bear, fortunately for himself, went slowly, since in doubt; +he made no sudden move, and he waited a long time, though urged to go +on, till the whole swarm of bees had reentered their nest. Now Jacky +jerked his nose up, hitched softly out a little farther till right +over the fateful paper globe. He reached out, and by lucky chance put +one horny little paw-pad over the hole; his other arm grasped the +nest, and leaping from the branch he plunged headlong into the pool +below, taking the whole thing with him. As soon as he reached the +water his hind feet were seen tearing into the nest, kicking it to +pieces; then he let it go and struck out for the shore, the nest +floating in rags down-stream. He ran alongside till the comb lodged +against a shallow place, then he plunged in again; the wasps were +drowned or too wet to be dangerous, and he carried his prize to the +bank in triumph. No honey; of course, that was a disappointment, but +there were lots of fat white grubs--almost as good--and Jack ate till +his paunch looked like a little rubber balloon. + +"How is that?" chuckled Lan. + +"The laugh is on us," answered Bonamy, with a grimace. + + + +III. THE TROUT POOL + + +Jack was now growing into a sturdy cub, and he would follow Kellyan +even as far as Bonamy's shack. One day, as they watched him rolling +head over heels in riotous glee, Kellyan remarked to his friend: "I'm +afraid some one will happen on him an' shoot him in the woods for a +wild B'ar." + +"Then why don't you ear-mark him with them thar new sheep-rings?" was +the sheep-man's suggestion. + +Thus it was that, much against his will, Jack's ears were punched and +he was decorated with earrings like a prize ram. The intention was +good, but they were neither ornamental nor comfortable. Jack fought +them for days, and when at length he came home trailing a branch that +was caught in the jewel of his left ear, Kellyan impatiently removed +them. + +At Bonamy's he formed two new acquaintances, a blustering, bullying +old ram that was "in storage" for a sheep-herder acquaintance, and +which inspired him with a lasting enmity for everything that smelt of +sheep--and Bonamy's dog. + +This latter was an active, yapping, unpleasant cur that seemed to +think it rare fun to snap at Jacky's heels, then bound out of reach. A +joke is a joke, but this horrid beast did not know where to stop, and +Jack's first and second visits to the Bonamy hut were quite spoiled by +the tyranny of the dog. If Jack could have got hold of him he might +have settled the account to his own satisfaction, but he was not quick +enough for that. His only refuge was up a tree. He soon discovered +that he was happier away from Bonamy's, and thenceforth when he saw +his protector take the turn that led to the miner's cabin, Jack said +plainly with a look, "No, thank you," and turned back to amuse himself +at home. + +His enemy, however, often came with Bonamy to the hunter's cabin, and +there resumed his amusement of teasing the little Bear. It proved so +interesting a pursuit that the dog learned to come over on his own +account whenever he felt like having some fun, until at length Jack +was kept in continual terror of the yellow cur. But it all ended very +suddenly. + +One hot day, while the two men smoked in front of Kellyan's house, the +dog chased Jack up a tree and then stretched himself out for a +pleasant nap in the shade of its branches. Jack was forgotten as the +dog slumbered. The little Bear kept very quiet for a while, then, as +his twinkling brown eyes came back to that hateful dog, that he could +neither catch nor get away from, an idea seemed to grow in his small +brain. He began to move slowly and silently down the branch until he +was over the foe, slumbering, twitching his limbs, and making little +sounds that told of dreams of the chase, or, more likely, dreams of +tormenting a helpless Bear cub. Of course, Jack knew nothing of that. +His one thought, doubtless, was that he hated that cur and now he +could vent his hate. He came just over the tyrant, and taking careful +aim, he jumped and landed squarely on the dog's ribs. It was a +terribly rude awakening, but the dog gave no yelp, for the good reason +that the breath was knocked out of his body. No bones were broken, +though he was barely able to drag himself away in silent defeat, while +Jacky played a lively tune on his rear with paws that were fringed +with meat-hooks. + +Evidently it was a most excellent plan; and when the dog came around +after that, or when Jack went to Bonamy's with his master, as he soon +again ventured to do, he would scheme with more or less success to +"get the drop on the purp," as the men put it. The dog now rapidly +lost interest in Bear-baiting, and in a short time it was a forgotten +sport. + + + +IV. THE STREAM THAT SANK IN THE SAND + + +Jack was funny; Jill was sulky. Jack was petted and given freedom, so +grew funnier; Jill was beaten and chained, so grew sulkier. She had a +bad name and she was often punished for it; it is usually so. + +One day, while Lan was away, Jill got free and joined her brother. +They broke into the little storehouse and rioted among the provisions. +They gorged themselves with the choicest sorts; and the common stuffs, +like flour, butter, and baking-powder, brought fifty miles on +horseback, were good enough only to be thrown about the ground or +rolled in. Jack had just torn open the last bag of flour, and Jill was +puzzling over a box of miner's dynamite, when the doorway darkened and +there stood Kellyan, a picture of amazement and wrath. Little Bears do +not know anything about pictures, but they have some acquaintance with +wrath. They seemed to know that they were sinning, or at least in +danger, and Jill sneaked, sulky and snuffy, into a dark corner, where +she glared defiantly at the hunter. Jack put his head on one side, +then, quite forgetful of all his misbehavior, he gave a delighted +grunt, and scuttling toward the man, he whined, jerked his nose, and +held up his sticky, greasy arms to be lifted and petted as though he +were the best little Bear in the world. + +[Illustration: "JACK ... HELD UP HIS STICKY, GREASY ARMS"] + +Alas, how likely we are to be taken at our own estimate! The scowl +faded from the hunter's brow as the cheeky and deplorable little Bear +began to climb his leg. "You little divil," he growled, "I'll break +your cussed neck"; but he did not. He lifted the nasty, sticky little +beast and fondled him as usual, while Jill, no worse--even more +excusable, because less trained--suffered all the terrors of his wrath +and was double-chained to the post, so as to have no further chance of +such ill-doing. + +This was a day of bad luck for Kellyan. That morning he had fallen and +broken his rifle. Now, on his return home, he found his provisions +spoiled, and a new trial was before him. + +A stranger with a small pack-train called at his place that evening +and passed the night with him. Jack was in his most frolicsome mood +and amused them both with tricks half-puppy and half-monkey like, and +in the morning, when the stranger was leaving, he said: "Say, pard, +I'll give you twenty-five dollars for the pair." Lan hesitated, +thought of the wasted provisions, his empty purse, his broken rifle, +and answered: "Make it fifty and it's a go." + +"Shake on it." + +So the bargain was made, the money paid, and in fifteen minutes the +stranger was gone with a little Bear in each pannier of his horse. + +Jill was surly and silent; Jack kept up a whining that smote on Lan's +heart with a reproachful sound, but he braced himself with, "Guess +they're better out of the way; couldn't afford another storeroom +racket," and soon the pine forest had swallowed up the stranger, his +three led horses, and the two little Bears. + +"Well, I'm glad he's gone," said Lan, savagely, though he knew quite +well that he was already scourged with repentance. He began to set his +shanty in order. He went to the storehouse and gathered the remnants +of the provisions. After all, there was a good deal left. He walked +past the box where Jack used to sleep. How silent it was! He noted the +place where Jack used to scratch the door to get into the cabin, and +started at the thought that he should hear it no more, and told +himself, with many cuss-words, that he was "mighty glad of it." He +pottered about, doing--doing--oh, anything, for an hour or more; then +suddenly he leaped on his pony and raced madly down the trail on the +track of the stranger. He put the pony hard to it, and in two hours he +overtook the train at the crossing of the river. + +"Say, pard, I done wrong. I didn't orter sell them little B'ars, +leastwise not Jacky. I--I--wall, now, I want to call it off. Here's +yer yellow." + +"I'm satisfied with my end of it," said the stranger, coldly. + +"Well, I ain't," said Lan, with warmth, "an' I want it off." + +"Ye're wastin' time if that's what ye come for," was the reply. + +"We'll see about that," and Lan threw the gold pieces at the rider and +walked over toward the pannier, where Jack was whining joyfully at the +sound of the familiar voice. + +"Hands up," said the stranger, with the short, sharp tone of one who +had said it before, and Lan turned to find himself covered with a .45 +navy Colt. + +"Ye got the drop on me," he said; "I ain't got no gun; but look-a +here, stranger, that there little B'ar is the only pard I got; he's my +stiddy company an' we're almighty fond o' each other. I didn't know +how much I was a-goin' to miss him. Now look-a here: take back yer +fifty; ye give me Jack an' keep Jill." + +"If ye got five hundred cold plunks in yaller ye kin get him; if not, +you walk straight to that tree thar an' don't drop yer hands or turn +or I'll fire. Now start." + +Mountain etiquette is very strict, and Lan, being without weapons, +must needs obey the rules. He marched to the distant tree under cover +of the revolver. The wail of little Jack smote painfully on his ear, +but he knew the ways of the mountaineers too well to turn or make +another offer, and the stranger went on. + +Many a man has spent a thousand dollars in efforts to capture some +wild thing and felt it worth the cost--for a time. Then he is willing +to sell it for half cost, then for quarter, and at length he ends by +giving it away. The stranger was vastly pleased with his comical Bear +cubs at first, and valued them proportionately; but each day they +seemed more troublesome and less amusing, so that when, a week later, +at the Bell-Cross Ranch, he was offered a horse for the pair, he +readily closed, and their days of hamper-travel were over. + +The owner of the ranch was neither mild, refined, nor patient. Jack, +good-natured as he was, partly grasped these facts as he found himself +taken from the pannier, but when it came to getting cranky little Jill +out of the basket and into a collar, there ensued a scene so +unpleasant that no collar was needed. The ranchman wore his hand in a +sling for two weeks, and Jacky at his chain's end paced the ranch-yard +alone. + + + +V. THE RIVER HELD IN THE FOOTHILLS + + +There was little of pleasant interest in the next eighteen months of +Jack's career. His share of the globe was a twenty-foot circle around +a pole in the yard. The blue hills of the offing, the nearer pine +grove, and even the ranch-house itself were fixed stars, far away and +sending merely faint suggestions of their splendors to his not very +bright eyes. Even the horses and men were outside his little sphere +and related to him about as much as comets are to the earth. The very +tricks that had made him valued were being forgotten as Jack grew up +in chains. + +At first a butter-firkin had made him an ample den, but he rapidly +passed through the various stages--butter-firkin, nail-keg, +flour-barrel, oil-barrel--and had now to be graded as a good average +hogshead Bear, though he was far from filling that big round wooden +cavern that formed his latest den. + +The ranch hotel lay just where the foothills of the Sierras with their +groves of live oaks were sloping into the golden plains of the +Sacramento. Nature had showered on it every wonderful gift in her lap. +A foreground rich with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade and sun, dry +pastures, rushing rivers, and murmuring rills, were here. Great trees +were variants of the view, and the high Sierras to the east overtopped +the wondrous plumy forests of their pines with blocks of sculptured +blue. Back of the house was a noble river of water from the hills, +fouled and chained by sluice and dam, but still a noble stream whose +earliest parent rill had gushed from grim old Tallac's slope. + +Things of beauty, life, and color were on every side, and yet most +sordid of the human race were the folk about the ranch hotel. To see +them in this setting might well raise doubt that any "rise from Nature +up to Nature's God." No city slum has ever shown a more ignoble crew, +and Jack, if his mind were capable of such things, must have graded +the two-legged ones lower in proportion as he knew them better. + +Cruelty was his lot, and hate was his response. Almost the only +amusing trick he now did was helping himself to a drink of beer. He +was very fond of beer, and the loafers about the tavern often gave him +a bottle to see how dexterously he would twist off the wire and work +out the cork. As soon as it popped, he would turn it up between his +paws and drink to the last drop. + +The monotony of his life was occasionally varied with a dog fight. His +tormentors would bring their Bear dogs "to try them on the cub." It +seemed to be very pleasant sport to men and dogs, till Jack learned +how to receive them. At first he used to rush furiously at the nearest +tormentor until brought up with a jerk at the end of his chain and +completely exposed to attack behind from another dog. A month or two +entirely changed his method. He learned to sit against the hogshead +and quietly watch the noisy dogs around him, with much show of +inattention, making no move, no matter how near they were, until they +"bunched," that is, gathered in one place. Then he charged. It was +inevitable that the hind dogs would be the last to jump, and so +hindered the front ones; thus Jack would "get" one or more of them, +and the game became unpopular. + +When about eighteen months old, and half grown, an incident took place +which defied all explanation. Jack had won the name of being +dangerous, for he had crippled one man with a blow and nearly killed a +tipsy fool who volunteered to fight him. A harmless but +good-for-nothing sheep-herder who loafed about the place got very +drunk one night and offended some fire-eaters. They decided that, as +he had no gun, it would be the proper thing to club him to their +hearts' content instead of shooting him full of holes, in the manner +usually prescribed by their code. Faco Tampico made for the door and +staggered out into the darkness. His pursuers were even more drunk, +but, bent on mischief, they gave chase, and Faco dodged back of the +house and into the yard. The mountaineers had just wit enough to keep +out of reach of the Grizzly as they searched about for their victim, +but they did not find him. Then they got torches, and making sure that +he was not in the yard, were satisfied that he had fallen into the +river behind the barn and doubtless was drowned. A few rude jokes, and +they returned to the house. As they passed the Grizzly's den their +lanterns awoke in his eyes a glint of fire. In the morning the cook, +beginning his day, heard strange sounds in the yard. They came from +the Grizzly's den: "Hyar, you, lay over dahr," in sleepy tones; then a +deep, querulous grunting. + +The cook went as close as he dared and peeped in. Said the same voice +in sleepy tones: "Who are ye crowding, caramba!" and a human elbow was +seen jerking and pounding; and again impatient growling in bear-like +tones was the response. + +The sun came up and the astonished loafers found it was the missing +sheep-herder that was in the Bear's den, calmly sleeping off his +debauch in the very cave of death. The men tried to get him out, but +the Grizzly plainly showed that they could do so only over his dead +body. He charged with vindictive fury at any who ventured near, and +when they gave up the attempt he lay down at the door of the den on +guard. At length the sheep-herder came to himself, rose up on his +elbows, and realizing that he was in the power of the young Grizzly, +he stepped gingerly over his guardian's back and ran off without even +saying "Thank you." + +The Fourth of July was at hand now, and the owner of the tavern, +growing weary of the huge captive in the yard, announced that he would +celebrate Independence Day with a grand fight between a "picked and +fighting range bull and a ferocious Californian Grizzly." The news was +spread far and wide by the "Grapevine Telegraph." The roof of the +stable was covered with seats at fifty cents each. The hay-wagon was +half loaded and drawn alongside the corral; seats here gave a perfect +view and were sold at a dollar apiece. The old corral was repaired, +new posts put in where needed, and the first thing in the morning a +vicious old bull was herded in and tormented till he was "snuffy" and +extremely dangerous. + +Jack meanwhile had been roped, "choked down," and nailed up in his +hogshead. His chain and collar were permanently riveted together, so +the collar was taken off, as "it would be easy to rope him, _if need +be, after the bull was through with him."_ + +The hogshead was rolled over to the corral gate and all was ready. + +The cowboys came from far and near in their most gorgeous trappings, +and the California cowboy is the peacock of his race. Their best girls +were with them, and farmers and ranchmen came for fifty miles to enjoy +the Bull-and-Bear fight. Miners from the hills were there, Mexican +sheep-herders, storekeepers from Placerville, strangers from +Sacramento; town and county, mountain and plain, were represented. The +hay-wagon went so well that another was brought into market. The barn +roof was sold out. An ominous crack of the timbers somewhat shook the +prices, but a couple of strong uprights below restored the market, and +all "The Corners" was ready and eager for the great fight. Men who had +been raised among cattle were betting on the bull. + +"I tell you, there ain't nothing on earth kin face a big range bull +that hez good use of hisself." + +But the hillmen were backing the Bear. "Pooh, what's a bull to a +Grizzly? I tell you, I seen a Grizzly send a horse clean over the +Hetch-Hetchy with one clip of his left. Bull! I'll bet he'll never +show up in the second round." + +So they wrangled and bet, while burly women, trying to look fetching, +gave themselves a variety of airs, were "scared at the whole thing, +nervous about the uproar, afraid it would be shocking," but really +were as keenly interested as the men. + +All was ready, and the boss of "The Corners" shouted: "Let her go, +boys; house is full an' time's up!" + +Faco Tampico had managed to tie a bundle of chaparral thorn to the +bull's tail, so that the huge creature had literally lashed himself +into a frenzy. + +Jack's hogshead meanwhile had been rolled around till he was raging +with disgust, and Faco, at the word of command, began to pry open the +door. The end of the barrel was close to the fence, the door cleared +away; now there was nothing for Jack to do but to go forth and claw +the bull to pieces. But he did not go. The noise, the uproar, the +strangeness of the crowd affected him so that he decided to stay where +he was, and the bull-backers raised a derisive cry. Their champion +came forward bellowing and sniffing, pausing often to paw the dust. He +held his head very high and approached slowly until he came within ten +feet of the Grizzly's den; then, giving a snort, he turned and ran to +the other end of the corral. Now it was the Bear-backers' turn to +shout. + +But the crowd wanted a fight, and Faco, forgetful of his debt to +Grizzly Jack, dropped a bundle of Fourth of July crackers into the +hogshead by way of the bung. "Crack!" and Jack jumped up. +"Fizz--crack--c-r-r-r-a-a-c-k, cr-k-crk-ck!" and Jack in surprise +rushed from his den into the arena. The bull was standing in a +magnificent attitude there in the middle, but when he saw the Bear +spring toward him, he gave two mighty snorts and retreated as far as +he could, amid cheers and hisses. + +Perhaps the two main characteristics of the Grizzly are the quickness +with which he makes a plan and the vigor with which he follows it up. +Before the bull had reached the far side of the corral Jack seemed to +know the wisest of courses. His pig-like eyes swept the fence in a +flash--took in the most climbable part, a place where a cross-piece +was nailed on in the middle. In three seconds he was there, in two +seconds he was over, and in one second he dashed through the running, +scattering mob and was making for the hills as fast as his strong and +supple legs could carry him. Women screamed, men yelled, and dogs +barked; there was a wild dash for the horses tied far from the scene +of the fight, to spare their nerves, but the Grizzly had three hundred +yards' start, five hundred yards even, and before the gala mob gave +out a long and flying column of reckless, riotous riders, the Grizzly +had plunged into the river, a flood no dog cared to face, and had +reached the chaparral and the broken ground in line for the piney +hills. In an hour the ranch hotel, with its galling chain, its +cruelties, and its brutal human beings, was a thing of the past, shut +out by the hills of his youth, cut off by the river of his cub-hood, +the river grown from the rill born in his birthplace away in Tallac's +pines. That Fourth of July was a glorious Fourth--it was Independence +Day for Grizzly Jack. + + + +VI. THE BROKEN DAM + + +A wounded deer usually works downhill, a hunted Grizzly climbs. Jack +knew nothing of the country, but he did know that he wanted to get +away from that mob, so he sought the roughest ground, and climbed and +climbed. + +He had been alone for hours, traveling up and on. The plain was lost +to view. He was among the granite rocks, the pine trees, and the +berries now, and he gathered in food from the low bushes with +dexterous paws and tongue as he traveled, but stopped not at all until +among the tumbled rock, where the sun heat of the afternoon seemed to +command rather than invite him to rest. + +The night was black when he awoke, but Bears are not afraid of the +dark--they rather fear the day--and he swung along, led, as before, by +the impulse to get up above the danger; and thus at last he reached +the highest range, the region of his native Tallac. + +He had but little of the usual training of a young Bear, but he had a +few instincts, his birthright, that stood him well in all the main +issues, and his nose was an excellent guide. Thus he managed to live, +and wild-life experiences coming fast gave his mind the chance to +grow. + +Jack's memory for faces and facts was not at all good, but his memory +for smells was imperishable. He had forgotten Bonamy's cur, but the +smell of Bonamy's cur would instantly have thrilled him with the old +feelings. He had forgotten the cross ram, but the smell of "Old Woolly +Whiskers" would have inspired him at once with anger and hate; and one +evening when the wind came richly laden with ram smell it was like a +bygone life returned. He had been living on roots and berries for +weeks and now began to experience that hankering for flesh that comes +on every candid vegetarian with dangerous force from time to time. The +ram smell seemed an answer to it. So down he went by night (no +sensible Bear travels by day), and the smell brought him from the +pines on the hillside to an open rocky dale. + +Long before he got there a curious light shone up. He knew what that +was; he had seen the two-legged ones make it near the ranch of evil +smells and memories, so feared it not. He swung along from ledge to +ledge in silence and in haste, for the smell of sheep grew stronger at +every stride, and when he reached a place above the fire he blinked +his eyes to find the sheep. The smell was strong now; it was rank, but +no sheep to be seen. Instead he saw in the valley a stretch of gray +water that seemed to reflect the stars, and yet they neither twinkled +nor rippled; there was a murmuring sound from the sheet, but it seemed +not at all like that of the lakes around. + +[Illustration: The Herd of Eyes] + +The stars were clustered chiefly near the fire, and were less like +stars than spots of the phosphorescent wood that are scattered on the +ground when one knocks a rotten stump about to lick up its swarms of +wood-ants. So Jack came closer, and at last so close that even his +dull eyes could see. The great gray lake was a flock of sheep and the +phosphorescent specks were their eyes. Close by the fire was a log or +a low rough bank--that turned out to be the shepherd and his dog. Both +were objectionable features, but the sheep extended far from them. +Jack knew that his business was with the flock. + +He came very close to the edge and found them surrounded by a low +hedge of chaparral; but what little things they were compared with +that great and terrible ram that he dimly remembered! The blood-thirst +came on him. He swept the low hedge aside, charged into the mass of +sheep that surged away from him with rushing sounds of feet and +murmuring groans, struck down one, seized it, and turning away, he +scrambled back up the mountains. + +The sheep-herder leaped to his feet, fired his gun, and the dog came +running over the solid mass of sheep, barking loudly. But Jack was +gone. The sheep-herder contented himself with making two or three +fires, shooting off his gun, and telling his beads. + +That was Jack's first mutton, but it was not the last. Thenceforth +when he wanted a sheep--and it became a regular need--he knew he had +merely to walk along the ridge till his nose said, "Turn, and go so," +for smelling is believing in Bear life. + + + +VII. THE FRESHET + + +Pedro Tampico and his brother Faco were not in the sheep business for +any maudlin sentiment. They did not march ahead of their beloveds +waving a crook as wand of office or appealing to the esthetic sides of +their ideal followers with a tabret and pipe. Far from leading the +flock with a symbol, they drove them with an armful of ever-ready +rocks and clubs. They were not shepherds; they were sheep-herders. +They did not view their charges as loved and loving followers, but as +four-legged cash; each sheep was worth a dollar bill. They were cared +for only as a man cares for his money, and counted after each alarm or +day of travel. It is not easy for any one to count three thousand +sheep, and for a Mexican sheep-herder it is an impossibility. But he +has a simple device which answers the purpose. In an ordinary flock +about one sheep in a hundred is a black one. If a portion of the flock +has gone astray, there is likely to be a black one in it. So by +counting his thirty black sheep each day Tampico kept rough count of +his entire flock. + +Grizzly Jack had killed but one sheep that first night. On his next +visit he killed two, and on the next but one, yet that last one +happened to be black, and when Tampico found but twenty-nine of its +kind remaining he safely reasoned that he was losing sheep--according +to the index a hundred were gone. + +"If the land is unhealthy move out" is ancient wisdom. Tampico filled +his pocket with stones, and reviling his charges in all their walks in +life and history, he drove them from the country that was evidently +the range of a sheep-eater. At night he found a walled-in canon, a +natural corral, and the woolly scattering swarm, condensed into a +solid fleece, went pouring into the gap, urged intelligently by the +dog and idiotically by the man. At one side of the entrance Tampico +made his fire. Some thirty feet away was a sheer wall of rock. + +Ten miles may be a long day's travel for a wretched wool-plant, but it +is little more than two hours for a Grizzly. It is farther than +eyesight, but it is well within nosesight, and Jack, feeling +mutton-hungry, had not the least difficulty in following his prey. His +supper was a little later than usual, but his appetite was the better +for that. There was no alarm in camp, so Tampico had fallen asleep. A +growl from the dog awakened him. He started up to behold the most +appalling creature that he had ever seen or imagined, a monster Bear +standing on his hind legs, and thirty feet high at least. The dog fled +in terror, but was valor itself compared with Pedro. He was so +frightened that he could not express the prayer that was in his +breast: "Blessed saints, let him have every sin-blackened sheep in the +band, but spare your poor worshiper," and he hid his head; so never +learned that he saw, not a thirty-foot Bear thirty feet away, but a +seven-foot Bear not far from the fire and casting a black thirty-foot +shadow on the smooth rock behind. And, helpless with fear, poor Pedro +groveled in the dust. + +[Illustration: THE THIRTY-FOOT BEAR] + +When he looked up the giant Bear was gone. There was a rushing of the +sheep. A small body of them scurried out of the canon into the night, +and after them went an ordinary-sized Bear, undoubtedly a cub of the +monster. + +Pedro had been neglecting his prayers for some months back, but he +afterward assured his father confessor that on this night he caught up +on all arrears and had a goodly surplus before morning. At sunrise he +left his dog in charge of the flock and set out to seek the runaways, +knowing, first, that there was little danger in the day-time, second, +that some would escape. The missing ones were a considerable number, +raised to the second power indeed, for two more black ones were gone. +Strange to tell, they had not scattered, and Pedro trailed them a mile +or more in the wilderness till he reached another very small box +canon. Here he found the missing flock perched in various places on +boulders and rocky pinnacles as high up as they could get. He was +delighted and worked for half a minute on his bank surplus of prayers, +but was sadly upset to find that nothing would induce the sheep to +come down from the rocks or leave that canon. One or two that he +manoeuvered as far as the outlet sprang back in fear from _something on +the ground_, which, on examination, he found--yes, he swears to +this--to be the deep-worn, fresh-worn pathway of a Grizzly from one +wall across to the other. All the sheep were now back again beyond his +reach. Pedro began to fear for himself, so hastily returned to the +main flock. He was worse off than ever now. The other Grizzly was a +Bear of ordinary size and ate a sheep each night, but the new one, +into whose range he had entered, was a monster, a Bear mountain, +requiring forty or fifty sheep to a meal. The sooner he was out of +this the better. + +It was now late, too late, and the sheep were too tired to travel, so +Pedro made unusual preparations for the night: two big fires at the +entrance to the canon, and a platform fifteen feet up in a tree for +his own bed. The dog could look out for himself. + + + +VIII. ROARING IN THE CANON + + +Pedro knew that the big Bear was coming; for the fifty sheep in the +little canon were not more than an appetizer for such a creature. He +loaded his gun carefully as a matter of habit and went up-stairs to +bed. Whatever defects his dormitory had the ventilation was good, and +Pedro was soon a-shiver. He looked down in envy at his dog curled up +by the fire; then he prayed that the saints might intervene and direct +the steps of the Bear toward the flock of some neighbor, and carefully +specified the neighbor to avoid mistakes. He tried to pray himself to +sleep. It had never failed in church when he was at the Mission, so +why now? But for once it did not succeed. The fearsome hour of +midnight passed, then the gray dawn, the hour of dull despair, was +near. Tampico felt it, and a long groan vibrated through his +chattering teeth. His dog leaped up, barked savagely, the sheep began +to stir, then went backing into the gloom; there was a rushing of +stampeding sheep and a huge, dark form loomed up. Tampico grasped his +gun and would have fired, when it dawned on him with sickening horror +that the Bear was thirty feet high, his platform was only fifteen, +just a convenient height for the monster. None but a madman would +invite the Bear to eat by shooting at him now. So Pedro flattened +himself face downward on the platform, and, with his mouth to a crack, +he poured forth prayers to his representative in the sky, regretting +his unconventional attitude and profoundly hoping that it would be +overlooked as unavoidable, and that somehow the petitions would get +the right direction after leaving the under side of the platform. + +In the morning he had proof that his prayers had been favorably +received. There was a Bear-track, indeed, but the number of black +sheep was unchanged, so Pedro filled his pocket with stones and began +his usual torrent of remarks as he drove the flock. + +"Hyah, Capitan--you huajalote," as the dog paused to drink. "Bring +back those ill-descended sons of perdition," and a stone gave force to +the order, which the dog promptly obeyed. Hovering about the great +host of grumbling hoofy locusts, he kept them together and on the +move, while Pedro played the part of a big, noisy, and troublesome +second. + +As they journeyed through the open country the sheep-herder's eye fell +on a human figure, a man sitting on a rock above them to the left. +Pedro gazed inquiringly; the man saluted and beckoned. This meant +"friend"; had he motioned him to pass on it might have meant, "Keep +away or I shoot." Pedro walked toward him a little way and sat down. +The man came forward. It was Lan Kellyan, the hunter. + +Each was glad of a chance to "talk with a human" and to get the news. +The latest concerning the price of wool, the Bull-and-Bear fiasco, +and, above all, the monster Bear that had killed Tampico's +sheep, afforded topics of talk. "Ah, a Bear devill--de hell-brute--a +Gringo Bear--pardon, my amigo, I mean a very terroar." + +As the sheep-herder enlarged on the marvelous cunning of the Bear that +had a private sheep corral of his own, and the size of the monster, +forty or fifty feet high now--for such Bears are of rapid and +continuous growth--Kellyan's eye twinkled and he said: + +"Say, Pedro, I believe you once lived pretty nigh the Hassayampa, +didn't you?" + +This does not mean that that is a country of great Bears, but was an +allusion to the popular belief that any one who tastes a single drop +of the Hassayampa River can never afterward tell the truth. Some +scientists who have looked into the matter aver that this wonderful +property is common to the Rio Grande as well as the Hassayampa, and, +indeed, all the rivers of Mexico, as well as their branches, and the +springs, wells, ponds, lakes, and irrigation ditches. However that may +be, the Hassayampa is the best-known stream of this remarkable +peculiarity. The higher one goes, the greater its potency, and Pedro +was from the headwaters. But he protested by all the saints that his +story was true. He pulled out a little bottle of garnets, got by +glancing over the rubbish laid about their hills by the desert ants; +he thrust it back into his wallet and produced another bottle with a +small quantity of gold-dust, also gathered at the rare times when he +was not sleepy, and the sheep did not need driving, watering, stoning, +or reviling. + +"Here, I bet dat it ees so." + +Gold is a loud talker. + +Kellyan paused. "I can't cover your bet, Pedro, but I'll kill your +Bear for what's in the bottle." + +"I take you," said the sheep-herder, "eef you breeng back dose sheep +dat are now starving up on de rocks of de canon of Baxstaire's." + +The Mexican's eyes twinkled as the white man closed on the offer. The +gold in the bottle, ten or fifteen dollars, was a trifle, and yet +enough to send the hunter on the quest--enough to lure him into the +enterprise, and that was all that was needed. Pedro knew his man: get +him going and profit would count for nothing; having put his hand to +the plow Lan Kellyan would finish the furrow at any cost; he was +incapable of turning back. And again he took up the trail of Grizzly +Jack, his one-time "pard," now grown beyond his ken. + +The hunter went straight to Baxter's canon and found the sheep +high-perched upon the rocks. By the entrance he found the remains of +two of them recently devoured, and about them the tracks of a +medium-sized Bear. He saw nothing of the pathway--the dead-line--made +by the Grizzly to keep the sheep prisoners till he should need them. +But the sheep were standing in stupid terror on various high places, +apparently willing to starve rather than come down. Lan dragged one +down; at once it climbed up again. He now realized the situation, so +made a small pen of chaparral outside the canon, and dragging the dull +creatures down one at a time, he carried them--except one--out of the +prison of death and into the pen. Next he made a hasty fence across +the canon's mouth, and turning the sheep out of the pen, he drove them +by slow stages toward the rest of the flock. + +Only six or seven miles across country, but it was late night when Lan +arrived. + +Tampico gladly turned over half of the promised dust. That night they +camped together, and, of course, no Bear appeared. + +In the morning Lan went back to the canon and found, as expected, that +the Bear had returned and killed the remaining sheep. + +The hunter piled the rest of the carcasses in an open place, lightly +sprinkled the Grizzly's trail with some very dry brush, then making a +platform some fifteen feet from the ground in a tree, he rolled up in +his blanket there and slept. + +An old Bear will rarely visit a place three nights in succession; a +cunning Bear will avoid a trail that has been changed overnight; a +skilful Bear goes in absolute silence. But Jack was neither old, +cunning, nor skilful. He came for the fourth time to the canon of the +sheep. He followed his old trail straight to the delicious mutton +bones. He found the human trail, but there was something about it that +rather attracted him. He strode along on the dry boughs. "Crack!" went +one; "crack-crack!" went another; and Kellyan arose on the platform +and strained his eyes in the gloom till a dark form moved into the +opening by the bones of the sheep. The hunter's rifle cracked, the +Bear snorted, wheeled into the bushes, and, crashing away, was gone. + + + +IX. FIRE AND WATER + + +That was Jack's baptism of fire, for the rifle had cut a deep +flesh-wound in his back. Snorting with pain and rage, he tore through +the bushes and traveled on for an hour or more, then lay down and +tried to lick the wound, but it was beyond reach. He could only rub it +against a log. He continued his journey back toward Tallac, and there, +in a cave that was formed of tumbled rocks, he lay down to rest. He +was still rolling about in pain when the sun was high and a strange +smell of fire came searching through the cave; it increased, and +volumes of blinding smoke were about him. It grew so choking that he +was forced to move, but it followed him till he could bear it no +longer, and he dashed out of another of the ways that led into the +cavern. As he went he caught a distant glimpse of a man throwing wood +on the fire by the in-way, and the whiff that the wind brought him +said: "This is the man that was last night watching the sheep." +Strange as it may seem, the woods were clear of smoke except for a +trifling belt that floated in the trees, and Jack went striding away +in peace. He passed over the ridge, and finding berries, ate the first +meal he had known since killing his last sheep. He had wandered on, +gathering fruit and digging roots, for an hour or two, when the smoke +grew blacker, the smell of fire stronger. He worked away from it, but +in no haste. The birds, deer, and wood hares were now seen scurrying +past him. There was a roaring in the air. It grew louder, was coming +nearer, and Jack turned to stride after the wood things that fled. + +The whole forest was ablaze; the wind was rising, and the flames, +gaining and spreading, were flying now like wild horses. Jack had no +place in his brain for such a thing; but his instinct warned him to +shun that coming roaring that sent above dark clouds and flying +fire-flakes, and messengers of heat below, so he fled before it, as +the forest host was doing. Fast as he went, and few animals can outrun +a Grizzly in rough country, the hot hurricane was gaining on him. His +sense of danger had grown almost to terror, terror of a kind that he +had never known before, for here there was nothing he could fight; +nothing that he could resist. The flames were all around him now; +birds without number, hares, and deer had gone down before the red +horror. He was plunging wildly on through chaparral and manzanita +thickets that held all feebler things until the fury seized them; his +hair was scorching, his wound was forgotten, and he thought only of +escape when the brush ahead opened, and the Grizzly, smoke-blinded, +half roasted, plunged down a bank and into a small clear pool. The fur +on his back said "hiss," for it was sizzling-hot. Down below he went, +gulping the cool drink, wallowing in safety and unheat. Down below the +surface he crouched as long as his lungs would bear the strain, then +slowly and cautiously he raised his head. The sky above was one great +sheet of flame. Sticks aflame and flying embers came in hissing +showers on the water. The air was hot, but breathable at times, and he +filled his lungs till he had difficulty in keeping his body down +below. Other creatures there were in the pool, some burnt, some dead, +some small and in the margin, some bigger in the deeper places, and +one of them was close beside him. Oh, he knew that smell; fire--all +Sierra's woods ablaze--could not disguise the hunter who had shot at +him from the platform, and, though he did not know this, the hunter +really who had followed him all day, and who had tried to smoke him +out of his den and thereby set the woods ablaze. Here they were, face +to face, in the deepest end of the little pool; they were only ten +feet apart and could not get more than twenty feet apart. The flames +grew unbearable. The Bear and man each took a hasty breath and bobbed +below the surface, each wondering, according to his intelligence, what +the other would do. In half a minute both came up again, each relieved +to find the other no nearer. Each tried to keep his nose and one eye +above the water. But the fire was raging hot; they had to dip under +and stay as long as possible. + +The roaring of the flame was like a hurricane. A huge pine tree came +crashing down across the pool; it barely missed the man. The splash of +water quenched the blazes for the most part, but it gave off such a +heat that he had to move--a little nearer to the Bear. Another fell at +an angle, killing a coyote, and crossing the first tree. They blazed +fiercely at their junction, and the Bear edged from it a little nearer +the man. Now they were within touching distance. His useless gun was +lying in shallow water near shore, but the man had his knife ready, +ready for self-defense. It was not needed; the fiery power had +proclaimed a peace. Bobbing up and dodging under, keeping a nose in +the air and an eye on his foe, each spent an hour or more. The red +hurricane passed on. The smoke was bad in the woods, but no longer +intolerable, and as the Bear straightened up in the pool to move away +into shallower water and off into the woods, the man got a glimpse of +red blood streaming from the shaggy back and dyeing the pool. The +blood on the trail had not escaped him. He knew that this was the Bear +of Baxter's canon, this was the Gringo Bear, but he did not know that +this was also his old-time Grizzly Jack. He scrambled out of the pond, +on the other side from that taken by the Grizzly, and, hunter and +hunted, they went their diverse ways. + + + +X. THE EDDY + + +All the west slopes of Tallac were swept by the fire, and Kellyan +moved to a new hut on the east side, where still were green patches; +so did the grouse and the rabbit and the coyote, and so did Grizzly +Jack. His wound healed quickly, but his memory of the rifle smell +continued; it was a dangerous smell, a new and horrible kind of +smoke--one he was destined to know too well; one, indeed, he was soon +to meet again. Jack was wandering down the side of Tallac, following a +sweet odor that called up memories of former joys--the smell of honey, +though he did not know it. A flock of grouse got leisurely out of his +way and flew to a low tree, when he caught a whiff of man smell, then +heard a crack like that which had stung him in the sheep-corral, and +down fell one of the grouse close beside him. He stepped forward to +sniff just as a man also stepped forward from the opposite bushes. +They were within ten feet of each other, and they recognized each +other, for the hunter saw that it was a singed Bear with a wounded +side, and the Bear smelt the rifle-smoke and the leather clothes. +Quick as a Grizzly--that is, quicker than a flash--the Bear reared. +The man sprang backward, tripped and fell, and the Grizzly was upon +him. Face to earth the hunter lay like dead, but, ere he struck, Jack +caught a scent that made him pause. He smelt his victim, and the smell +was the rolling back of curtains or the conjuring up of a past. The +days in the hunter's shanty were forgotten, but the feelings of those +days were ready to take command at the bidding of the nose. His nose +drank deep of a draft that quelled all rage. The Grizzly's humor +changed. He turned and left the hunter quite unharmed. + +Oh, blind one with the gun! All he could find in explanation was: "You +kin never tell what a Grizzly will do, but it's good play to lay low +when he has you cornered." It never came into his mind to credit the +shaggy brute with an impulse born of good, and when he told the +sheep-herder of his adventure in the pool, of his hitting high on the +body and of losing the trail in the forest fire--"down by the shack, +when he turned up sudden and had me I thought my last day was come. +Why he didn't swat me, I don't know. But I tell you this, Pedro: the +B'ar what killed your sheep on the upper pasture and in the sheep +canon is the same. No two B'ars has hind feet alike when you get a +clear-cut track, and this holds out even right along." + +"What about the fifty-foot B'ar I saw wit' mine own eyes, caramba?" + +"That must have been the night you were working a kill-care with your +sheep-herder's delight. But don't worry; I'll get him yet." + +So Kellyan set out on a long hunt, and put in practice every trick he +knew for the circumventing of a Bear. Lou Bonamy was invited to join +with him, for his yellow cur was a trailer. They packed four horses +with stuff and led them over the ridge to the east side of Tallac, and +down away from Jack's Peak, that Kellyan had named in honor of his +Bear cub, toward Fallen Leaf Lake. The hunter believed that here he +would meet not, only the Gringo Bear that he was after, but would also +stand a chance of finding others, for the place had escaped the fire. + +They quickly camped, setting up their canvas sheet for shade more than +against rain, and after picketing their horses in a meadow, went out +to hunt. By circling around Leaf Lake they got a good idea of the wild +population: plenty of deer, some Black Bear, and one or two Cinnamon +and Grizzly, and one track along the shore that Kellyan pointed to, +briefly saying: "That's him." + +"Ye mean old Pedro's Gringo?" + +"Yep. That's the fifty-foot Grizzly. I suppose he stands maybe seven +foot high in daylight, but, 'course, B'ars pulls out long at night." + +So the yellow cur was put on the track, and led away with funny little +yelps, while the two hunters came stumbling along behind him as fast +as they could, calling, at times, to the dog not to go so fast, and +thus making a good deal of noise, which Gringo Jack heard a mile away +as he ambled along the mountain-side above them. He was following his +nose to many good and eatable things, and therefore going up-wind. +This noise behind was so peculiar that he wanted to smell it, and to +do that he swung along back over the clamor, then descended to the +down-wind side, and thus he came on the trail of the hunters and their +dog. + +His nose informed him at once. Here was the hunter he once felt kindly +toward and two other smells of far-back--both hateful; all three were +now the smell-marks of foes, and a rumbling "woof" was the expressive +sound that came from his throat. + +That dog-smell in particular roused him, though it is very sure he had +forgotten all about the dog, and Gringo's feet went swiftly and +silently, yes, with marvelous silence, along the tracks of the enemy. + +On rough, rocky ground a dog is scarcely quicker than a Bear, and +since the dog was constantly held back by the hunters the Bear had no +difficulty in overtaking them. Only a hundred yards or so behind he +continued, partly in curiosity, pursuing the dog that was pursuing +him, till a shift of the wind brought the dog a smell-call from the +Bear behind. He wheeled--of course you never follow trail smell when +you can find body smell--and came galloping back with a different +yapping and a bristling in his mane. + +"Don't understand that," whispered Bonamy. + +"It's B'ar, all right," was the answer; and the dog, bounding high, +went straight toward the foe. + +Jack heard him coming, smelt him coming, and at length saw him coming; +but it was the smell that roused him--the full scent of the bully of +his youth. The anger of those days came on him, and cunning enough to +make him lurk in ambush: he backed to one side of the trail where it +passed under a root, and, as the little yellow tyrant came, Jack hit +him once, hit him as he had done some years before, but now with the +power of a grown Grizzly. No yelp escaped the dog, no second blow was +needed. The hunters searched in silence for half an hour before they +found the place and learned the tale from many silent tongues. + +"I'll get even with him," muttered Bonamy, for he loved that +contemptible little yap-cur. + +"That's Pedro's Gringo, all right. He's sure cunning to run his own +back track. But we'll fix him yet," and they vowed to kill that Bear +or "get done up" themselves. + +Without a dog, they must make a new plan of hunting. They picked out +two or three good places for pen-traps, where trees stood in pairs to +make the pillars of the den. Then Kellyan returned to camp for the ax +while Bonamy prepared the ground. + +As Kellyan came near their open camping-place, he stopped from habit +and peeped ahead for a minute. He was about to go down when a movement +caught his eye. There, on his haunches, sat a Grizzly, looking down on +the camp. The singed brown of his head and neck, and the white spot on +each side of his back, left no doubt that Kellyan and Pedro's Gringo +were again face to face. It was a long shot, but the rifle went up, +and as he was about to fire, the Bear suddenly bent his head down, and +lifting his hind paw, began to lick at a little cut. This brought the +head and chest nearly in line with Kellyan--a sure shot; so sure that +he fired hastily. He missed the head and the shoulder, but, strange to +say, he hit the Bear in the mouth and in the hind toe, carrying away +one of his teeth and the side of one toe. The Grizzly sprang up with a +snort, and came tearing down the hill toward the hunter. Kellyan +climbed a tree and got ready, but the camp lay just between them, and +the Bear charged on that instead. One sweep of his paw and the canvas +tent was down and torn. Whack! and tins went flying this way. Whisk! +and flour-sacks went that. Rip! and the flour went off like smoke. +Slap--crack! and a boxful of odds and ends was scattered into the +fire. Whack! and a bagful of cartridges was tumbled after it. Whang! +and the water-pail was crushed. Pat-pat-pat! and all the cups were in +useless bits. + +Kellyan, safe up the tree, got no fair view to shoot--could only wait +till the storm-center cleared a little. The Bear chanced on a bottle +of something with a cork loosely in it. He seized it adroitly in his +paws, twisted out the cork, and held the bottle up to his mouth with a +comical dexterity that told of previous experience. But, whatever it +was, it did not please the invader; he spat and spilled it out, and +flung the bottle down as Kellyan gazed, astonished. A remarkable +"crack! crack! crack!" from the fire was heard now, and the cartridges +began to go off in ones, twos, fours, and numbers unknown. Gringo +whirled about; he had smashed everything in view. He did not like that +Fourth of July sound, so, springing to a bank, he went bumping and +heaving down to the meadow and had just stampeded the horses when, for +the first time, Gringo exposed himself to the hunter's aim. His flank +was grazed by another leaden stinger, and Gringo, wheeling, went off +into the woods. + +The hunters were badly defeated. It was fully a week before they had +repaired all the damage done by their shaggy visitor and were once +more at Fallen Leaf Lake with a new store of ammunition and +provisions, their tent repaired, and their camp outfit complete. They +said little about their vow to kill that Bear. Both took for granted +that it was a fight to the finish. They never said, "_If_ we get him," +but, "_When_ we get him." + + + +XI. THE FORD + + +Gringo, savage, but still discreet, scaled the long mountain-side when +he left the ruined camp, and afar on the southern slope he sought a +quiet bed in a manzanita thicket, there to lie down and nurse his +wounds and ease his head so sorely aching with the jar of his +shattered tooth. There he lay for a day and a night, sometimes in +great pain, and at no time inclined to stir. But, driven forth by +hunger on the second day, he quit his couch and, making for the +nearest ridge, he followed that and searched the wind with his nose. +The smell of a mountain hunter reached him. Not knowing just what to +do he sat down and did nothing. The smell grew stronger, he heard +sounds of trampling; closer they came, then the brush parted and a man +on horseback appeared. The horse snorted and tried to wheel, but the +ridge was narrow and one false step might have been serious. The +cowboy held his horse in hand and, although he had a gun, he made no +attempt to shoot at the surly animal blinking at him and barring his +path. He was an old mountaineer, and he now used a trick that had long +been practised by the Indians, from whom, indeed, he learned it. He +began "making medicine with his voice." + +"See here now, B'ar," he called aloud, "I ain't doing nothing to you. +I ain't got no grudge ag'in' you, an' you ain't got no right to a +grudge ag'in' me." + +"Gro-o-o-h," said Gringo, deep and low. + +"Now, I don't want no scrap with you, though I have my scrap-iron +right handy, an' what I want you to do is just step aside an' let me +pass that narrer trail an' go about my business." + +"Grow--woo-oo-wow," grumbled Gringo. + +"I'm honest about it, pard. You let me alone, and I'll let you alone; +all I want is right of way for five minutes." + +"Grow-grow-wow-oo-umph," was the answer. + +"Ye see, thar's no way round an' on'y one way through, an' you happen +to be settin' in it. I got to take it, for I can't turn back. Come, +now, is it a bargain--hands off and no scrap?" + +It is very sure that Gringo could see in this nothing but a human +making queer, unmenacing, monotonous sounds, so giving a final +"Gr-u-ph," the Bear blinked his eyes, rose to his feet and strode down +the bank, and the cowboy forced his unwilling horse to and past the +place. + +"Wall, wall," he chuckled, "I never knowed it to fail. Thar's whar +most B'ars is alike." + +If Gringo had been able to think clearly, he might have said: "This +surely is a new kind of man." + +[Illustration: "NOW, B'AR, I DON'T WANT NO SCRAP WITH YOU"] + + + +XII. SWIRL AND POOL AND GROWING FLOOD + + +Gringo wandered on with nose alert, passing countless odors of +berries, roots, grouse, deer, till a new and pleasing smell came with +especial force. It was not sheep, or game, or a dead thing. It was a +smell of living meat. He followed the guide to a little meadow, and +there he found it. There were five of them, red, or red and +white--great things as big as himself; but he had no fear of them. The +hunter instinct came on him, and the hunter's audacity and love of +achievement. He sneaked toward them upwind in order that he might +still smell them, and it also kept them from smelling him. He reached +the edge of the wood. Here he must stop or be seen. There was a +watering-place close by. He silently drank, then lay down in a thicket +where he could watch. An hour passed thus. The sun went down and the +cattle arose to graze. One of them, a small one, wandered nearer, +then, acting suddenly with purpose, walked to the water-hole. Gringo +watched his chance, and as she floundered in the mud and stooped he +reared and struck with all his force. Square at her skull he aimed, +and the blow went straight. But Gringo knew nothing of horns. The +young, sharp horn, upcurling, hit his foot and was broken off; the +blow lost half its power. The beef went down, but Gringo had to follow +up the blow, then raged and tore in anger for his wounded paw. The +other cattle fled from the scene. The Grizzly took the heifer in his +jaws, then climbed the hill to his lair, and with this store of food +he again lay down to nurse his wounds. Though painful, they were not +serious, and within a week or so Grizzly Jack was as well as ever and +roaming the woods about Fallen Leaf Lake and farther south and east, +for he was extending his range as he grew--the king was coming to his +kingdom. In time he met others of his kind and matched his strength +with theirs. Sometimes he won and sometimes lost, but he kept on +growing as the months went by, growing and learning and adding to his +power. + +Kellyan had kept track of him and knew at least the main facts of his +life, because he had one or two marks that always served to +distinguish him. A study of the tracks had told of the round wound in +the front foot and the wound in the hind foot. But there was another: +the hunter had picked up the splinters of bone at the camp where he +had fired at the Bear, and, after long doubt, he guessed that he had +broken a tusk. He hesitated to tell the story of hitting a tooth and +hind toe at the same shot till, later, he had clearer proof of its +truth. + +No two animals are alike. Kinds which herd have more sameness than +those that do not, and the Grizzly, being a solitary kind, shows great +individuality. Most Grizzlies mark their length on the trees by +rubbing their backs, and some will turn on the tree and claw it with +their fore paws; others hug the tree with fore paws and rake it with +their hind claws. Gringo's peculiarity of marking was to rub first, +then turn and tear the trunk with his teeth. + +It was on examining one of the Bear trees one day that Kellyan +discovered the facts. He had been tracking the Bear all morning, had a +fine set of tracks in the dusty trail, and thus learned that the +rifle-wound was a toe-shot in the hind foot, but his fore foot of the +same side had a large round wound, the one really made by the cow's +horn. When he came to the Bear tree where Gringo had carved his +initials, the marks were clearly made by the Bear's teeth, and one of +the upper tusks was broken off, so the evidence of identity was +complete. + +"It's the same old B'ar," said Lan to his pard. + +They failed to get sight of him in all this time, so the partners set +to work at a series of Bear-traps. These are made of heavy logs and +have a sliding door of hewn planks. The bait is on a trigger at the +far end; a tug on this lets the door drop. It was a week's hard work +to make four of these traps. They did not set them at once, for no +Bear will go near a thing so suspiciously new-looking. Some Bears will +not approach one till it is weather-beaten and gray. But they removed +all chips and covered the newly cut wood with mud, then rubbed the +inside with stale meat, and hung a lump of ancient venison on the +trigger of each trap. + +They did not go around for three days, knowing that the human smell +must first be dissipated, and then they found but one trap sprung--the +door down. Bonamy became greatly excited, for they had crossed the +Grizzly's track close by. But Kellyan had been studying the dust and +suddenly laughed aloud. + +"Look at that,"--he pointed to a thing like a Bear-track, but scarcely +two inches long. "There's the B'ar we'll find in that; that's a +bushy-tailed B'ar," and Bonamy joined in the laugh when he realized +that the victim in the big trap was nothing but a little skunk. + +"Next time we'll set the bait higher and not set the trigger so fine." + +They rubbed their boots with stale meat when they went the rounds, +then left the traps for a week. + +There are Bears that eat little but roots and berries; there are Bears +that love best the great black salmon they can hook out of the pools +when the long "run" is on; and there are Bears that have a special +fondness for flesh. These are rare; they are apt to develop unusual +ferocity and meet an early death. Gringo was one of them, and he grew +like the brawny, meat-fed gladiators of old--bigger, stronger, and +fiercer than his fruit-and root-fed kin. In contrast with this was his +love of honey. The hunter on his trail learned that he never failed to +dig out any bees' nest he could find, or, finding none, he would eat +the little honey-flowers that hung like sleigh-bells on the heather. +Kellyan was quick to mark the signs. "Say, Bonamy, we've got to find +some honey." + +It is not easy to find a bee tree without honey to fill your +bee-guides; so Bonamy rode down the mountain to the nearest camp, the +Tampico sheep camp, and got not honey but some sugar, of which they +made syrup. They caught bees at three or four different places, tagged +them with cotton, filled them with syrup and let them fly, watching +till the cotton tufts were lost to view, and by going on the lines +till they met they found the hive. A piece of gunny-sack filled with +comb was put on each trigger, and that night, as Gringo strode with +that long, untiring swing that eats up miles like steam-wheels, his +sentinel nose reported the delicious smell, the one that above the +rest meant joy. So Gringo Jack followed fast and far, for the place +was a mile away, and reaching the curious log cavern, he halted and +sniffed. There were hunters' smells; yes, but, above all, that smell +of joy. He walked around to be sure, and knew it was inside; then +cautiously he entered. Some wood-mice scurried by. He sniffed the +bait, licked it, mumbled it, slobbered it, reveled in it, tugged to +increase the flow, when "bang!" went the great door behind and Jack was +caught. He backed up with a rush, bumped into the door, and had a +sense, at least, of peril. He turned over with an effort and attacked +the door, but it was strong. He examined the pen; went all around the +logs where their rounded sides seemed easiest to tear at with his +teeth. But they yielded nothing. He tried them all; he tore at the +roof, the floor; but all were heavy, hard logs, spiked and pinned as +one. + +The sun came up as he raged, and shone through the little cracks of +the door, and so he turned all his power on that. The door was flat, +gave little hold, but he battered with his paws and tore with his +teeth till plank after plank gave way. With a final crash be drove the +wreck before him and Jack was free again. + +The men read the story as though in print; yes, better, for bits of +plank can tell no lies, and the track to the pen and from the pen was +the track of a big Bear with a cut on the hind foot and a curious +round peg-like scar on the front paw, while the logs inside, where +little torn, gave proof of a broken tooth. + +"We had him that time, but he knew too much for us. Never mind, we'll +see." + +So they kept on and caught him again, for honey he could not resist. +But the wreckage of the trap was all they found in the morning. + +Pedro's brother knew a man who had trapped Bears, and the sheep-herder +remembered that it is necessary to have the door quite _light-tight_ +rather than very strong, so they battened all with tar-paper outside. +But Gringo was learning "pen-traps." He did not break the door that he +did not see through, but he put one paw under and heaved it up when he +had finished the bait. Thus he baffled them and sported with the +traps, till Kellyan made the door drop into a deep groove so that the +Bear could put no claw beneath it. But it was cold weather now. There +was deepening snow on the Sierras. The Bear sign disappeared. The +hunters knew that Gringo was sleeping his winter's sleep. + + + +XIII. THE DEEPENING CHANNEL + + +April was bidding high Sierra snows go back to Mother Sea. The +California woodwales screamed in clamorous joy. They thought it was +about a few acorns left in storage in the Live Oak bark, but it really +was joy of being alive. This outcry was to them what music is to the +thrush, what joy-bells are to us--a great noise to tell how glad they +were. The deer were bounding, grouse were booming, rills were +rushing--all things were full of noisy gladness. + +Kellyan and Bonamy were back on the Grizzly quest. "Time he was out +again, and good trailing to get him, with lots of snow in the +hollows." They had come prepared for a long hunt. Honey for bait, +great steel traps with crocodilian jaws, and guns there were in the +outfit. The pen-trap, the better for the aging, was repaired and +re-baited, and several Black Bears were taken. But Gringo, if about, +had learned to shun it. + +He was about, and the men soon learned that. His winter sleep was +over. They found the peg-print in the snow, but with it, or just +ahead, was another, the tracks of a smaller Bear. + +"See that," and Kellyan pointed to the smaller mark. "This is +mating-time; this is Gringo's honeymoon," and he followed the trail +for a while, not expecting to find them, but simply to know their +movements. He followed several times and for miles, and the trail told +him many things. Here was the track of a third Bear joining. Here were +marks of a combat, and a rival driven away was written there, and then +the pair went on. Down from the rugged hills it took him once to where +a love-feast had been set by the bigger Bear; for the carcass of a +steer lay half devoured, and the telltale ground said much of the +struggle that foreran the feast. As though to show his power, the Bear +had seized the steer by the nose and held him for a while--so said the +trampled earth for rods--struggling, bellowing, no doubt, music for my +lady's ears, till Gringo judged it time to strike him down with paws +of steel. + +Once only the hunters saw the pair--a momentary Glimpse of a Bear so +huge they half believed Tampico's tale, and a Bear of lesser size in +fur that rolled and rippled in the sun with brown and silver lights. + +"Oh, ain't that just the beautifulest thing that ever walked!" and +both the hunters gazed as she strode from view in the chaparral. It +was only a neck of the thicket; they both must reappear in a minute at +the other side, and the men prepared to fire; but for some +incomprehensible reason the two did not appear again. They never quit +the cover, and had wandered far away before the hunters knew it, and +were seen of them no more. + +But Faco Tampico saw them. He was visiting his brother with the sheep, +and hunting in the foot-hills to the eastward, in hopes of getting a +deer, his small black eyes fell on a pair of Bears, still love-bound, +roaming in the woods. They were far below him. He was safe, and he +sent a ball that laid the she-Bear low; her back was broken. She fell +with a cry of pain and vainly tried to rise. Then Gringo rushed +around, sniffed the wind for the foe, and Faco fired again. The sound +and the smoke-puff told Gringo where the man lay hid. He raged up the +cliff, but Faco climbed a tree, and Gringo went back to his mate. Faco +fired again; Gringo made still another effort to reach him, but could +not find him now, so returned to his "Silver-brown." + +Whether it was chance or choice can never be known, but when Faco +fired once more, Gringo Jack was between, and the ball struck him. It +was the last in Faco's pouch, and the Grizzly, charging as before, +found not a trace of the foe. He was gone--had swung across a place no +Bear could cross and soon was a mile away. The big Bear limped back to +his mate, but she no longer responded to his touch. He watched about +for a time, but no one came. The silvery hide was never touched by +man, and when the semblance of his mate was gone, Gringo quit the +place. + +The world was full of hunters, traps, and guns. He turned toward the +lower hills where the sheep grazed, where once he had raided Pedro's +flocks, limping along, for now he had another flesh-wound. He found +the scent of the foe that killed his "Silver-brown," and would have +followed, but it ceased at a place where a horse-track joined. Yet he +found it again that night, mixed with the sheep smell so familiar +once. He followed this, sore and savage. It led him to a settler's +flimsy shack, the house of Tampico's parents, and as the big Bear +reached it two human beings scrambled out of the rear door. + +"My husband," shrieked the woman, "pray! Let us pray to the saints for +help!" + +"Where is my pistol?" cried the husband. + +"Trust in the saints," said the frightened woman. + +"Yes, if I had a cannon, or if this was a cat; but with only a +pepper-box pistol to meet a Bear mountain it is better to trust to a +tree," and old Tampico scrambled up a pine. + +The Grizzly looked into the shack, then passed to the pig-pen, killed +the largest there, for this was a new kind of meat, and carrying it +off, he made his evening meal. + +He came again and again to that pig-pen. He found his food there till +his wound was healed. Once he met with a spring-gun, but it was set +too high. Six feet up, the sheep-folk judged, would be just about +right for such a Bear; the charge went over his head, and so he passed +unharmed--a clear proof that he was a devil. He was learning this: the +human smell in any form is a smell of danger. He quit the little +valley of the shack, wandering downward toward the plains. He passed a +house one night, and walking up, he discovered a hollow thing with a +delicious smell. It was a ten-gallon keg that had been used for sugar, +some of which was still in the bottom, and thrusting in his huge head, +the keg-rim, bristling with nails, stuck to him. He raged about, +clawing at it wildly and roaring in it until a charge of shot from the +upper windows stirred him to such effort that the keg was smashed to +bits and his blinders removed. + +Thus the idea was slowly borne in on him: going near a man-den is sure +to bring trouble. Thenceforth he sought his prey in the woods or on +the plains. He one day found the man scent that enraged him the day he +lost his "Silver-brown." He took the trail, and passing in silence +incredible for such a bulk, he threaded chaparral and manzanita on and +down through tule-beds till the level plain was reached. The scent led +on, was fresher now. Far out were white specks--moving things. They +meant nothing to Gringo, for he had never smelt wild geese, had +scarcely seen them, but the trail he was hunting went on. He swiftly +followed till the tule ahead rustled gently, and the scent was _body +scent_. A ponderous rush, a single blow--and the goose-hunt was +ended ere well begun, and Faco's sheep became the brother's heritage. + + + +XIV. THE CATARACT + + +Just as fads will for a time sway human life, so crazes may run +through all animals of a given kind. This was the year when a +beef-eating craze seemed to possess every able-bodied Grizzly of the +Sierras. They had long been known as a root-eating, berry-picking, +inoffensive race when let alone, but now they seemed to descend on the +cattle-range in a body and make their diet wholly of flesh. + +One cattle outfit after another was attacked, and the whole country +seemed divided up among Bears of incredible size, cunning, and +destructiveness. The cattlemen offered bounties--good bounties, +growing bounties, very large bounties at last--but still the Bears +kept on. Very few were killed, and it became a kind of rude jest to +call each section of the range, not by the cattle brand, but by the +Grizzly that was quartered on its stock. + +Wonderful tales were told of these various Bears of the new breed. The +swiftest was Reelfoot, the Placerville cattle-killer that could charge +from a thicket thirty yards away and certainly catch a steer before it +could turn and run, and that could even catch ponies in the open when +they were poor. The most cunning of all was Brin, the Mokelumne +Grizzly that killed by preference blooded stock, would pick out a +Merino ram or a white-faced Hereford from among fifty grades; that +killed a new beef every night; that never again returned to it, or +gave the chance for traps or poisoning. + +The Pegtrack Grizzly of Feather River was rarely seen by any. He was +enveloped in mysterious terror. He moved and killed by night. Pigs +were his favorite food, and he had also killed a number of men. + +But Pedro's Grizzly was the most marvelous. "Hassayampa," as the +sheep-herder was dubbed, came one night to Kellyan's hut. + +"I tell you he's still dere. He has keel me a t'ousand sheep. You +telled me you keel heem; you haff not. He is beegare as dat tree. He +eat only sheep--much sheep. I tell you he ees Gringo devil--he ees +devil Bear. I haff three cows, two fat, one theen. He catch and keel +de fat; de lean run off. He roll een dust--make great dust. Cow come +for see what make dust; he catch her an' keel. My fader got bees. De +devil Bear chaw pine; I know he by hees broke toof. He gum hees face +and nose wit' pine gum so bees no sting, then eat all bees. He devil +all time. He get much rotten manzanita and eat till drunk--locoed--then +go crazy and keel sheep just for fun. He get beeg bull by nose and +drag like rat for fun. He keel cow, sheep, and keel Face, too, for +fun. He devil. You promise me you keel heem; you nevaire keel." + +This is a condensation of Pedro's excited account. + +And there was yet one more--the big Bear that owned the range from the +Stanislaus to the Merced, the "Monarch of the Range" he had been +styled. He was believed--yes, known to be--the biggest Bear alive, a +creature of supernatural intelligence. He killed cows for food, and +scattered sheep or conquered bulls for pleasure. It was even said that +the appearance of an unusually big bull anywhere was a guaranty that +Monarch would be there for the joy of combat with a worthy foe. A +destroyer of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, and yet a creature known +only by his track. He was never seen, and his nightly raids seemed +planned with consummate skill to avoid all kinds of snares. + +The cattlemen clubbed together and offered an enormous bounty for +every Grizzly killed in the range. Bear-trappers came and caught some +Bears, Brown and Cinnamon, but the cattle-killing went on. They set +out better traps of massive steel and iron bars, and at length they +caught a killer, the Mokelumne Grizzly; yes, and read in the dust how +he had come at last and made the fateful step; but steel will break +and iron will bend. The great Bear-trail was there to tell the tale: +for a while he had raged and chafed at the hard black reptile biting +into his paw; then, seeking a boulder, he had released the paw by +smashing the trap to pieces on it. Thenceforth each year he grew more +cunning, huge, and destructive. + +Kellyan and Bonamy came down from the mountains now, tempted by the +offered rewards. They saw the huge tracks; they learned that cattle +were not killed in all places at once. They studied and hunted. They +got at length in the dust the full impressions of the feet of the +various monsters in regions wide apart, and they saw that all the +cattle were killed in the same way--their muzzles torn, their necks +broken; and last, the marks on the trees where the Bears had reared +and rubbed, then scored them with a broken tusk, the same all through +the wide range; and Kellyan told them with calm certainty: "Pedro's +Gringo, Old Pegtrack, the Placerville Grizzly, and the Monarch of the +Range _are one and the same Bear."_ + +The little man from the mountains and the big man from the hills set +about the task of hunting him down with an intensity of purpose which, +like the river that is dammed, grew more fierce from being balked. + +All manner of traps had failed for him. Steel traps he could smash, no +log trap was strong enough to hold this furry elephant; he would not +come to a bait; he never fed twice from the same kill. + +Two reckless boys once trailed him to a rocky glen. The horses would +not enter; the boys went in afoot, and were never seen again. The +Mexicans held him in superstitious terror, believing that he could not +be killed; and he passed another year in the cattle-land, known and +feared now as the "Monarch of the Range," killing in the open by +night, and retiring by day to his fastness in the near hills, where +horsemen could not follow. + +Bonamy had been called away; but all that summer, and winter, +too,--for the Grizzly no longer "denned up,"--Kellyan rode and rode, +each time too late or too soon to meet the Monarch. He was almost +giving up, not in despair, but for lack of means, when a message came +from a rich man, a city journalist, offering to multiply the reward by +ten if, instead of killing the Monarch, he would bring him in alive. + +Kellyan sent for his old partner, and when word came that the previous +night three cows were killed in the familiar way near the Bell-Dash +pasture, they spared neither horse nor man to reach the spot. A +ten-hour ride by night meant worn-out horses, but the men were iron, +and new horses with scarcely a minute's delay were brought them. Here +were the newly killed beeves, there the mighty footprints with the +scars that spelled his name. No hound could have tracked him better +than Kellyan did. Five miles away from the foot of the hills was an +impenetrable thicket of chaparral. The great tracks went in, did not +come out, so Bonamy sat sentinel while Kellyan rode back with the +news. "Saddle up the best we got!" was the order. Rifles were taken +down and cartridge-belts being swung when Kellyan called a halt. + +"Say, boys, we've got him safe enough. He won't try to leave the +chaparral till night. If we shoot him we get the cattlemen's bounty; +if we take him alive--an' it's easy in the open--we get the newspaper +bounty, ten times as big. Let's leave all guns behind; lariats are +enough." + +"Why not have the guns along to be handy?" + +"'Cause I know the crowd too well; they couldn't resist the chance to +let him have it; so no guns at all. It's ten to one on the riata." + +Nevertheless three of them brought their heavy revolvers. Seven +gallant riders on seven fine horses, they rode out that day to meet +the Monarch of the Range. He was still in the thicket, for it was yet +morning. They threw stones in and shouted to drive him out, without +effect, till the noon breeze of the plains arose--the down-current of +air from the hills. Then they fired the grass in several places, and +it sent a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into the thicket. There was +a crackling louder than the fire, a smashing of brush, and from the +farther side out hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, Grizzly Jack. +Horsemen were all about him now, armed not with guns but with the +rawhide snakes whose loops in air spell bonds or death. The men were +calm, but the horses were snorting and plunging in fear. This way and +that the Grizzly looked up at the horsemen--a little bit; scarcely up +at the horses; then turning without haste, he strode toward the +friendly hills. + +"Look out, now, Bill! Manuel! It's up to you." + +Oh, noble horses, nervy men! oh, grand old Grizzly, how I see you now! +Cattle-keepers and cattle-killer face to face! + +Three riders of the range that horse had never thrown were sailing, +swooping, like falcons; their lariats swung, sang--sang higher--and +Monarch, much perplexed, but scarcely angered yet, rose to his hind +legs, then from his towering height looked down on horse and man. If, +as they say, the vanquished prowess goes into the victor, then surely +in that mighty chest, those arms like necks of bulls, was the power of +the thousand cattle he had downed in fight. + +"Caramba! what a Bear! Pedro was not so far astray." + +"Sing--sing--sing!" the lariats flew. "Swish--pat!" one, two, three, +they fell. These were not men to miss. Three ropes, three horses, +leaping away to bear on the great beast's neck. But swifter than +thought the supple paws went up. The ropes were slipped, and the +spurred cow-ponies, ready for the shock, went, shockless, +bounding--loose ropes trailing afar. + +"Hi--Hal! Ho--Lan! Head him!" as the Grizzly, liking not the unequal +fight, made for the hills. But a deft Mexican in silver gear sent his +hide riata whistling, then haunched his horse as the certain coil sank +in the Grizzly's hock, and checked the Monarch with a heavy jar. +Uttering one great snort of rage, he turned; his huge jaws crossed the +rope, back nearly to his ears it went, and he ground it as a dog might +grind a twig, so the straining pony bounded free. + +Round and round him now the riders swooped, waiting their chance. More +than once his neck was caught, but he slipped the noose as though it +were all play. Again he was caught by a foot and wrenched, almost +thrown, by the weight of two strong steeds, and now he foamed in rage. +Memories of olden days, or more likely the habit of olden days, came +on him--days when he learned to strike the yelping pack that dodged +his blows. He was far from the burnt thicket, but a single bush was +near, and setting his broad back to that, he waited for the circling +foe. Nearer and nearer they urged the frightened steeds, and Monarch +watched--waited, as of old, for the dogs, till they were almost +touching each other, then he sprang like an avalanche of rock. What +can elude a Grizzly's dash? The earth shivered as he launched himself, +and trembled when he struck. Three men, three horses, in each other's +way. The dust was thick; they only knew he struck--struck--struck! The +horses never rose. + +"Santa Maria!" came a cry of death, and hovering riders dashed to draw +the Bear away. Three horses dead, one man dead, one nearly so, and +only one escaped. + +"Crack! crack! crack!" went the pistols now as the Bear went rocking +his huge form in rapid charge for the friendly hills; and the four +riders, urged by Kellyan, followed fast. They passed him, wheeled, +faced him. The pistols had wounded him in many places. + +"Don't shoot--don't shoot, but tire him out," the hunter urged. + +"Tire him out? Look at Carlos and Manuel back there. How many minutes +will it be before the rest are down with them?" So the infuriating +pistols popped till all their shots were gone, and Monarch foamed with +slobbering jaws of rage. + +"Keep on! keep cool," cried Kellyan. + +His lariat flew as the cattle-killing paw was lifted for an instant. +The lasso bound his wrist. "Sing! Sing!" went two, and caught him by +the neck. A bull with his great club-foot in a noose is surely caught, +but the Grizzly raised his supple, hand-like, tapering paw and gave +one jerk that freed it. Now the two on his neck were tight; he could +not slip them. The horses at the ends--they were dragging, choking +him; men were shouting, hovering, watching for a new chance, when +Monarch, firmly planting both paws, braced, bent those mighty +shoulders, and, spite of shortening breath, leaned back on those two +ropes as Samson did on pillars of the house of Baal, and straining +horses with their riders were dragged forward more and more, long +grooves being plowed behind; dragging them, he backed faster and +faster still. His eyes were starting, his tongue lolling out. + +"Keep on! hold tight!" was the cry, till the ropers swung together, +the better to resist; and Monarch, big and strong with frenzied hate, +seeing now his turn, sprang forward like a shot. The horses leaped and +escaped--almost; the last was one small inch too slow. The awful paw +with jags of steel just grazed his flank. How slight it sounds! But +what it really means is better not writ down. + +The riders had slipped their ropes in fear, and the Monarch, rumbling, +snorting, bounding, trailed them to the hills, there to bite them off +in peace, while the remnant of the gallant crew went, sadly muttering, +back. + +Bitter words went round. Kellyan was cursed. + +"His fault. Why didn't we have the guns?" + +"We were all in it," was the answer, and more hard words, till Kellyan +flushed, forgot his calm, and drew a pistol hitherto concealed, and +the other "took it back." + +[Illustration: "RUMBLING AND SNORTING, HE MADE FOR THE FRIENDLY +HILLS"] + + + +XV. THE FOAMING FLOOD + + +"What is next, Lan?" said Lou, as they sat dispirited by the fire that +night. + +Kellyan was silent for a time, then said slowly and earnestly, with a +gleam in his eye: "Lou, that's the greatest Bear alive. When I seen +him set up there like a butte and swat horses like they was flies, I +jest loved him. He's the greatest thing God has turned loose in these +yer hills. Before to-day, I sure wanted to get him; now, Lou, I'm +a-going to get him, an' get him alive, if it takes all my natural +days. I think I kin do it alone, but I know I kin do it with you," and +deep in Kellyan's eyes there glowed a little spark of something not +yet rightly named. + +They were camped in the hills, being no longer welcome at the ranch; +the ranchers thought their price too high. Some even decided that the +Monarch, being a terror to sheep, was not an undesirable neighbor. The +cattle bounty was withdrawn, but the newspaper bounty was not. + +"I want you to bring in that Bear," was the brief but pregnant message +from the rich newsman when he heard of the fight with the riders. + +"How are you going about it, Lan?" + +Every bridge has its rotten plank, every fence its flimsy rail, every +great one his weakness, and Kellyan, as he pondered, knew how mad it +was to meet this one of brawn with mere brute force. + +"Steel traps are no good; he smashes them. Lariats won't do, and he +knows all about log traps. But I have a scheme. First, we must follow +him up and learn his range. I reckon that'll take three months." + +So the two kept on. They took up that Bear-trail next day; they found +the lariats chewed off. They followed day after day. They learned what +they could from rancher and sheepherder, and much more was told them +than they could believe. + +Three months, Lan said, but it took six months to carry out his plan; +meanwhile Monarch killed and killed. + +In each section of his range they made one or two cage- or pen-traps +of bolted logs. At the back end of each they put a small grating of +heavy steel bars. The door was carefully made and fitted into grooves. +It was of double plank, with tar-paper between to make it surely +light-tight. It was sheeted with iron on the inside, and when it +dropped it went into an iron-bound groove in the floor. + +They left these traps open and unset till they were grayed with age +and smelt no more of man. Then the two hunters prepared for the final +play. They baited all without setting them--baited them with honey, +the lure that Monarch never had refused--and when at length they found +the honey baits were gone, they came where he now was taking toll and +laid the long-planned snare. Every trap was set, and baited as before +with a mass of honey--but _honey now mixed with a potent sleeping +draft_. + + + +XVI. LANDLOCKED + + +That night the great Bear left his lair, one of his many lairs, and, +cured of all his wounds, rejoicing in the fullness of his mighty +strength, he strode toward the plains. His nose, ever alert, +reported--sheep, a deer, a grouse; men--more sheep, some cows, and +some calves; a bull--a fighting bull--and Monarch wheeled in big, +rude, Bearish joy at the coming battle brunt; but as he hugely hulked +from hill to hill a different message came, so soft and low, so +different from the smell of beefish brutes, one might well wonder he +could sense it, but like a tiny ringing bell when thunder booms it +came, and Monarch wheeled at once. Oh, it cast a potent spell! It +stood for something very near to ecstasy with him, and down the hill +and through the pines he went, on and on faster yet, abandoned to its +sorcery. Here to its home he traced it, a long, low cavern. He had +seen such many times before, had been held in them more than once, but +had learned to spurn them. For weeks he had been robbing them of their +treasures, and its odor, like a calling voice, was still his guide. +Into the cavern he passed and it reeked with the smell of joy. There +was the luscious mass, and Monarch, with all caution lulled now, +licked and licked, then seized to tear the bag for more, when down +went the door with a low "bang!" The Monarch started, but all was +still and there was no smell of danger. He had forced such doors +before. His palate craved the honey still, and he licked and licked, +greedily at first, then calmly, then slowly, then drowsily--then at +last stopped. His eyes were closing, and he sank slowly down on the +earth and slept a heavy sleep. + +Calm, but white-faced, were they--the men--when in the dawn they came. +There were the huge scarred tracks in-leading; there was the door +down; there dimly they could see a mass of fur that filled the pen, +that heaved in deepest sleep. + +Strong ropes, strong chains and bands of steel were at hand, with +chloroform, lest he should revive too soon. Through holes in the roof +with infinite toil they chained him, bound him--his paws to his neck, +his neck and breast and hind legs to a bolted beam. Then raising the +door, they dragged him out, not with horses--none would go near--but +with a windlass to a tree; and fearing the sleep of death, they let +him now revive. + +Chained and double chained, frenzied, foaming, and impotent, what +words can tell the state of the fallen Monarch? They put him on a +sled, and six horses with a long chain drew it by stages to the plain, +to the railway. They fed him enough to save his life. A great +steam-derrick lifted Bear and beam and chain on to a flat-car, a +tarpaulin was spread above his helpless form; the engine puffed, +pulled out; and the Grizzly King was gone from his ancient hills. + +So they brought him to the great city, the Monarch born, in chains. +They put him in a cage not merely strong enough for a lion, but thrice +as strong, and once a rope gave way as the huge one strained his +bonds. "He is loose," went the cry, and an army of onlookers and +keepers fled; only the small man with the calm eye and the big man of +the hills were stanch, so the Monarch was still held. + +Free in the cage, he swung round, looked this way and that, then +heaved his powers against the triple angling steel and wrenched the +cage so not a part of it was square. In time he clearly would break +out. They dragged the prisoner to another that an elephant could not +break down, but it stood on the ground, and in an hour the great beast +had a cavern into the earth and was sinking out of sight, till a +stream of water sent after him filled the hole and forced him again to +view. They moved him to a new cage made for him since he came--a hard +rock floor, great bars of nearly two-inch steel that reached up nine +feet and then projected in for five. The Monarch wheeled once around, +then, rearing, raised his ponderous bulk, wrenched those bars, +unbreakable, and bent and turned them in their sockets with one heave +till the five-foot spears were pointed out, and then sprang to climb. +Nothing but pikes and blazing brands in a dozen ruthless hands could +hold him back. The keepers watched him night and day till a stronger +cage was made, impregnable with steel above and rocks below. + +The Untamed One passed swiftly around, tried every bar, examined every +corner, sought for a crack in the rocky floor, and found at last the +place where was a six-inch timber beam--the only piece of wood in its +frame. It was sheathed in iron, but exposed for an inch its whole +length. One claw could reach the wood, and here he lay on his side and +raked--raked all day till a great pile of shavings was lying by it and +the beam sawn in two; but the cross-bolts remained, and when Monarch +put his vast shoulder to the place it yielded not a whit. That was his +last hope; now it was gone; and the huge Bear sank down in the cage +with his nose in his paws and sobbed--long, heavy sobs, animal sounds +indeed, but telling just as truly as in man of the broken spirit--the +hope and the life gone out. The keepers came with food at the +appointed time, but the Bear moved not. They set it down, but in the +morning it was still untouched. The Bear was lying as before, his +ponderous form in the pose he had first taken. The sobbing was +replaced by a low moan at intervals. + +Two days went by. The food, untouched, was corrupting in the sun. The +third day, and Monarch still lay on his breast, his huge muzzle under +his huger paw. His eyes were hidden; only a slight heaving of his +broad chest was now seen. + +"He is dying," said one keeper. "He can't live overnight." + +"Send for Kellyan," said another. + +So Kellyan came, slight and thin. There was the beast that he had +chained, pining, dying. He had sobbed his life out in his last hope's +death, and a thrill of pity came over the hunter, for men of grit and +power love grit and power. He put his arm through the cage bars and +stroked him, but Monarch made no sign. His body was cold. At length a +little moan was sign of life, and Kellyan said, "Here, let me go in +to him." + +"You are mad," said the keepers, and they would not open the cage. But +Kellyan persisted till they put in a cross-grating in front of the +Bear. Then, with this between, he approached. His hand was on the +shaggy head, but Monarch lay as before. The hunter stroked his victim +and spoke to him. His hand went to the big round ears, small above the +head. They were rough to his touch. He looked again, then started. +What! is it true? Yes, the stranger's tale was true, for both ears +were pierced with a round hole--one torn large--and Kellyan knew that +once again he had met his little Jack. + +"Why, Jacky, I didn't know it was you. I never would have done it if I +had known it was you. Jacky, old pard, don't you know me?" + +But Jack stirred not, and Kellyan got up quickly. Back to the hotel he +flew; there he put on his hunter's suit, smoky and smelling of pine +gum and grease, and returned with a mass of honeycomb to reenter the +cage. + +"Jacky, Jacky!" he cried, "honey, honey!" and he held the tempting +comb before him. But Monarch lay as one dead now. + +"Jacky, Jacky! don't you know me?" He dropped the honey and laid his +hands on the great muzzle. + +The voice was forgotten. The old-time invitation, "Honey, +Jacky--honey," had lost its power, but the _smell_ of the honey, +the coat, the hands that he had fondled, had together a hidden +potency. + +There is a time when the dying of our race forget their life, but +clearly remember the scenes of childhood; these only are real and +return with master power. And why not with a Bear? The power of scent +was there to call them back again, and Jacky, the Grizzly Monarch, +raised his head a little--just a little; the eyes were nearly closed, +but the big brown nose was jerked up feebly two or three times--the +sign of interest that Jacky used to give in days of old. Now it was +Kellyan that broke down even as the Bear had done. + +"I didn't know it was you, Jacky, or I never would have done it. Oh, +Jacky, forgive me!" He rose and fled from the cage. + +The keepers were there. They scarcely understood the scene, but one of +them, acting on the hint, pushed the honeycomb nearer and cried, +"Honey, Jacky--honey!" + +Filled by despair, he had lain down to die, but here was a new-born +hope, not clear, not exact as words might put it, but his conqueror +had shown himself a friend; this seemed a new hope, and the keeper, +taking up the old call, "Honey, Jacky--honey!" pushed the comb till it +touched his muzzle. The smell was wafted to his sense, its message +reached his brain; hope honored, it must awake response. The great +tongue licked the comb, appetite revived, and thus in newborn Hope +began the chapter of his gloom. + +Skilful keepers were there with plans to meet the Monarch's every +want. Delicate foods were offered and every shift was tried to tempt +him back to strength and prison life. + +He ate and--lived. + +And still he lives, but pacing--pacing--pacing--you may see him, +scanning not the crowds, but something beyond the crowds, breaking +down at times into petulant rages, but recovering anon his ponderous +dignity, looking--waiting--watching--held ever by that Hope, that +unknown Hope, that came. Kellyan has been to him since, but Monarch +knows him not. Over his head, beyond him, was the great Bear's gaze, +far away toward Tallac or far away on the sea, we knowing not which or +why, but pacing--pacing--pacing--held like the storied Wandering One +to a life of ceaseless journey--a journey aimless, endless, and sad. + +The wound-spots long ago have left his shaggy coat, but the earmarks +still are there, the ponderous strength, the elephantine dignity. His +eyes are dull,--never were bright,--but they seem not vacant, and most +often fixed on the Golden Gate where the river seeks the sea. + +The river, born in high Sierra's flank, that lived and rolled and +grew, through mountain pines, o'erleaping man-made barriers, then to +reach with growing power the plains and bring its mighty flood at last +to the Bay of Bays, a prisoner there to lie, the prisoner of the +Golden Gate, seeking forever Freedom's Blue, seeking and +raging--raging and seeking--back and forth, forever--in vain. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11135 *** diff --git a/11135-h/11135-h.htm b/11135-h/11135-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ea8248 --- /dev/null +++ b/11135-h/11135-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3094 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac, by Ernest Thompson Seton</title> +<style type="text/css"> +body {margin:0; padding:0;} + +.content + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} +p + {text-align: justify;} +blockquote + {text-align: justify;} +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 + {text-align: center;} + +hr + {text-align: center; width: 50%;} +html>body hr + {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} +hr.full + {width: 100%;} +html>body hr.full + {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + +img + {border: none;} +.footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 0.9em;} +.figure + {text-align: center; font-size: 0.7em;} +.right + {float: right; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 0;} +.left + {float: left; margin-left: 0; margin-right: 5%;} + +.list + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} +.rom + {list-style-type: upper-roman;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size:10pt;} +</style> + + + + + +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11135 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac, by Ernest +Thompson Seton</h1> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full"> +<div class="content"> +<h1>MONARCH<br> +The BIG BEAR of Tallac</h1> +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/001.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> +<h3>With 100 Drawings<br> +by <font size="+2">Ernest Thompson Seton</font></h3> +<h5>Author of<br> +<i>Wild Animals I have known<br> +Trail of the Sandhill Stag<br> +Biography of a Grizzly<br> +Lives of the Hunted.<br> +Two Little Savages. Etc. +</i> +</h5> +<div class="figure"> +<img src="images/006.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<h4> +<b>Published by Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1919.</b><br> +</h4> + +<hr class="full"> +<p> +<b>THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED</b> +</p> +<p> +To the memory of the days in Tallac's Pines, where by the fire I heard +this epic tale. +</p> +<p> +Kind memory calls the picture up before me now, clear, living clear: I +see them as they sat, the one small and slight, the other tall and +brawny, leader and led, rough men of the hills. They told me this +tale—in broken bits they gave it, a sentence at a time. They were +ready to talk but knew not how. Few their words, and those they used +would be empty on paper, meaningless without the puckered lip, the +interhiss, the brutal semi-snarl restrained by human mastery, the snap +and jerk of wrist and gleam of steel-gray eye, that really told the +tale, of which the spoken word was mere headline. Another, a subtler +theme was theirs that night; not in the line but in the interline it +ran; and listening to the hunter's ruder tale, I heard as one may hear +the night bird singing in the storm; amid the glitter of the mica I +caught the glint of gold, for theirs was a parable of hill-born power +that fades when it finds the plains. They told of the giant redwood's +growth from a tiny seed; of the avalanche that, born a snowflake, +heaves and grows on the peaks, to shrink and die on the level lands +below. They told of the river at our feet: of its rise, a thread-like +rill, afar on Tallac's side, and its growth—a brook, a stream, a +little river, a river, a mighty flood that rolled and ran from hills +to plain to meet a final doom so strange that only the wise believe. +Yes, I have seen it; it is there to-day—the river, the wonderful +river, that unabated flows, but that never reaches the sea. +</p> +<p> +I give you the story then as it came to me, and yet I do not give it, +for theirs is a tongue unknown to script: I give a dim translation; +dim, but in all ways respectful, reverencing the indomitable spirit of +the mountaineer, worshiping the mighty Beast that nature built a +monument of power, and loving and worshiping the clash, the awful +strife heroic, at the close, when these two met. +</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<h4>In this Book the designs for<br> cover, title-page, and general<br> make-up +were done by <br>Grace Gallatin Seton.</h4> + +<div class="figure"> +<img src="images/011.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="list"> +<font size="+2"><b>List of Full-Page Drawings</b></font> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#illus1">"The pony bounded in terror while the Grizzly ran almost alongside"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus2">"Jack ate till his paunch looked like a rubber balloon"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus3">'Honey—Jacky—honey'"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus4">"Jack ... held up his sticky, greasy arms"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus5">The Thirty-foot Bear</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus6">"'Now, B'ar, I don't want no scrap with you'"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus7">"Rumbling and snorting, he made for the friendly hills"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus8">Monarch</a></li> +</ul> + +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="list"> +<p><font size="+2"><b>List of The Chapters</b></font></p> + +<ol class="rom"> +<li><a href="#1">The Two Springs</a></li> +<li><a href="#2">The Springs and the Miner's Dam</a></li> +<li><a href="#3">The Trout Pool</a></li> +<li><a href="#4">The Stream that Sank in the Sand</a></li> +<li><a href="#5">The River Held in the Foothills</a></li> +<li><a href="#6">The Broken Dam</a></li> +<li><a href="#7">The Freshet</a></li> +<li><a href="#8">Roaring in the Cañon</a></li> +<li><a href="#9">Fire and Water</a></li> +<li><a href="#10">The Eddy</a></li> +<li><a href="#11">The Ford</a></li> +<li><a href="#12">Swirl and Pool and Growing Flood</a></li> +<li><a href="#13">The Deepening Channel</a></li> +<li><a href="#14">The Cataract</a></li> +<li><a href="#15">The Foaming Flood</a></li> +<li><a href="#16">Landlocked</a></li> +</ol> +</div> + + +<hr class="full"> + + +<h3>—FOREWORD—</h3> + + +<p> +The story of Monarch is founded on material gathered from many sources +as well as from personal experience, and the Bear is of necessity a +composite. The great Grizzly Monarch, still pacing his prison floor at +the Golden Gate Park, is the central fact of the tale. +</p> + +<p> +In telling it I have taken two liberties that I conceive to be proper +in a story of this sort. +</p> + +<p> +First, I have selected for my hero an unusual individual. +</p> + +<p> +Second, I have ascribed to that one animal the adventures of several +of his kind. +</p> + +<p> +The aim of the story is to picture the life of a Grizzly with the +added glamour of a remarkable Bear personality. The intention is to +convey the known truth. But the fact that liberties have been taken +excludes the story from the catalogue of pure science. It must be +considered rather an historical novel of Bear life. +</p> + +<p> +Many different Bears were concerned in the early adventures here +related, but the last two chapters, the captivity and the despair of +the Big Bear, are told as they were told to me by several witnesses, +including my friends the two mountaineers. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="1"></a>I. THE TWO SPRINGS +</h3> + + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/021.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +High above Sierra's peaks stands grim Mount Tallac. Ten thousand feet +above the sea it rears its head to gaze out north to that vast and +wonderful turquoise that men call Lake Tahoe, and northwest, across a +piney sea, to its great white sister, Shasta of the Snows; wonderful +colors and things on every side, mast-like pine trees strung with +jewelry, streams that a Buddhist would have made sacred, hills that an +Arab would have held holy. But Lan Kellyan's keen gray eyes were +turned to other things. The childish delight in life and light for +their own sakes had faded, as they must in one whose training had been +to make him hold them very cheap. Why value grass? All the world is +grass. Why value air, when it is everywhere in measureless immensity? +Why value life, when, all alive, his living came from taking life? His +senses were alert, not for the rainbow hills and the gem-bright lakes, +but for the living things that he must meet in daily rivalry, each +staking on the game, his life. Hunter was written on his leathern +garb, on his tawny face, on his lithe and sinewy form, and shone in +his clear gray eye. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/023.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The cloven granite peak might pass unmarked, but a faint dimple in the +sod did not. Calipers could not have told that it was widened at one +end, but the hunter's eye did, and following, he looked for and found +another, then smaller signs, and he knew that a big Bear and two +little ones had passed and were still close at hand, for the grass in +the marks was yet unbending. Lan rode his hunting pony on the trail. +It sniffed and stepped nervously, for it knew as well as the rider +that a Grizzly family was near. They came to a terrace leading to an +open upland. Twenty feet on this side of it Lan slipped to the ground, +dropped the reins, the well-known sign to the pony that he must stand +at that spot, then cocked his rifle and climbed the bank. At the top +he went with yet greater caution, and soon saw an old Grizzly with her +two cubs. She was lying down some fifty yards away and afforded a poor +shot; he fired at what seemed to be the shoulder. The aim was true, +but the Bear got only a flesh-wound. She sprang to her feet and made +for the place where the puff of smoke arose. The Bear had fifty yards +to cover, the man had fifteen, but she came racing down the bank +before he was fairly on the horse, and for a hundred yards the pony +bounded in terror while the old Grizzly ran almost alongside, striking +at him and missing by a scant hair's-breadth each time. But the +Grizzly rarely keeps up its great speed for many yards. The horse got +under full headway, and the shaggy mother, falling behind, gave up the +chase and returned to her cubs. +</p> + +<a name="illus1"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus1.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus1-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"THE PONY BOUNDED IN TERROR WHILE THE GRIZZLY RAN ALMOST ALONGSIDE" +</div> + +<p> +She was a singular old Bear. She had a large patch of white on her +breast, white cheeks and shoulders, graded into the brown elsewhere, +and Lan from this remembered her afterward as the "Pinto." She had +almost caught him that time, and the hunter was ready to believe that +he owed her a grudge. +</p> + +<p> +A week later his chance came. As he passed along the rim of Pocket +Gulch, a small, deep valley with sides of sheer rock in most places, +he saw afar the old Pinto Bear with her two little brown cubs. She was +crossing from one side where the wall was low to another part easy to +climb. As she stopped to drink at the clear stream Lan fired with his +rifle. At the shot Pinto turned on her cubs, and slapping first one, +then the other, she chased them up a tree. Now a second shot struck +her and she charged fiercely up the sloping part of the wall, clearly +recognizing the whole situation and determined to destroy that hunter. +She came snorting up the steep acclivity wounded and raging, only to +receive a final shot in the brain that sent her rolling back to lie +dead at the bottom of Pocket Gulch. The hunter, after waiting to make +sure, moved to the edge and fired another shot into the old one's +body; then reloading, he went cautiously down to the tree where still +were the cubs. They gazed at him with wild seriousness as he +approached them, and when he began to climb they scrambled up higher. +Here one set up a plaintive whining and the other an angry growling, +their outcries increasing as he came nearer. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/028.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He took out a stout cord, and noosing them in turn, dragged them to +the ground. One rushed at him and, though little bigger than a cat, +would certainly have done him serious injury had he not held it off +with a forked stick. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/030.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +After tying them to a strong but swaying branch he went to his horse, +got a grain-bag, dropped them into that, and rode with them to his +shanty. He fastened each with a collar and chain to a post, up which +they climbed, and sitting on the top they whined and growled, +according to their humor. For the first few days there was danger of +the cubs strangling themselves or of starving to death, but at length +they were beguiled into drinking some milk most ungently procured from +a range cow that was lassoed for the purpose. In another week they +seemed somewhat reconciled to their lot, and thenceforth plainly +notified their captor whenever they wanted food or water. +</p> + +<p> +And thus the two small rills ran on, a little farther down the +mountain now, deeper and wider, keeping near each other; leaping bars, +rejoicing in the sunlight, held for a while by some trivial dam, but +overleaping that and running on with pools and deeps that harbor +bigger things. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="2"></a>II. THE SPRINGS AND THE MINER'S DAM +</h3> + +<div style="width: 4%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/033.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +Jack and Jill, the hunter named the cubs; and Jill, the little fury, +did nothing to change his early impression of her bad temper. When at +food-time the man came she would get as far as possible up the post +and growl, or else sit in sulky fear and silence; Jack would scramble +down and strain at his chain to meet his captor, whining softly, and +gobbling his food at once with the greatest of gusto and the worst of +manners. He had many odd ways of his own, and he was a lasting rebuke +to those who say an animal has no sense of humor. In a month he had +grown so tame that he was allowed to run free. He followed his master +like a dog, and his tricks and funny doings were a continual delight +to Kellyan and the few friends he had in the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +On the creek-bottom below the shack was a meadow where Lan cut enough +hay each year to feed his two ponies through the winter. This year +when hay-time came Jack was his daily companion, either following him +about in dangerous nearness to the snorting scythe, or curling up an +hour at a time on his coat to guard it assiduously from such +aggressive monsters as Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks. An interesting +variation of the day came about whenever the mower found a bumblebees' +nest. Jack loved honey, of course, and knew quite well what a bees' +nest was, so the call, "Honey—Jacky—honey!" never failed to bring +him in waddling haste to the spot. Jerking his nose up in token of +pleasure, he would approach cautiously, for he knew that bees have +stings. Watching his chance, he would dexterously slap at them with +his paws till, one by one, they were knocked down and crushed; then +sniffing hard for the latest information, he would stir up the nest +gingerly till the very last was tempted forth to be killed. When the +dozen or more that formed the swarm were thus got rid of, Jack would +carefully dig out the nest and eat first the honey, next the grubs and +wax, and last of all the bees he had killed, champing his jaws like a +little Pig at a trough, while his long red, snaky tongue was ever busy +lashing the stragglers into his greedy maw. +</p> + +<a name="illus2"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus2.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus2-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"JACK ATE TILL HIS PAUNCH LOOKED LIKE A RUBBER BALLOON" +</div> + +<p> +Lan's nearest neighbor was Lou Bonamy, an ex-cowboy and sheep-herder, +now a prospecting miner. He lived, with his dog, in a shanty about a +mile below Kellyan's shack. Bonamy had seen Jack "perform on a +bee-crew." And one day, as he came to Kellyan's, he called out: "Lan, +bring Jack here and we'll have some fun." He led the way down the +stream into the woods. Kellyan followed him, and Jacky waddled at +Kellyan's heels, sniffing once in a while to make sure he was not +following the wrong pair of legs. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/038.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +"There, Jacky, honey—honey!" and Bonamy pointed up a tree to an +immense wasps' nest. +</p> + +<p> +Jack cocked his head on one side and swung his nose on the other. +Certainly those things buzzing about looked like bees, though he never +before saw a bees' nest of that shape, or in such a place. +</p> + +<p> +But he scrambled up the trunk. The men waited—Lan in doubt as to +whether he should let his pet cub go into such danger, Bonamy +insisting it would be a capital joke "to spring a surprise" on the +little Bear. Jack reached the branch that held the big nest high over +the deep water, but went with increasing caution. He had never seen a +bees' nest like this; it did not have the right smell. Then he took +another step forward on the branch—what an awful lot of bees; another +step—still they were undoubtedly bees; he cautiously advanced a +foot—and bees mean honey; a little farther—he was now within four +feet of the great paper globe. The bees hummed angrily and Jack +stepped back, in doubt. The men giggled; then Bonamy called softly and +untruthfully: "Honey—Jacky—honey!" +</p> + +<a name="illus3"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus3.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus3-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"'HONEY—JACKY—HONEY'" +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/043.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The little Bear, fortunately for himself, went slowly, since in doubt; +he made no sudden move, and he waited a long time, though urged to go +on, till the whole swarm of bees had reentered their nest. Now Jacky +jerked his nose up, hitched softly out a little farther till right +over the fateful paper globe. He reached out, and by lucky chance put +one horny little paw-pad over the hole; his other arm grasped the +nest, and leaping from the branch he plunged headlong into the pool +below, taking the whole thing with him. As soon as he reached the +water his hind feet were seen tearing into the nest, kicking it to +pieces; then he let it go and struck out for the shore, the nest +floating in rags down-stream. He ran alongside till the comb lodged +against a shallow place, then he plunged in again; the wasps were +drowned or too wet to be dangerous, and he carried his prize to the +bank in triumph. No honey; of course, that was a disappointment, but +there were lots of fat white grubs—almost as good—and Jack ate till +his paunch looked like a little rubber balloon. +</p> + +<p> +"How is that?" chuckled Lan. +</p> + +<p> +"The laugh is on us," answered Bonamy, with a grimace. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="3"></a> +III. THE TROUT POOL +</h3> + + +<p> +Jack was now growing into a sturdy cub, and he would follow Kellyan +even as far as Bonamy's shack. One day, as they watched him rolling +head over heels in riotous glee, Kellyan remarked to his friend: "I'm +afraid some one will happen on him an' shoot him in the woods for a +wild B'ar." +</p> + +<p> +"Then why don't you ear-mark him with them thar new sheep-rings?" was +the sheep-man's suggestion. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/048.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +Thus it was that, much against his will, Jack's ears were punched and +he was decorated with earrings like a prize ram. The intention was +good, but they were neither ornamental nor comfortable. Jack fought +them for days, and when at length he came home trailing a branch that +was caught in the jewel of his left ear, Kellyan impatiently removed +them. +</p> + +<p> +At Bonamy's he formed two new acquaintances, a blustering, bullying +old ram that was "in storage" for a sheep-herder acquaintance, and +which inspired him with a lasting enmity for everything that smelt of +sheep—and Bonamy's dog. +</p> + +<p> +This latter was an active, yapping, unpleasant cur that seemed to +think it rare fun to snap at Jacky's heels, then bound out of reach. A +joke is a joke, but this horrid beast did not know where to stop, and +Jack's first and second visits to the Bonamy hut were quite spoiled by +the tyranny of the dog. If Jack could have got hold of him he might +have settled the account to his own satisfaction, but he was not quick +enough for that. His only refuge was up a tree. He soon discovered +that he was happier away from Bonamy's, and thenceforth when he saw +his protector take the turn that led to the miner's cabin, Jack said +plainly with a look, "No, thank you," and turned back to amuse himself +at home. +</p> +<div style="width: 14%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/049.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +His enemy, however, often came with Bonamy to the hunter's cabin, and +there resumed his amusement of teasing the little Bear. It proved so +interesting a pursuit that the dog learned to come over on his own +account whenever he felt like having some fun, until at length Jack +was kept in continual terror of the yellow cur. But it all ended very +suddenly. +</p> + +<p> +One hot day, while the two men smoked in front of Kellyan's house, the +dog chased Jack up a tree and then stretched himself out for a +pleasant nap in the shade of its branches. Jack was forgotten as the +dog slumbered. The little Bear kept very quiet for a while, then, as +his twinkling brown eyes came back to that hateful dog, that he could +neither catch nor get away from, an idea seemed to grow in his small +brain. He began to move slowly and silently down the branch until he +was over the foe, slumbering, twitching his limbs, and making little +sounds that told of dreams of the chase, or, more likely, dreams of +tormenting a helpless Bear cub. Of course, Jack knew nothing of that. +His one thought, doubtless, was that he hated that cur and now he +could vent his hate. He came just over the tyrant, and taking careful +aim, he jumped and landed squarely on the dog's ribs. It was a +terribly rude awakening, but the dog gave no yelp, for the good reason +that the breath was knocked out of his body. No bones were broken, +though he was barely able to drag himself away in silent defeat, while +Jacky played a lively tune on his rear with paws that were fringed +with meat-hooks. +</p> + +<p> +Evidently it was a most excellent plan; and when the dog came around +after that, or when Jack went to Bonamy's with his master, as he soon +again ventured to do, he would scheme with more or less success to +"get the drop on the purp," as the men put it. The dog now rapidly +lost interest in Bear-baiting, and in a short time it was a forgotten +sport. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="4"></a> +IV. THE STREAM THAT SANK IN THE SAND +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/053.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<div style="width: 7%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/055.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Jack was funny; Jill was sulky. Jack was petted and given freedom, so +grew funnier; Jill was beaten and chained, so grew sulkier. She had a +bad name and she was often punished for it; it is usually so. +</p> + + +<p> +One day, while Lan was away, Jill got free and joined her brother. +They broke into the little storehouse and rioted among the provisions. +They gorged themselves with the choicest sorts; and the common stuffs, +like flour, butter, and baking-powder, brought fifty miles on +horseback, were good enough only to be thrown about the ground or +rolled in. Jack had just torn open the last bag of flour, and Jill was +puzzling over a box of miner's dynamite, when the doorway darkened and +there stood Kellyan, a picture of amazement and wrath. Little Bears do +not know anything about pictures, but they have some acquaintance with +wrath. They seemed to know that they were sinning, or at least in +danger, and Jill sneaked, sulky and snuffy, into a dark corner, where +she glared defiantly at the hunter. Jack put his head on one side, +then, quite forgetful of all his misbehavior, he gave a delighted +grunt, and scuttling toward the man, he whined, jerked his nose, and +held up his sticky, greasy arms to be lifted and petted as though he +were the best little Bear in the world. +</p> + +<a name="illus4"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus4.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus4-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"JACK ... HELD UP HIS STICKY, GREASY ARMS" +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/056.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Alas, how likely we are to be taken at our own estimate! The scowl +faded from the hunter's brow as the cheeky and deplorable little Bear +began to climb his leg. "You little divil," he growled, "I'll break +your cussed neck"; but he did not. He lifted the nasty, sticky little +beast and fondled him as usual, while Jill, no worse—even more +excusable, because less trained—suffered all the terrors of his wrath +and was double-chained to the post, so as to have no further chance of +such ill-doing. +</p> + +<p> +This was a day of bad luck for Kellyan. That morning he had fallen and +broken his rifle. Now, on his return home, he found his provisions +spoiled, and a new trial was before him. +</p> + +<p> +A stranger with a small pack-train called at his place that evening +and passed the night with him. Jack was in his most frolicsome mood +and amused them both with tricks half-puppy and half-monkey like, and +in the morning, when the stranger was leaving, he said: "Say, pard, +I'll give you twenty-five dollars for the pair." Lan hesitated, +thought of the wasted provisions, his empty purse, his broken rifle, +and answered: "Make it fifty and it's a go." +</p> + +<p> +"Shake on it." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/060.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +So the bargain was made, the money paid, and in fifteen minutes the +stranger was gone with a little Bear in each pannier of his horse. +</p> + +<p> +Jill was surly and silent; Jack kept up a whining that smote on Lan's +heart with a reproachful sound, but he braced himself with, "Guess +they're better out of the way; couldn't afford another storeroom +racket," and soon the pine forest had swallowed up the stranger, his +three led horses, and the two little Bears. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm glad he's gone," said Lan, savagely, though he knew quite +well that he was already scourged with repentance. He began to set his +shanty in order. He went to the storehouse and gathered the remnants +of the provisions. After all, there was a good deal left. He walked +past the box where Jack used to sleep. How silent it was! He noted the +place where Jack used to scratch the door to get into the cabin, and +started at the thought that he should hear it no more, and told +himself, with many cuss-words, that he was "mighty glad of it." He +pottered about, doing—doing—oh, anything, for an hour or more; then +suddenly he leaped on his pony and raced madly down the trail on the +track of the stranger. He put the pony hard to it, and in two hours he +overtook the train at the crossing of the river. +</p> + +<p> +"Say, pard, I done wrong. I didn't orter sell them little B'ars, +leastwise not Jacky. I—I—wall, now, I want to call it off. Here's +yer yellow." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm satisfied with my end of it," said the stranger, coldly. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I ain't," said Lan, with warmth, "an' I want it off." +</p> + +<p> +"Ye're wastin' time if that's what ye come for," was the reply. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see about that," and Lan threw the gold pieces at the rider and +walked over toward the pannier, where Jack was whining joyfully at the +sound of the familiar voice. +</p> + +<p> +"Hands up," said the stranger, with the short, sharp tone of one who +had said it before, and Lan turned to find himself covered with a .45 +navy Colt. +</p> + +<p> +"Ye got the drop on me," he said; "I ain't got no gun; but look-a +here, stranger, that there little B'ar is the only pard I got; he's my +stiddy company an' we're almighty fond o' each other. I didn't know +how much I was a-goin' to miss him. Now look-a here: take back yer +fifty; ye give me Jack an' keep Jill." +</p> + +<p> +"If ye got five hundred cold plunks in yaller ye kin get him; if not, +you walk straight to that tree thar an' don't drop yer hands or turn +or I'll fire. Now start." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/063.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Mountain etiquette is very strict, and Lan, being without weapons, +must needs obey the rules. He marched to the distant tree under cover +of the revolver. The wail of little Jack smote painfully on his ear, +but he knew the ways of the mountaineers too well to turn or make +another offer, and the stranger went on. +</p> + +<p> +Many a man has spent a thousand dollars in efforts to capture some +wild thing and felt it worth the cost—for a time. Then he is willing +to sell it for half cost, then for quarter, and at length he ends by +giving it away. The stranger was vastly pleased with his comical Bear +cubs at first, and valued them proportionately; but each day they +seemed more troublesome and less amusing, so that when, a week later, +at the Bell-Cross Ranch, he was offered a horse for the pair, he +readily closed, and their days of hamper-travel were over. +</p> + +<p> +The owner of the ranch was neither mild, refined, nor patient. Jack, +good-natured as he was, partly grasped these facts as he found himself +taken from the pannier, but when it came to getting cranky little Jill +out of the basket and into a collar, there ensued a scene so +unpleasant that no collar was needed. The ranchman wore his hand in a +sling for two weeks, and Jacky at his chain's end paced the ranch-yard +alone. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/065.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + + + +<h3> +<a name="5"></a> +V. THE RIVER HELD IN THE FOOTHILLS +</h3> + + +<p> +There was little of pleasant interest in the next eighteen months of +Jack's career. His share of the globe was a twenty-foot circle around +a pole in the yard. The blue hills of the offing, the nearer pine +grove, and even the ranch-house itself were fixed stars, far away and +sending merely faint suggestions of their splendors to his not very +bright eyes. Even the horses and men were outside his little sphere +and related to him about as much as comets are to the earth. The very +tricks that had made him valued were being forgotten as Jack grew up +in chains. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/070.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +At first a butter-firkin had made him an ample den, but he rapidly +passed through the various stages—butter-firkin, nail-keg, +flour-barrel, oil-barrel—and had now to be graded as a good average +hogshead Bear, though he was far from filling that big round wooden +cavern that formed his latest den. +</p> + +<p> +The ranch hotel lay just where the foothills of the Sierras with their +groves of live oaks were sloping into the golden plains of the +Sacramento. Nature had showered on it every wonderful gift in her lap. +A foreground rich with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade and sun, dry +pastures, rushing rivers, and murmuring rills, were here. Great trees +were variants of the view, and the high Sierras to the east overtopped +the wondrous plumy forests of their pines with blocks of sculptured +blue. Back of the house was a noble river of water from the hills, +fouled and chained by sluice and dam, but still a noble stream whose +earliest parent rill had gushed from grim old Tallac's slope. +</p> + +<p> +Things of beauty, life, and color were on every side, and yet most +sordid of the human race were the folk about the ranch hotel. To see +them in this setting might well raise doubt that any "rise from Nature +up to Nature's God." No city slum has ever shown a more ignoble crew, +and Jack, if his mind were capable of such things, must have graded +the two-legged ones lower in proportion as he knew them better. +</p> + +<p> +Cruelty was his lot, and hate was his response. Almost the only +amusing trick he now did was helping himself to a drink of beer. He +was very fond of beer, and the loafers about the tavern often gave him +a bottle to see how dexterously he would twist off the wire and work +out the cork. As soon as it popped, he would turn it up between his +paws and drink to the last drop. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/072.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The monotony of his life was occasionally varied with a dog fight. His +tormentors would bring their Bear dogs "to try them on the cub." It +seemed to be very pleasant sport to men and dogs, till Jack learned +how to receive them. At first he used to rush furiously at the nearest +tormentor until brought up with a jerk at the end of his chain and +completely exposed to attack behind from another dog. A month or two +entirely changed his method. He learned to sit against the hogshead +and quietly watch the noisy dogs around him, with much show of +inattention, making no move, no matter how near they were, until they +"bunched," that is, gathered in one place. Then he charged. It was +inevitable that the hind dogs would be the last to jump, and so +hindered the front ones; thus Jack would "get" one or more of them, +and the game became unpopular. +</p> + +<p> +When about eighteen months old, and half grown, an incident took place +which defied all explanation. Jack had won the name of being +dangerous, for he had crippled one man with a blow and nearly killed a +tipsy fool who volunteered to fight him. A harmless but +good-for-nothing sheep-herder who loafed about the place got very +drunk one night and offended some fire-eaters. They decided that, as +he had no gun, it would be the proper thing to club him to their +hearts' content instead of shooting him full of holes, in the manner +usually prescribed by their code. Faco Tampico made for the door and +staggered out into the darkness. His pursuers were even more drunk, +but, bent on mischief, they gave chase, and Faco dodged back of the +house and into the yard. The mountaineers had just wit enough to keep +out of reach of the Grizzly as they searched about for their victim, +but they did not find him. Then they got torches, and making sure that +he was not in the yard, were satisfied that he had fallen into the +river behind the barn and doubtless was drowned. A few rude jokes, and +they returned to the house. As they passed the Grizzly's den their +lanterns awoke in his eyes a glint of fire. In the morning the cook, +beginning his day, heard strange sounds in the yard. They came from +the Grizzly's den: "Hyar, you, lay over dahr," in sleepy tones; then a +deep, querulous grunting. +</p> + +<p> +The cook went as close as he dared and peeped in. Said the same voice +in sleepy tones: "Who are ye crowding, caramba!" and a human elbow was +seen jerking and pounding; and again impatient growling in bear-like +tones was the response. +</p> + +<p> +The sun came up and the astonished loafers found it was the missing +sheep-herder that was in the Bear's den, calmly sleeping off his +debauch in the very cave of death. The men tried to get him out, but +the Grizzly plainly showed that they could do so only over his dead +body. He charged with vindictive fury at any who ventured near, and +when they gave up the attempt he lay down at the door of the den on +guard. At length the sheep-herder came to himself, rose up on his +elbows, and realizing that he was in the power of the young Grizzly, +he stepped gingerly over his guardian's back and ran off without even +saying "Thank you." +</p> + +<p> +The Fourth of July was at hand now, and the owner of the tavern, +growing weary of the huge captive in the yard, announced that he would +celebrate Independence Day with a grand fight between a "picked and +fighting range bull and a ferocious Californian Grizzly." The news was +spread far and wide by the "Grapevine Telegraph." The roof of the +stable was covered with seats at fifty cents each. The hay-wagon was +half loaded and drawn alongside the corral; seats here gave a perfect +view and were sold at a dollar apiece. The old corral was repaired, +new posts put in where needed, and the first thing in the morning a +vicious old bull was herded in and tormented till he was "snuffy" and +extremely dangerous. +</p> + +<p> +Jack meanwhile had been roped, "choked down," and nailed up in his +hogshead. His chain and collar were permanently riveted together, so +the collar was taken off, as "it would be easy to rope him, <i>if need +be, after the bull was through with him.</i>" +</p> + +<p> +The hogshead was rolled over to the corral gate and all was ready. +</p> + +<p> +The cowboys came from far and near in their most gorgeous trappings, +and the California cowboy is the peacock of his race. Their best girls +were with them, and farmers and ranchmen came for fifty miles to enjoy +the Bull-and-Bear fight. Miners from the hills were there, Mexican +sheep-herders, storekeepers from Placerville, strangers from +Sacramento; town and county, mountain and plain, were represented. The +hay-wagon went so well that another was brought into market. The barn +roof was sold out. An ominous crack of the timbers somewhat shook the +prices, but a couple of strong uprights below restored the market, and +all "The Corners" was ready and eager for the great fight. Men who had +been raised among cattle were betting on the bull. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/078.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"I tell you, there ain't nothing on earth kin face a big range bull +that hez good use of hisself." +</p> + +<p> +But the hillmen were backing the Bear. "Pooh, what's a bull to a +Grizzly? I tell you, I seen a Grizzly send a horse clean over the +Hetch-Hetchy with one clip of his left. Bull! I'll bet he'll never +show up in the second round." +</p> + +<p> +So they wrangled and bet, while burly women, trying to look fetching, +gave themselves a variety of airs, were "scared at the whole thing, +nervous about the uproar, afraid it would be shocking," but really +were as keenly interested as the men. +</p> + +<p> +All was ready, and the boss of "The Corners" shouted: "Let her go, +boys; house is full an' time's up!" +</p> + +<p> +Faco Tampico had managed to tie a bundle of chaparral thorn to the +bull's tail, so that the huge creature had literally lashed himself +into a frenzy. +</p> + +<p> +Jack's hogshead meanwhile had been rolled around till he was raging +with disgust, and Faco, at the word of command, began to pry open the +door. The end of the barrel was close to the fence, the door cleared +away; now there was nothing for Jack to do but to go forth and claw +the bull to pieces. But he did not go. The noise, the uproar, the +strangeness of the crowd affected him so that he decided to stay where +he was, and the bull-backers raised a derisive cry. Their champion +came forward bellowing and sniffing, pausing often to paw the dust. He +held his head very high and approached slowly until he came within ten +feet of the Grizzly's den; then, giving a snort, he turned and ran to +the other end of the corral. Now it was the Bear-backers' turn to +shout. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/080.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +But the crowd wanted a fight, and Faco, forgetful of his debt to +Grizzly Jack, dropped a bundle of Fourth of July crackers into the +hogshead by way of the bung. "Crack!" and Jack jumped up. +"Fizz—crack—c-r-r-r-a-a-c-k, cr-k-crk-ck!" and Jack in surprise +rushed from his den into the arena. The bull was standing in a +magnificent attitude there in the middle, but when he saw the Bear +spring toward him, he gave two mighty snorts and retreated as far as +he could, amid cheers and hisses. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/082.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Perhaps the two main characteristics of the Grizzly are the quickness +with which he makes a plan and the vigor with which he follows it up. +Before the bull had reached the far side of the corral Jack seemed to +know the wisest of courses. His pig-like eyes swept the fence in a +flash—took in the most climbable part, a place where a cross-piece +was nailed on in the middle. In three seconds he was there, in two +seconds he was over, and in one second he dashed through the running, +scattering mob and was making for the hills as fast as his strong and +supple legs could carry him. Women screamed, men yelled, and dogs +barked; there was a wild dash for the horses tied far from the scene +of the fight, to spare their nerves, but the Grizzly had three hundred +yards' start, five hundred yards even, and before the gala mob gave +out a long and flying column of reckless, riotous riders, the Grizzly +had plunged into the river, a flood no dog cared to face, and had +reached the chaparral and the broken ground in line for the piney +hills. In an hour the ranch hotel, with its galling chain, its +cruelties, and its brutal human beings, was a thing of the past, shut +out by the hills of his youth, cut off by the river of his cub-hood, +the river grown from the rill born in his birthplace away in Tallac's +pines. That Fourth of July was a glorious Fourth—it was Independence +Day for Grizzly Jack. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="6"></a> +VI. THE BROKEN DAM +</h3> + + +<p> +A wounded deer usually works downhill, a hunted Grizzly climbs. Jack +knew nothing of the country, but he did know that he wanted to get +away from that mob, so he sought the roughest ground, and climbed and +climbed. +</p> + +<p> +He had been alone for hours, traveling up and on. The plain was lost +to view. He was among the granite rocks, the pine trees, and the +berries now, and he gathered in food from the low bushes with +dexterous paws and tongue as he traveled, but stopped not at all until +among the tumbled rock, where the sun heat of the afternoon seemed to +command rather than invite him to rest. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/086.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The night was black when he awoke, but Bears are not afraid of the +dark—they rather fear the day—and he swung along, led, as before, by +the impulse to get up above the danger; and thus at last he reached +the highest range, the region of his native Tallac. +</p> + +<p> +He had but little of the usual training of a young Bear, but he had a +few instincts, his birthright, that stood him well in all the main +issues, and his nose was an excellent guide. Thus he managed to live, +and wild-life experiences coming fast gave his mind the chance to +grow. +</p> + +<p> +Jack's memory for faces and facts was not at all good, but his memory +for smells was imperishable. He had forgotten Bonamy's cur, but the +smell of Bonamy's cur would instantly have thrilled him with the old +feelings. He had forgotten the cross ram, but the smell of "Old Woolly +Whiskers" would have inspired him at once with anger and hate; and one +evening when the wind came richly laden with ram smell it was like a +bygone life returned. He had been living on roots and berries for +weeks and now began to experience that hankering for flesh that comes +on every candid vegetarian with dangerous force from time to time. The +ram smell seemed an answer to it. So down he went by night (no +sensible Bear travels by day), and the smell brought him from the +pines on the hillside to an open rocky dale. +</p> + +<p> +Long before he got there a curious light shone up. He knew what that +was; he had seen the two-legged ones make it near the ranch of evil +smells and memories, so feared it not. He swung along from ledge to +ledge in silence and in haste, for the smell of sheep grew stronger at +every stride, and when he reached a place above the fire he blinked +his eyes to find the sheep. The smell was strong now; it was rank, but +no sheep to be seen. Instead he saw in the valley a stretch of gray +water that seemed to reflect the stars, and yet they neither twinkled +nor rippled; there was a murmuring sound from the sheet, but it seemed +not at all like that of the lakes around. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/090.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The stars were clustered chiefly near the fire, and were less like +stars than spots of the phosphorescent wood that are scattered on the +ground when one knocks a rotten stump about to lick up its swarms of +wood-ants. So Jack came closer, and at last so close that even his +dull eyes could see. The great gray lake was a flock of sheep and the +phosphorescent specks were their eyes. Close by the fire was a log or +a low rough bank—that turned out to be the shepherd and his dog. Both +were objectionable features, but the sheep extended far from them. +Jack knew that his business was with the flock. +</p> + +<p> +He came very close to the edge and found them surrounded by a low +hedge of chaparral; but what little things they were compared with +that great and terrible ram that he dimly remembered! The blood-thirst +came on him. He swept the low hedge aside, charged into the mass of +sheep that surged away from him with rushing sounds of feet and +murmuring groans, struck down one, seized it, and turning away, he +scrambled back up the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +The sheep-herder leaped to his feet, fired his gun, and the dog came +running over the solid mass of sheep, barking loudly. But Jack was +gone. The sheep-herder contented himself with making two or three +fires, shooting off his gun, and telling his beads. +</p> + +<p> +That was Jack's first mutton, but it was not the last. Thenceforth +when he wanted a sheep—and it became a regular need—he knew he had +merely to walk along the ridge till his nose said, "Turn, and go so," +for smelling is believing in Bear life. +</p> + + +<a name="7"></a> +<h3> +VII. THE FRESHET +</h3> + + +<div style="width: 5%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/093.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Pedro Tampico and his brother Faco were not in the sheep business for +any maudlin sentiment. They did not march ahead of their beloveds +waving a crook as wand of office or appealing to the esthetic sides of +their ideal followers with a tabret and pipe. Far from leading the +flock with a symbol, they drove them with an armful of ever-ready +rocks and clubs. They were not shepherds; they were sheep-herders. +They did not view their charges as loved and loving followers, but as +four-legged cash; each sheep was worth a dollar bill. They were cared +for only as a man cares for his money, and counted after each alarm or +day of travel. It is not easy for any one to count three thousand +sheep, and for a Mexican sheep-herder it is an impossibility. But he +has a simple device which answers the purpose. In an ordinary flock +about one sheep in a hundred is a black one. If a portion of the flock +has gone astray, there is likely to be a black one in it. So by +counting his thirty black sheep each day Tampico kept rough count of +his entire flock. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/094.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Grizzly Jack had killed but one sheep that first night. On his next +visit he killed two, and on the next but one, yet that last one +happened to be black, and when Tampico found but twenty-nine of its +kind remaining he safely reasoned that he was losing sheep—according +to the index a hundred were gone. +</p> + +<p> +"If the land is unhealthy move out" is ancient wisdom. Tampico filled +his pocket with stones, and reviling his charges in all their walks in +life and history, he drove them from the country that was evidently +the range of a sheep-eater. At night he found a walled-in cañon, a +natural corral, and the woolly scattering swarm, condensed into a +solid fleece, went pouring into the gap, urged intelligently by the +dog and idiotically by the man. At one side of the entrance Tampico +made his fire. Some thirty feet away was a sheer wall of rock. +</p> + +<p> +Ten miles may be a long day's travel for a wretched wool-plant, but it +is little more than two hours for a Grizzly. It is farther than +eyesight, but it is well within nosesight, and Jack, feeling +mutton-hungry, had not the least difficulty in following his prey. His +supper was a little later than usual, but his appetite was the better +for that. There was no alarm in camp, so Tampico had fallen asleep. A +growl from the dog awakened him. He started up to behold the most +appalling creature that he had ever seen or imagined, a monster Bear +standing on his hind legs, and thirty feet high at least. The dog fled +in terror, but was valor itself compared with Pedro. He was so +frightened that he could not express the prayer that was in his +breast: "Blessed saints, let him have every sin-blackened sheep in the +band, but spare your poor worshiper," and he hid his head; so never +learned that he saw, not a thirty-foot Bear thirty feet away, but a +seven-foot Bear not far from the fire and casting a black thirty-foot +shadow on the smooth rock behind. And, helpless with fear, poor Pedro +groveled in the dust. +</p> + +<a name="illus5"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus5.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus5-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +THE THIRTY-FOOT BEAR +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/096.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +When he looked up the giant Bear was gone. There was a rushing of the +sheep. A small body of them scurried out of the cañon into the night, +and after them went an ordinary-sized Bear, undoubtedly a cub of the +monster. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/099.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Pedro had been neglecting his prayers for some months back, but he +afterward assured his father confessor that on this night he caught up +on all arrears and had a goodly surplus before morning. At sunrise he +left his dog in charge of the flock and set out to seek the runaways, +knowing, first, that there was little danger in the day-time, second, +that some would escape. The missing ones were a considerable number, +raised to the second power indeed, for two more black ones were gone. +Strange to tell, they had not scattered, and Pedro trailed them a mile +or more in the wilderness till he reached another very small box +cañon. Here he found the missing flock perched in various places on +boulders and rocky pinnacles as high up as they could get. He was +delighted and worked for half a minute on his bank surplus of prayers, +but was sadly upset to find that nothing would induce the sheep to +come down from the rocks or leave that cañon. One or two that he +manoeuvered as far as the outlet sprang back in fear from <i>something on +the ground</i>, which, on examination, he found—yes, he swears to +this—to be the deep-worn, fresh-worn pathway of a Grizzly from one +wall across to the other. All the sheep were now back again beyond his +reach. Pedro began to fear for himself, so hastily returned to the +main flock. He was worse off than ever now. The other Grizzly was a +Bear of ordinary size and ate a sheep each night, but the new one, +into whose range he had entered, was a monster, a Bear mountain, +requiring forty or fifty sheep to a meal. The sooner he was out of +this the better. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/101.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It was now late, too late, and the sheep were too tired to travel, so +Pedro made unusual preparations for the night: two big fires at the +entrance to the cañon, and a platform fifteen feet up in a tree for +his own bed. The dog could look out for himself. +</p> + + +<a name="8"></a> +<h3> +VIII. ROARING IN THE CAÑON +</h3> + + +<p> +Pedro knew that the big Bear was coming; for the fifty sheep in the +little cañon were not more than an appetizer for such a creature. He +loaded his gun carefully as a matter of habit and went up-stairs to +bed. Whatever defects his dormitory had the ventilation was good, and +Pedro was soon a-shiver. He looked down in envy at his dog curled up +by the fire; then he prayed that the saints might intervene and direct +the steps of the Bear toward the flock of some neighbor, and carefully +specified the neighbor to avoid mistakes. He tried to pray himself to +sleep. It had never failed in church when he was at the Mission, so +why now? But for once it did not succeed. The fearsome hour of +midnight passed, then the gray dawn, the hour of dull despair, was +near. Tampico felt it, and a long groan vibrated through his +chattering teeth. His dog leaped up, barked savagely, the sheep began +to stir, then went backing into the gloom; there was a rushing of +stampeding sheep and a huge, dark form loomed up. Tampico grasped his +gun and would have fired, when it dawned on him with sickening horror +that the Bear was thirty feet high, his platform was only fifteen, +just a convenient height for the monster. None but a madman would +invite the Bear to eat by shooting at him now. So Pedro flattened +himself face downward on the platform, and, with his mouth to a crack, +he poured forth prayers to his representative in the sky, regretting +his unconventional attitude and profoundly hoping that it would be +overlooked as unavoidable, and that somehow the petitions would get +the right direction after leaving the under side of the platform. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning he had proof that his prayers had been favorably +received. There was a Bear-track, indeed, but the number of black +sheep was unchanged, so Pedro filled his pocket with stones and began +his usual torrent of remarks as he drove the flock. +</p> + +<p> +"Hyah, Capitan—you huajalote," as the dog paused to drink. "Bring +back those ill-descended sons of perdition," and a stone gave force to +the order, which the dog promptly obeyed. Hovering about the great +host of grumbling hoofy locusts, he kept them together and on the +move, while Pedro played the part of a big, noisy, and troublesome +second. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/108.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As they journeyed through the open country the sheep-herder's eye fell +on a human figure, a man sitting on a rock above them to the left. +Pedro gazed inquiringly; the man saluted and beckoned. This meant +"friend"; had he motioned him to pass on it might have meant, "Keep +away or I shoot." Pedro walked toward him a little way and sat down. +The man came forward. It was Lan Kellyan, the hunter. +</p> + +<p> +Each was glad of a chance to "talk with a human" and to get the news. +The latest concerning the price of wool, the Bull-and-Bear fiasco, +and, above all, the monster Bear that had killed Tampico's +sheep, afforded topics of talk. "Ah, a Bear devill—de hell-brute—a +Gringo Bear—pardon, my amigo, I mean a very terroar." +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/109.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As the sheep-herder enlarged on the marvelous cunning of the Bear that +had a private sheep corral of his own, and the size of the monster, +forty or fifty feet high now—for such Bears are of rapid and +continuous growth—Kellyan's eye twinkled and he said: +</p> + +<p> +"Say, Pedro, I believe you once lived pretty nigh the Hassayampa, +didn't you?" +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/110.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +This does not mean that that is a country of great Bears, but was an +allusion to the popular belief that any one who tastes a single drop +of the Hassayampa River can never afterward tell the truth. Some +scientists who have looked into the matter aver that this wonderful +property is common to the Rio Grande as well as the Hassayampa, and, +indeed, all the rivers of Mexico, as well as their branches, and the +springs, wells, ponds, lakes, and irrigation ditches. However that may +be, the Hassayampa is the best-known stream of this remarkable +peculiarity. The higher one goes, the greater its potency, and Pedro +was from the headwaters. But he protested by all the saints that his +story was true. He pulled out a little bottle of garnets, got by +glancing over the rubbish laid about their hills by the desert ants; +he thrust it back into his wallet and produced another bottle with a +small quantity of gold-dust, also gathered at the rare times when he +was not sleepy, and the sheep did not need driving, watering, stoning, +or reviling. +</p> + +<p> +"Here, I bet dat it ees so." +</p> + +<p> +Gold is a loud talker. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan paused. "I can't cover your bet, Pedro, but I'll kill your +Bear for what's in the bottle." +</p> + +<p> +"I take you," said the sheep-herder, "eef you breeng back dose sheep +dat are now starving up on de rocks of de cañon of Baxstaire's." +</p> + +<p> +The Mexican's eyes twinkled as the white man closed on the offer. The +gold in the bottle, ten or fifteen dollars, was a trifle, and yet +enough to send the hunter on the quest—enough to lure him into the +enterprise, and that was all that was needed. Pedro knew his man: get +him going and profit would count for nothing; having put his hand to +the plow Lan Kellyan would finish the furrow at any cost; he was +incapable of turning back. And again he took up the trail of Grizzly +Jack, his one-time "pard," now grown beyond his ken. +</p> + +<p> +The hunter went straight to Baxter's cañon and found the sheep +high-perched upon the rocks. By the entrance he found the remains of +two of them recently devoured, and about them the tracks of a +medium-sized Bear. He saw nothing of the pathway—the dead-line—made +by the Grizzly to keep the sheep prisoners till he should need them. +But the sheep were standing in stupid terror on various high places, +apparently willing to starve rather than come down. Lan dragged one +down; at once it climbed up again. He now realized the situation, so +made a small pen of chaparral outside the cañon, and dragging the dull +creatures down one at a time, he carried them—except one—out of the +prison of death and into the pen. Next he made a hasty fence across +the cañon's mouth, and turning the sheep out of the pen, he drove them +by slow stages toward the rest of the flock. +</p> + +<p> +Only six or seven miles across country, but it was late night when Lan +arrived. +</p> + +<p> +Tampico gladly turned over half of the promised dust. That night they +camped together, and, of course, no Bear appeared. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning Lan went back to the cañon and found, as expected, that +the Bear had returned and killed the remaining sheep. +</p> + +<p> +The hunter piled the rest of the carcasses in an open place, lightly +sprinkled the Grizzly's trail with some very dry brush, then making a +platform some fifteen feet from the ground in a tree, he rolled up in +his blanket there and slept. +</p> + +<p> +An old Bear will rarely visit a place three nights in succession; a +cunning Bear will avoid a trail that has been changed overnight; a +skilful Bear goes in absolute silence. But Jack was neither old, +cunning, nor skilful. He came for the fourth time to the cañon of the +sheep. He followed his old trail straight to the delicious mutton +bones. He found the human trail, but there was something about it that +rather attracted him. He strode along on the dry boughs. "Crack!" went +one; "crack-crack!" went another; and Kellyan arose on the platform +and strained his eyes in the gloom till a dark form moved into the +opening by the bones of the sheep. The hunter's rifle cracked, the +Bear snorted, wheeled into the bushes, and, crashing away, was gone. +</p> + + +<a name="9"></a> +<h3> +IX. FIRE AND WATER +</h3> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/117.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +That was Jack's baptism of fire, for the rifle had cut a deep +flesh-wound in his back. Snorting with pain and rage, he tore through +the bushes and traveled on for an hour or more, then lay down and +tried to lick the wound, but it was beyond reach. He could only rub it +against a log. He continued his journey back toward Tallac, and there, +in a cave that was formed of tumbled rocks, he lay down to rest. He +was still rolling about in pain when the sun was high and a strange +smell of fire came searching through the cave; it increased, and +volumes of blinding smoke were about him. It grew so choking that he +was forced to move, but it followed him till he could bear it no +longer, and he dashed out of another of the ways that led into the +cavern. As he went he caught a distant glimpse of a man throwing wood +on the fire by the in-way, and the whiff that the wind brought him +said: "This is the man that was last night watching the sheep." +Strange as it may seem, the woods were clear of smoke except for a +trifling belt that floated in the trees, and Jack went striding away +in peace. He passed over the ridge, and finding berries, ate the first +meal he had known since killing his last sheep. He had wandered on, +gathering fruit and digging roots, for an hour or two, when the smoke +grew blacker, the smell of fire stronger. He worked away from it, but +in no haste. The birds, deer, and wood hares were now seen scurrying +past him. There was a roaring in the air. It grew louder, was coming +nearer, and Jack turned to stride after the wood things that fled. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/120.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The whole forest was ablaze; the wind was rising, and the flames, +gaining and spreading, were flying now like wild horses. Jack had no +place in his brain for such a thing; but his instinct warned him to +shun that coming roaring that sent above dark clouds and flying +fire-flakes, and messengers of heat below, so he fled before it, as +the forest host was doing. Fast as he went, and few animals can outrun +a Grizzly in rough country, the hot hurricane was gaining on him. His +sense of danger had grown almost to terror, terror of a kind that he +had never known before, for here there was nothing he could fight; +nothing that he could resist. The flames were all around him now; +birds without number, hares, and deer had gone down before the red +horror. He was plunging wildly on through chaparral and manzanita +thickets that held all feebler things until the fury seized them; his +hair was scorching, his wound was forgotten, and he thought only of +escape when the brush ahead opened, and the Grizzly, smoke-blinded, +half roasted, plunged down a bank and into a small clear pool. The fur +on his back said "hiss," for it was sizzling-hot. Down below he went, +gulping the cool drink, wallowing in safety and unheat. Down below the +surface he crouched as long as his lungs would bear the strain, then +slowly and cautiously he raised his head. The sky above was one great +sheet of flame. Sticks aflame and flying embers came in hissing +showers on the water. The air was hot, but breathable at times, and he +filled his lungs till he had difficulty in keeping his body down +below. Other creatures there were in the pool, some burnt, some dead, +some small and in the margin, some bigger in the deeper places, and +one of them was close beside him. Oh, he knew that smell; fire—all +Sierra's woods ablaze—could not disguise the hunter who had shot at +him from the platform, and, though he did not know this, the hunter +really who had followed him all day, and who had tried to smoke him +out of his den and thereby set the woods ablaze. Here they were, face +to face, in the deepest end of the little pool; they were only ten +feet apart and could not get more than twenty feet apart. The flames +grew unbearable. The Bear and man each took a hasty breath and bobbed +below the surface, each wondering, according to his intelligence, what +the other would do. In half a minute both came up again, each relieved +to find the other no nearer. Each tried to keep his nose and one eye +above the water. But the fire was raging hot; they had to dip under +and stay as long as possible. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/122.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +The roaring of the flame was like a hurricane. A huge pine tree came +crashing down across the pool; it barely missed the man. The splash of +water quenched the blazes for the most part, but it gave off such a +heat that he had to move—a little nearer to the Bear. Another fell at +an angle, killing a coyote, and crossing the first tree. They blazed +fiercely at their junction, and the Bear edged from it a little nearer +the man. Now they were within touching distance. His useless gun was +lying in shallow water near shore, but the man had his knife ready, +ready for self-defense. It was not needed; the fiery power had +proclaimed a peace. Bobbing up and dodging under, keeping a nose in +the air and an eye on his foe, each spent an hour or more. The red +hurricane passed on. The smoke was bad in the woods, but no longer +intolerable, and as the Bear straightened up in the pool to move away +into shallower water and off into the woods, the man got a glimpse of +red blood streaming from the shaggy back and dyeing the pool. The +blood on the trail had not escaped him. He knew that this was the Bear +of Baxter's cañon, this was the Gringo Bear, but he did not know that +this was also his old-time Grizzly Jack. He scrambled out of the pond, +on the other side from that taken by the Grizzly, and, hunter and +hunted, they went their diverse ways. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 35%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/124.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="10"></a> +<h3> +X. THE EDDY +</h3> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/127.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +All the west slopes of Tallac were swept by the fire, and Kellyan +moved to a new hut on the east side, where still were green patches; +so did the grouse and the rabbit and the coyote, and so did Grizzly +Jack. His wound healed quickly, but his memory of the rifle smell +continued; it was a dangerous smell, a new and horrible kind of +smoke—one he was destined to know too well; one, indeed, he was soon +to meet again. Jack was wandering down the side of Tallac, following a +sweet odor that called up memories of former joys—the smell of honey, +though he did not know it. A flock of grouse got leisurely out of his +way and flew to a low tree, when he caught a whiff of man smell, then +heard a crack like that which had stung him in the sheep-corral, and +down fell one of the grouse close beside him. He stepped forward to +sniff just as a man also stepped forward from the opposite bushes. +They were within ten feet of each other, and they recognized each +other, for the hunter saw that it was a singed Bear with a wounded +side, and the Bear smelt the rifle-smoke and the leather clothes. +Quick as a Grizzly—that is, quicker than a flash—the Bear reared. +The man sprang backward, tripped and fell, and the Grizzly was upon +him. Face to earth the hunter lay like dead, but, ere he struck, Jack +caught a scent that made him pause. He smelt his victim, and the smell +was the rolling back of curtains or the conjuring up of a past. The +days in the hunter's shanty were forgotten, but the feelings of those +days were ready to take command at the bidding of the nose. His nose +drank deep of a draft that quelled all rage. The Grizzly's humor +changed. He turned and left the hunter quite unharmed. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/129.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +Oh, blind one with the gun! All he could find in explanation was: "You +kin never tell what a Grizzly will do, but it's good play to lay low +when he has you cornered." It never came into his mind to credit the +shaggy brute with an impulse born of good, and when he told the +sheep-herder of his adventure in the pool, of his hitting high on the +body and of losing the trail in the forest fire—"down by the shack, +when he turned up sudden and had me I thought my last day was come. +Why he didn't swat me, I don't know. But I tell you this, Pedro: the +B'ar what killed your sheep on the upper pasture and in the sheep +cañon is the same. No two B'ars has hind feet alike when you get a +clear-cut track, and this holds out even right along." +</p> + +<p> +"What about the fifty-foot B'ar I saw wit' mine own eyes, caramba?" +</p> + +<p> +"That must have been the night you were working a kill-care with your +sheep-herder's delight. But don't worry; I'll get him yet." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/130.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +So Kellyan set out on a long hunt, and put in practice every trick he +knew for the circumventing of a Bear. Lou Bonamy was invited to join +with him, for his yellow cur was a trailer. They packed four horses +with stuff and led them over the ridge to the east side of Tallac, and +down away from Jack's Peak, that Kellyan had named in honor of his +Bear cub, toward Fallen Leaf Lake. The hunter believed that here he +would meet not, only the Gringo Bear that he was after, but would also +stand a chance of finding others, for the place had escaped the fire. +</p> + +<p> +They quickly camped, setting up their canvas sheet for shade more than +against rain, and after picketing their horses in a meadow, went out +to hunt. By circling around Leaf Lake they got a good idea of the wild +population: plenty of deer, some Black Bear, and one or two Cinnamon +and Grizzly, and one track along the shore that Kellyan pointed to, +briefly saying: "That's him." +</p> + +<p> +"Ye mean old Pedro's Gringo?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yep. That's the fifty-foot Grizzly. I suppose he stands maybe seven +foot high in daylight, but, 'course, B'ars pulls out long at night." +</p> + +<p> +So the yellow cur was put on the track, and led away with funny little +yelps, while the two hunters came stumbling along behind him as fast +as they could, calling, at times, to the dog not to go so fast, and +thus making a good deal of noise, which Gringo Jack heard a mile away +as he ambled along the mountain-side above them. He was following his +nose to many good and eatable things, and therefore going up-wind. +This noise behind was so peculiar that he wanted to smell it, and to +do that he swung along back over the clamor, then descended to the +down-wind side, and thus he came on the trail of the hunters and their +dog. +</p> + +<p> +His nose informed him at once. Here was the hunter he once felt kindly +toward and two other smells of far-back—both hateful; all three were +now the smell-marks of foes, and a rumbling "woof" was the expressive +sound that came from his throat. +</p> + +<p> +That dog-smell in particular roused him, though it is very sure he had +forgotten all about the dog, and Gringo's feet went swiftly and +silently, yes, with marvelous silence, along the tracks of the enemy. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/133.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +On rough, rocky ground a dog is scarcely quicker than a Bear, and +since the dog was constantly held back by the hunters the Bear had no +difficulty in overtaking them. Only a hundred yards or so behind he +continued, partly in curiosity, pursuing the dog that was pursuing +him, till a shift of the wind brought the dog a smell-call from the +Bear behind. He wheeled—of course you never follow trail smell when +you can find body smell—and came galloping back with a different +yapping and a bristling in his mane. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't understand that," whispered Bonamy. +</p> + +<p> +"It's B'ar, all right," was the answer; and the dog, bounding high, +went straight toward the foe. +</p> + +<p> +Jack heard him coming, smelt him coming, and at length saw him coming; +but it was the smell that roused him—the full scent of the bully of +his youth. The anger of those days came on him, and cunning enough to +make him lurk in ambush: he backed to one side of the trail where it +passed under a root, and, as the little yellow tyrant came, Jack hit +him once, hit him as he had done some years before, but now with the +power of a grown Grizzly. No yelp escaped the dog, no second blow was +needed. The hunters searched in silence for half an hour before they +found the place and learned the tale from many silent tongues. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll get even with him," muttered Bonamy, for he loved that +contemptible little yap-cur. +</p> + +<p> +"That's Pedro's Gringo, all right. He's sure cunning to run his own +back track. But we'll fix him yet," and they vowed to kill that Bear +or "get done up" themselves. +</p> + +<p> +Without a dog, they must make a new plan of hunting. They picked out +two or three good places for pen-traps, where trees stood in pairs to +make the pillars of the den. Then Kellyan returned to camp for the ax +while Bonamy prepared the ground. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/136.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As Kellyan came near their open camping-place, he stopped from habit +and peeped ahead for a minute. He was about to go down when a movement +caught his eye. There, on his haunches, sat a Grizzly, looking down on +the camp. The singed brown of his head and neck, and the white spot on +each side of his back, left no doubt that Kellyan and Pedro's Gringo +were again face to face. It was a long shot, but the rifle went up, +and as he was about to fire, the Bear suddenly bent his head down, and +lifting his hind paw, began to lick at a little cut. This brought the +head and chest nearly in line with Kellyan—a sure shot; so sure that +he fired hastily. He missed the head and the shoulder, but, strange to +say, he hit the Bear in the mouth and in the hind toe, carrying away +one of his teeth and the side of one toe. The Grizzly sprang up with a +snort, and came tearing down the hill toward the hunter. Kellyan +climbed a tree and got ready, but the camp lay just between them, and +the Bear charged on that instead. One sweep of his paw and the canvas +tent was down and torn. Whack! and tins went flying this way. Whisk! +and flour-sacks went that. Rip! and the flour went off like smoke. +Slap—crack! and a boxful of odds and ends was scattered into the +fire. Whack! and a bagful of cartridges was tumbled after it. Whang! +and the water-pail was crushed. Pat-pat-pat! and all the cups were in +useless bits. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan, safe up the tree, got no fair view to shoot—could only wait +till the storm-center cleared a little. The Bear chanced on a bottle +of something with a cork loosely in it. He seized it adroitly in his +paws, twisted out the cork, and held the bottle up to his mouth with a +comical dexterity that told of previous experience. But, whatever it +was, it did not please the invader; he spat and spilled it out, and +flung the bottle down as Kellyan gazed, astonished. A remarkable +"crack! crack! crack!" from the fire was heard now, and the cartridges +began to go off in ones, twos, fours, and numbers unknown. Gringo +whirled about; he had smashed everything in view. He did not like that +Fourth of July sound, so, springing to a bank, he went bumping and +heaving down to the meadow and had just stampeded the horses when, for +the first time, Gringo exposed himself to the hunter's aim. His flank +was grazed by another leaden stinger, and Gringo, wheeling, went off +into the woods. +</p> + +<p> +The hunters were badly defeated. It was fully a week before they had +repaired all the damage done by their shaggy visitor and were once +more at Fallen Leaf Lake with a new store of ammunition and +provisions, their tent repaired, and their camp outfit complete. They +said little about their vow to kill that Bear. Both took for granted +that it was a fight to the finish. They never said, "<i>If</i> we get him," +but, "<i>When</i> we get him." +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/139.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="11"></a> +<h3> +XI. THE FORD +</h3> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/143.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Gringo, savage, but still discreet, scaled the long mountain-side when +he left the ruined camp, and afar on the southern slope he sought a +quiet bed in a manzanita thicket, there to lie down and nurse his +wounds and ease his head so sorely aching with the jar of his +shattered tooth. There he lay for a day and a night, sometimes in +great pain, and at no time inclined to stir. But, driven forth by +hunger on the second day, he quit his couch and, making for the +nearest ridge, he followed that and searched the wind with his nose. +The smell of a mountain hunter reached him. Not knowing just what to +do he sat down and did nothing. The smell grew stronger, he heard +sounds of trampling; closer they came, then the brush parted and a man +on horseback appeared. The horse snorted and tried to wheel, but the +ridge was narrow and one false step might have been serious. The +cowboy held his horse in hand and, although he had a gun, he made no +attempt to shoot at the surly animal blinking at him and barring his +path. He was an old mountaineer, and he now used a trick that had long +been practised by the Indians, from whom, indeed, he learned it. He +began "making medicine with his voice." +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/144.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"See here now, B'ar," he called aloud, "I ain't doing nothing to you. +I ain't got no grudge ag'in' you, an' you ain't got no right to a +grudge ag'in' me." +</p> + +<p> +"Gro-o-o-h," said Gringo, deep and low. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, I don't want no scrap with you, though I have my scrap-iron +right handy, an' what I want you to do is just step aside an' let me +pass that narrer trail an' go about my business." +</p> + +<p> +"Grow—woo-oo-wow," grumbled Gringo. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm honest about it, pard. You let me alone, and I'll let you alone; +all I want is right of way for five minutes." +</p> + +<p> +"Grow-grow-wow-oo-umph," was the answer. +</p> + +<p> +"Ye see, thar's no way round an' on'y one way through, an' you happen +to be settin' in it. I got to take it, for I can't turn back. Come, +now, is it a bargain—hands off and no scrap?" +</p> + +<p> +It is very sure that Gringo could see in this nothing but a human +making queer, unmenacing, monotonous sounds, so giving a final +"Gr-u-ph," the Bear blinked his eyes, rose to his feet and strode down +the bank, and the cowboy forced his unwilling horse to and past the +place. +</p> + +<p> +"Wall, wall," he chuckled, "I never knowed it to fail. Thar's whar +most B'ars is alike." +</p> + +<p> +If Gringo had been able to think clearly, he might have said: "This +surely is a new kind of man." +</p> + +<a name="illus6"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus6.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus6-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"NOW, B'AR, I DON'T WANT NO SCRAP WITH YOU" +</div> + + +<a name="12"></a> +<h3> +XII. SWIRL AND POOL AND GROWING FLOOD +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/149.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<p> +Gringo wandered on with nose alert, passing countless odors of +berries, roots, grouse, deer, till a new and pleasing smell came with +especial force. It was not sheep, or game, or a dead thing. It was a +smell of living meat. He followed the guide to a little meadow, and +there he found it. There were five of them, red, or red and +white—great things as big as himself; but he had no fear of them. The +hunter instinct came on him, and the hunter's audacity and love of +achievement. He sneaked toward them upwind in order that he might +still smell them, and it also kept them from smelling him. He reached +the edge of the wood. Here he must stop or be seen. There was a +watering-place close by. He silently drank, then lay down in a thicket +where he could watch. An hour passed thus. The sun went down and the +cattle arose to graze. One of them, a small one, wandered nearer, +then, acting suddenly with purpose, walked to the water-hole. Gringo +watched his chance, and as she floundered in the mud and stooped he +reared and struck with all his force. Square at her skull he aimed, +and the blow went straight. But Gringo knew nothing of horns. The +young, sharp horn, upcurling, hit his foot and was broken off; the +blow lost half its power. The beef went down, but Gringo had to follow +up the blow, then raged and tore in anger for his wounded paw. The +other cattle fled from the scene. The Grizzly took the heifer in his +jaws, then climbed the hill to his lair, and with this store of food +he again lay down to nurse his wounds. Though painful, they were not +serious, and within a week or so Grizzly Jack was as well as ever and +roaming the woods about Fallen Leaf Lake and farther south and east, +for he was extending his range as he grew—the king was coming to his +kingdom. In time he met others of his kind and matched his strength +with theirs. Sometimes he won and sometimes lost, but he kept on +growing as the months went by, growing and learning and adding to his +power. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/152.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Kellyan had kept track of him and knew at least the main facts of his +life, because he had one or two marks that always served to +distinguish him. A study of the tracks had told of the round wound in +the front foot and the wound in the hind foot. But there was another: +the hunter had picked up the splinters of bone at the camp where he +had fired at the Bear, and, after long doubt, he guessed that he had +broken a tusk. He hesitated to tell the story of hitting a tooth and +hind toe at the same shot till, later, he had clearer proof of its +truth. +</p> + + +<p> +No two animals are alike. Kinds which herd have more sameness than +those that do not, and the Grizzly, being a solitary kind, shows great +individuality. Most Grizzlies mark their length on the trees by +rubbing their backs, and some will turn on the tree and claw it with +their fore paws; others hug the tree with fore paws and rake it with +their hind claws. Gringo's peculiarity of marking was to rub first, +then turn and tear the trunk with his teeth. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/154.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It was on examining one of the Bear trees one day that Kellyan +discovered the facts. He had been tracking the Bear all morning, had a +fine set of tracks in the dusty trail, and thus learned that the +rifle-wound was a toe-shot in the hind foot, but his fore foot of the +same side had a large round wound, the one really made by the cow's +horn. When he came to the Bear tree where Gringo had carved his +initials, the marks were clearly made by the Bear's teeth, and one of +the upper tusks was broken off, so the evidence of identity was +complete. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/155.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"It's the same old B'ar," said Lan to his pard. +</p> + +<p> +They failed to get sight of him in all this time, so the partners set +to work at a series of Bear-traps. These are made of heavy logs and +have a sliding door of hewn planks. The bait is on a trigger at the +far end; a tug on this lets the door drop. It was a week's hard work +to make four of these traps. They did not set them at once, for no +Bear will go near a thing so suspiciously new-looking. Some Bears will +not approach one till it is weather-beaten and gray. But they removed +all chips and covered the newly cut wood with mud, then rubbed the +inside with stale meat, and hung a lump of ancient venison on the +trigger of each trap. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/156.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +They did not go around for three days, knowing that the human smell +must first be dissipated, and then they found but one trap sprung—the +door down. Bonamy became greatly excited, for they had crossed the +Grizzly's track close by. But Kellyan had been studying the dust and +suddenly laughed aloud. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/157.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Look at that,"—he pointed to a thing like a Bear-track, but scarcely +two inches long. "There's the B'ar we'll find in that; that's a +bushy-tailed B'ar," and Bonamy joined in the laugh when he realized +that the victim in the big trap was nothing but a little skunk. +</p> + +<p> +"Next time we'll set the bait higher and not set the trigger so fine." +</p> + +<p> +They rubbed their boots with stale meat when they went the rounds, +then left the traps for a week. +</p> + +<p> +There are Bears that eat little but roots and berries; there are Bears +that love best the great black salmon they can hook out of the pools +when the long "run" is on; and there are Bears that have a special +fondness for flesh. These are rare; they are apt to develop unusual +ferocity and meet an early death. Gringo was one of them, and he grew +like the brawny, meat-fed gladiators of old—bigger, stronger, and +fiercer than his fruit-and root-fed kin. In contrast with this was his +love of honey. The hunter on his trail learned that he never failed to +dig out any bees' nest he could find, or, finding none, he would eat +the little honey-flowers that hung like sleigh-bells on the heather. +Kellyan was quick to mark the signs. "Say, Bonamy, we've got to find +some honey." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/159.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It is not easy to find a bee tree without honey to fill your +bee-guides; so Bonamy rode down the mountain to the nearest camp, the +Tampico sheep camp, and got not honey but some sugar, of which they +made syrup. They caught bees at three or four different places, tagged +them with cotton, filled them with syrup and let them fly, watching +till the cotton tufts were lost to view, and by going on the lines +till they met they found the hive. A piece of gunny-sack filled with +comb was put on each trigger, and that night, as Gringo strode with +that long, untiring swing that eats up miles like steam-wheels, his +sentinel nose reported the delicious smell, the one that above the +rest meant joy. So Gringo Jack followed fast and far, for the place +was a mile away, and reaching the curious log cavern, he halted and +sniffed. There were hunters' smells; yes, but, above all, that smell +of joy. He walked around to be sure, and knew it was inside; then +cautiously he entered. Some wood-mice scurried by. He sniffed the +bait, licked it, mumbled it, slobbered it, reveled in it, tugged to +increase the flow, when "bang!" went the great door behind and Jack was +caught. He backed up with a rush, bumped into the door, and had a +sense, at least, of peril. He turned over with an effort and attacked +the door, but it was strong. He examined the pen; went all around the +logs where their rounded sides seemed easiest to tear at with his +teeth. But they yielded nothing. He tried them all; he tore at the +roof, the floor; but all were heavy, hard logs, spiked and pinned as +one. +</p> + +<p> +The sun came up as he raged, and shone through the little cracks of +the door, and so he turned all his power on that. The door was flat, +gave little hold, but he battered with his paws and tore with his +teeth till plank after plank gave way. With a final crash be drove the +wreck before him and Jack was free again. +</p> + +<p> +The men read the story as though in print; yes, better, for bits of +plank can tell no lies, and the track to the pen and from the pen was +the track of a big Bear with a cut on the hind foot and a curious +round peg-like scar on the front paw, while the logs inside, where +little torn, gave proof of a broken tooth. +</p> + +<p> +"We had him that time, but he knew too much for us. Never mind, we'll +see." +</p> + +<p> +So they kept on and caught him again, for honey he could not resist. +But the wreckage of the trap was all they found in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Pedro's brother knew a man who had trapped Bears, and the sheep-herder +remembered that it is necessary to have the door quite <i>light-tight</i> +rather than very strong, so they battened all with tar-paper outside. +But Gringo was learning "pen-traps." He did not break the door that he +did not see through, but he put one paw under and heaved it up when he +had finished the bait. Thus he baffled them and sported with the +traps, till Kellyan made the door drop into a deep groove so that the +Bear could put no claw beneath it. But it was cold weather now. There +was deepening snow on the Sierras. The Bear sign disappeared. The +hunters knew that Gringo was sleeping his winter's sleep. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 10%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/163.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="13"></a> +<h3> +XIII. THE DEEPENING CHANNEL +</h3> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/165.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +April was bidding high Sierra snows go back to Mother Sea. The +California woodwales screamed in clamorous joy. They thought it was +about a few acorns left in storage in the Live Oak bark, but it really +was joy of being alive. This outcry was to them what music is to the +thrush, what joy-bells are to us—a great noise to tell how glad they +were. The deer were bounding, grouse were booming, rills were +rushing—all things were full of noisy gladness. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan and Bonamy were back on the Grizzly quest. "Time he was out +again, and good trailing to get him, with lots of snow in the +hollows." They had come prepared for a long hunt. Honey for bait, +great steel traps with crocodilian jaws, and guns there were in the +outfit. The pen-trap, the better for the aging, was repaired and +re-baited, and several Black Bears were taken. But Gringo, if about, +had learned to shun it. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/166.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He was about, and the men soon learned that. His winter sleep was +over. They found the peg-print in the snow, but with it, or just +ahead, was another, the tracks of a smaller Bear. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/167.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"See that," and Kellyan pointed to the smaller mark. "This is +mating-time; this is Gringo's honeymoon," and he followed the trail +for a while, not expecting to find them, but simply to know their +movements. He followed several times and for miles, and the trail told +him many things. Here was the track of a third Bear joining. Here were +marks of a combat, and a rival driven away was written there, and then +the pair went on. Down from the rugged hills it took him once to where +a love-feast had been set by the bigger Bear; for the carcass of a +steer lay half devoured, and the telltale ground said much of the +struggle that foreran the feast. As though to show his power, the Bear +had seized the steer by the nose and held him for a while—so said the +trampled earth for rods—struggling, bellowing, no doubt, music for my +lady's ears, till Gringo judged it time to strike him down with paws +of steel. +</p> + +<p> +Once only the hunters saw the pair—a momentary Glimpse of a Bear so +huge they half believed Tampico's tale, and a Bear of lesser size in +fur that rolled and rippled in the sun with brown and silver lights. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, ain't that just the beautifulest thing that ever walked!" and +both the hunters gazed as she strode from view in the chaparral. It +was only a neck of the thicket; they both must reappear in a minute at +the other side, and the men prepared to fire; but for some +incomprehensible reason the two did not appear again. They never quit +the cover, and had wandered far away before the hunters knew it, and +were seen of them no more. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/169.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +But Faco Tampico saw them. He was visiting his brother with the sheep, +and hunting in the foot-hills to the eastward, in hopes of getting a +deer, his small black eyes fell on a pair of Bears, still love-bound, +roaming in the woods. They were far below him. He was safe, and he +sent a ball that laid the she-Bear low; her back was broken. She fell +with a cry of pain and vainly tried to rise. Then Gringo rushed +around, sniffed the wind for the foe, and Faco fired again. The sound +and the smoke-puff told Gringo where the man lay hid. He raged up the +cliff, but Faco climbed a tree, and Gringo went back to his mate. Faco +fired again; Gringo made still another effort to reach him, but could +not find him now, so returned to his "Silver-brown." +</p> + +<p> +Whether it was chance or choice can never be known, but when Faco +fired once more, Gringo Jack was between, and the ball struck him. It +was the last in Faco's pouch, and the Grizzly, charging as before, +found not a trace of the foe. He was gone—had swung across a place no +Bear could cross and soon was a mile away. The big Bear limped back to +his mate, but she no longer responded to his touch. He watched about +for a time, but no one came. The silvery hide was never touched by +man, and when the semblance of his mate was gone, Gringo quit the +place. +</p> + +<p> +The world was full of hunters, traps, and guns. He turned toward the +lower hills where the sheep grazed, where once he had raided Pedro's +flocks, limping along, for now he had another flesh-wound. He found +the scent of the foe that killed his "Silver-brown," and would have +followed, but it ceased at a place where a horse-track joined. Yet he +found it again that night, mixed with the sheep smell so familiar +once. He followed this, sore and savage. It led him to a settler's +flimsy shack, the house of Tampico's parents, and as the big Bear +reached it two human beings scrambled out of the rear door. +</p> + +<p> +"My husband," shrieked the woman, "pray! Let us pray to the saints for +help!" +</p> + +<p> +"Where is my pistol?" cried the husband. +</p> + +<p> +"Trust in the saints," said the frightened woman. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, if I had a cannon, or if this was a cat; but with only a +pepper-box pistol to meet a Bear mountain it is better to trust to a +tree," and old Tampico scrambled up a pine. +</p> + +<p> +The Grizzly looked into the shack, then passed to the pig-pen, killed +the largest there, for this was a new kind of meat, and carrying it +off, he made his evening meal. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/172.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/173.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He came again and again to that pig-pen. He found his food there till +his wound was healed. Once he met with a spring-gun, but it was set +too high. Six feet up, the sheep-folk judged, would be just about +right for such a Bear; the charge went over his head, and so he passed +unharmed—a clear proof that he was a devil. He was learning this: the +human smell in any form is a smell of danger. He quit the little +valley of the shack, wandering downward toward the plains. He passed a +house one night, and walking up, he discovered a hollow thing with a +delicious smell. It was a ten-gallon keg that had been used for sugar, +some of which was still in the bottom, and thrusting in his huge head, +the keg-rim, bristling with nails, stuck to him. He raged about, +clawing at it wildly and roaring in it until a charge of shot from the +upper windows stirred him to such effort that the keg was smashed to +bits and his blinders removed. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the idea was slowly borne in on him: going near a man-den is sure +to bring trouble. Thenceforth he sought his prey in the woods or on +the plains. He one day found the man scent that enraged him the day he +lost his "Silver-brown." He took the trail, and passing in silence +incredible for such a bulk, he threaded chaparral and manzanita on and +down through tule-beds till the level plain was reached. The scent led +on, was fresher now. Far out were white specks—moving things. They +meant nothing to Gringo, for he had never smelt wild geese, had +scarcely seen them, but the trail he was hunting went on. He swiftly +followed till the tule ahead rustled gently, and the scent was <i>body +scent</i>. A ponderous rush, a single blow—and the goose-hunt was +ended ere well begun, and Faco's sheep became the brother's heritage. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 15%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/174.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="14"></a> +<h3> +XIV. THE CATARACT +</h3> + + +<p> +Just as fads will for a time sway human life, so crazes may run +through all animals of a given kind. This was the year when a +beef-eating craze seemed to possess every able-bodied Grizzly of the +Sierras. They had long been known as a root-eating, berry-picking, +inoffensive race when let alone, but now they seemed to descend on the +cattle-range in a body and make their diet wholly of flesh. +</p> + +<p> +One cattle outfit after another was attacked, and the whole country +seemed divided up among Bears of incredible size, cunning, and +destructiveness. The cattlemen offered bounties—good bounties, +growing bounties, very large bounties at last—but still the Bears +kept on. Very few were killed, and it became a kind of rude jest to +call each section of the range, not by the cattle brand, but by the +Grizzly that was quartered on its stock. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/178.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Wonderful tales were told of these various Bears of the new breed. The +swiftest was Reelfoot, the Placerville cattle-killer that could charge +from a thicket thirty yards away and certainly catch a steer before it +could turn and run, and that could even catch ponies in the open when +they were poor. The most cunning of all was Brin, the Mokelumne +Grizzly that killed by preference blooded stock, would pick out a +Merino ram or a white-faced Hereford from among fifty grades; that +killed a new beef every night; that never again returned to it, or +gave the chance for traps or poisoning. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/179.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The Pegtrack Grizzly of Feather River was rarely seen by any. He was +enveloped in mysterious terror. He moved and killed by night. Pigs +were his favorite food, and he had also killed a number of men. +</p> + +<p> +But Pedro's Grizzly was the most marvelous. "Hassayampa," as the +sheep-herder was dubbed, came one night to Kellyan's hut. +</p> + +<p> +"I tell you he's still dere. He has keel me a t'ousand sheep. You +telled me you keel heem; you haff not. He is beegare as dat tree. He +eat only sheep—much sheep. I tell you he ees Gringo devil—he ees +devil Bear. I haff three cows, two fat, one theen. He catch and keel +de fat; de lean run off. He roll een dust—make great dust. Cow come +for see what make dust; he catch her an' keel. My fader got bees. De +devil Bear chaw pine; I know he by hees broke toof. He gum hees face +and nose wit' pine gum so bees no sting, then eat all bees. He devil +all time. He get much rotten manzanita and eat till +drunk—locoed—then go crazy and keel sheep just for fun. He get beeg +bull by nose and drag like rat for fun. He keel cow, sheep, and keel +Face, too, for fun. He devil. You promise me you keel heem; you +nevaire keel." +</p> + +<p> +This is a condensation of Pedro's excited account. +</p> + +<p> +And there was yet one more—the big Bear that owned the range from the +Stanislaus to the Merced, the "Monarch of the Range" he had been +styled. He was believed—yes, known to be—the biggest Bear alive, a +creature of supernatural intelligence. He killed cows for food, and +scattered sheep or conquered bulls for pleasure. It was even said that +the appearance of an unusually big bull anywhere was a guaranty that +Monarch would be there for the joy of combat with a worthy foe. A +destroyer of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, and yet a creature known +only by his track. He was never seen, and his nightly raids seemed +planned with consummate skill to avoid all kinds of snares. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/181.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The cattlemen clubbed together and offered an enormous bounty for +every Grizzly killed in the range. Bear-trappers came and caught some +Bears, Brown and Cinnamon, but the cattle-killing went on. They set +out better traps of massive steel and iron bars, and at length they +caught a killer, the Mokelumne Grizzly; yes, and read in the dust how +he had come at last and made the fateful step; but steel will break +and iron will bend. The great Bear-trail was there to tell the tale: +for a while he had raged and chafed at the hard black reptile biting +into his paw; then, seeking a boulder, he had released the paw by +smashing the trap to pieces on it. Thenceforth each year he grew more +cunning, huge, and destructive. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/182.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Kellyan and Bonamy came down from the mountains now, tempted by the +offered rewards. They saw the huge tracks; they learned that cattle +were not killed in all places at once. They studied and hunted. They +got at length in the dust the full impressions of the feet of the +various monsters in regions wide apart, and they saw that all the +cattle were killed in the same way—their muzzles torn, their necks +broken; and last, the marks on the trees where the Bears had reared +and rubbed, then scored them with a broken tusk, the same all through +the wide range; and Kellyan told them with calm certainty: "Pedro's +Gringo, Old Pegtrack, the Placerville Grizzly, and the Monarch of the +Range <i>are one and the same Bear."</i> +</p> + +<p> +The little man from the mountains and the big man from the hills set +about the task of hunting him down with an intensity of purpose which, +like the river that is dammed, grew more fierce from being balked. +</p> + +<p> +All manner of traps had failed for him. Steel traps he could smash, no +log trap was strong enough to hold this furry elephant; he would not +come to a bait; he never fed twice from the same kill. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/184.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Two reckless boys once trailed him to a rocky glen. The horses would +not enter; the boys went in afoot, and were never seen again. The +Mexicans held him in superstitious terror, believing that he could not +be killed; and he passed another year in the cattle-land, known and +feared now as the "Monarch of the Range," killing in the open by +night, and retiring by day to his fastness in the near hills, where +horsemen could not follow. +</p> + +<p> +Bonamy had been called away; but all that summer, and winter, +too,—for the Grizzly no longer "denned up,"—Kellyan rode and rode, +each time too late or too soon to meet the Monarch. He was almost +giving up, not in despair, but for lack of means, when a message came +from a rich man, a city journalist, offering to multiply the reward by +ten if, instead of killing the Monarch, he would bring him in alive. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan sent for his old partner, and when word came that the previous +night three cows were killed in the familiar way near the Bell-Dash +pasture, they spared neither horse nor man to reach the spot. A +ten-hour ride by night meant worn-out horses, but the men were iron, +and new horses with scarcely a minute's delay were brought them. Here +were the newly killed beeves, there the mighty footprints with the +scars that spelled his name. No hound could have tracked him better +than Kellyan did. Five miles away from the foot of the hills was an +impenetrable thicket of chaparral. The great tracks went in, did not +come out, so Bonamy sat sentinel while Kellyan rode back with the +news. "Saddle up the best we got!" was the order. Rifles were taken +down and cartridge-belts being swung when Kellyan called a halt. +</p> + +<p> +"Say, boys, we've got him safe enough. He won't try to leave the +chaparral till night. If we shoot him we get the cattlemen's bounty; +if we take him alive—an' it's easy in the open—we get the newspaper +bounty, ten times as big. Let's leave all guns behind; lariats are +enough." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not have the guns along to be handy?" +</p> + +<p> +"'Cause I know the crowd too well; they couldn't resist the chance to +let him have it; so no guns at all. It's ten to one on the riata." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/187.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Nevertheless three of them brought their heavy revolvers. Seven +gallant riders on seven fine horses, they rode out that day to meet +the Monarch of the Range. He was still in the thicket, for it was yet +morning. They threw stones in and shouted to drive him out, without +effect, till the noon breeze of the plains arose—the down-current of +air from the hills. Then they fired the grass in several places, and +it sent a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into the thicket. There was +a crackling louder than the fire, a smashing of brush, and from the +farther side out hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, Grizzly Jack. +Horsemen were all about him now, armed not with guns but with the +rawhide snakes whose loops in air spell bonds or death. The men were +calm, but the horses were snorting and plunging in fear. This way and +that the Grizzly looked up at the horsemen—a little bit; scarcely up +at the horses; then turning without haste, he strode toward the +friendly hills. +</p> + +<p> +"Look out, now, Bill! Manuel! It's up to you." +</p> + +<p> +Oh, noble horses, nervy men! oh, grand old Grizzly, how I see you now! +Cattle-keepers and cattle-killer face to face! +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/188.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Three riders of the range that horse had never thrown were sailing, +swooping, like falcons; their lariats swung, sang—sang higher—and +Monarch, much perplexed, but scarcely angered yet, rose to his hind +legs, then from his towering height looked down on horse and man. If, +as they say, the vanquished prowess goes into the victor, then surely +in that mighty chest, those arms like necks of bulls, was the power of +the thousand cattle he had downed in fight. +</p> + +<p> +"Caramba! what a Bear! Pedro was not so far astray." +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/189.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Sing—sing—sing!" the lariats flew. "Swish—pat!" one, two, three, +they fell. These were not men to miss. Three ropes, three horses, +leaping away to bear on the great beast's neck. But swifter than +thought the supple paws went up. The ropes were slipped, and the +spurred cow-ponies, ready for the shock, went, shockless, +bounding—loose ropes trailing afar. +</p> + +<p> +"Hi—Hal! Ho—Lan! Head him!" as the Grizzly, liking not the unequal +fight, made for the hills. But a deft Mexican in silver gear sent his +hide riata whistling, then haunched his horse as the certain coil sank +in the Grizzly's hock, and checked the Monarch with a heavy jar. +Uttering one great snort of rage, he turned; his huge jaws crossed the +rope, back nearly to his ears it went, and he ground it as a dog might +grind a twig, so the straining pony bounded free. +</p> + +<p> +Round and round him now the riders swooped, waiting their chance. More +than once his neck was caught, but he slipped the noose as though it +were all play. Again he was caught by a foot and wrenched, almost +thrown, by the weight of two strong steeds, and now he foamed in rage. +Memories of olden days, or more likely the habit of olden days, came +on him—days when he learned to strike the yelping pack that dodged +his blows. He was far from the burnt thicket, but a single bush was +near, and setting his broad back to that, he waited for the circling +foe. Nearer and nearer they urged the frightened steeds, and Monarch +watched—waited, as of old, for the dogs, till they were almost +touching each other, then he sprang like an avalanche of rock. What +can elude a Grizzly's dash? The earth shivered as he launched himself, +and trembled when he struck. Three men, three horses, in each other's +way. The dust was thick; they only knew he struck—struck—struck! The +horses never rose. +</p> + +<p> +"Santa Maria!" came a cry of death, and hovering riders dashed to draw +the Bear away. Three horses dead, one man dead, one nearly so, and +only one escaped. +</p> + +<p> +"Crack! crack! crack!" went the pistols now as the Bear went rocking +his huge form in rapid charge for the friendly hills; and the four +riders, urged by Kellyan, followed fast. They passed him, wheeled, +faced him. The pistols had wounded him in many places. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't shoot—don't shoot, but tire him out," the hunter urged. +</p> + +<p> +"Tire him out? Look at Carlos and Manuel back there. How many minutes +will it be before the rest are down with them?" So the infuriating +pistols popped till all their shots were gone, and Monarch foamed with +slobbering jaws of rage. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep on! keep cool," cried Kellyan. +</p> + +<p> +His lariat flew as the cattle-killing paw was lifted for an instant. +The lasso bound his wrist. "Sing! Sing!" went two, and caught him by +the neck. A bull with his great club-foot in a noose is surely caught, +but the Grizzly raised his supple, hand-like, tapering paw and gave +one jerk that freed it. Now the two on his neck were tight; he could +not slip them. The horses at the ends—they were dragging, choking +him; men were shouting, hovering, watching for a new chance, when +Monarch, firmly planting both paws, braced, bent those mighty +shoulders, and, spite of shortening breath, leaned back on those two +ropes as Samson did on pillars of the house of Baal, and straining +horses with their riders were dragged forward more and more, long +grooves being plowed behind; dragging them, he backed faster and +faster still. His eyes were starting, his tongue lolling out. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/192.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<p> +"Keep on! hold tight!" was the cry, till the ropers swung together, +the better to resist; and Monarch, big and strong with frenzied hate, +seeing now his turn, sprang forward like a shot. The horses leaped and +escaped—almost; the last was one small inch too slow. The awful paw +with jags of steel just grazed his flank. How slight it sounds! But +what it really means is better not writ down. +</p> + +<p> +The riders had slipped their ropes in fear, and the Monarch, rumbling, +snorting, bounding, trailed them to the hills, there to bite them off +in peace, while the remnant of the gallant crew went, sadly muttering, +back. +</p> + +<p> +Bitter words went round. Kellyan was cursed. +</p> + +<p> +"His fault. Why didn't we have the guns?" +</p> + +<p> +"We were all in it," was the answer, and more hard words, till Kellyan +flushed, forgot his calm, and drew a pistol hitherto concealed, and +the other "took it back." +</p> + +<a name="illus7"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus7.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus7-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"RUMBLING AND SNORTING, HE MADE FOR THE FRIENDLY HILLS" +</div> + +<a name="15"></a> +<h3> +XV. THE FOAMING FLOOD +</h3> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/199.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"What is next, Lan?" said Lou, as they sat dispirited by the fire that +night. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan was silent for a time, then said slowly and earnestly, with a +gleam in his eye: "Lou, that's the greatest Bear alive. When I seen +him set up there like a butte and swat horses like they was flies, I +jest loved him. He's the greatest thing God has turned loose in these +yer hills. Before to-day, I sure wanted to get him; now, Lou, I'm +a-going to get him, an' get him alive, if it takes all my natural +days. I think I kin do it alone, but I know I kin do it with you," and +deep in Kellyan's eyes there glowed a little spark of something not +yet rightly named. +</p> + +<p> +They were camped in the hills, being no longer welcome at the ranch; +the ranchers thought their price too high. Some even decided that the +Monarch, being a terror to sheep, was not an undesirable neighbor. The +cattle bounty was withdrawn, but the newspaper bounty was not. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/200.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"I want you to bring in that Bear," was the brief but pregnant message +from the rich newsman when he heard of the fight with the riders. +</p> + +<p> +"How are you going about it, Lan?" +</p> + +<p> +Every bridge has its rotten plank, every fence its flimsy rail, every +great one his weakness, and Kellyan, as he pondered, knew how mad it +was to meet this one of brawn with mere brute force. +</p> + +<p> +"Steel traps are no good; he smashes them. Lariats won't do, and he +knows all about log traps. But I have a scheme. First, we must follow +him up and learn his range. I reckon that'll take three months." +</p> + +<p> +So the two kept on. They took up that Bear-trail next day; they found +the lariats chewed off. They followed day after day. They learned what +they could from rancher and sheepherder, and much more was told them +than they could believe. +</p> + +<p> +Three months, Lan said, but it took six months to carry out his plan; +meanwhile Monarch killed and killed. +</p> + +<p> +In each section of his range they made one or two cage- or pen-traps +of bolted logs. At the back end of each they put a small grating of +heavy steel bars. The door was carefully made and fitted into grooves. +It was of double plank, with tar-paper between to make it surely +light-tight. It was sheeted with iron on the inside, and when it +dropped it went into an iron-bound groove in the floor. +</p> + +<p> +They left these traps open and unset till they were grayed with age +and smelt no more of man. Then the two hunters prepared for the final +play. They baited all without setting them—baited them with honey, +the lure that Monarch never had refused—and when at length they found +the honey baits were gone, they came where he now was taking toll and +laid the long-planned snare. Every trap was set, and baited as before +with a mass of honey—but <i>honey now mixed with a potent sleeping +draft</i>. +</p> + + +<a name="16"></a> +<h3> +XVI. LANDLOCKED +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 40%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/203.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/206.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +That night the great Bear left his lair, one of his many lairs, and, +cured of all his wounds, rejoicing in the fullness of his mighty +strength, he strode toward the plains. His nose, ever alert, +reported—sheep, a deer, a grouse; men—more sheep, some cows, and +some calves; a bull—a fighting bull—and Monarch wheeled in big, +rude, Bearish joy at the coming battle brunt; but as he hugely hulked +from hill to hill a different message came, so soft and low, so +different from the smell of beefish brutes, one might well wonder he +could sense it, but like a tiny ringing bell when thunder booms it +came, and Monarch wheeled at once. Oh, it cast a potent spell! It +stood for something very near to ecstasy with him, and down the hill +and through the pines he went, on and on faster yet, abandoned to its +sorcery. Here to its home he traced it, a long, low cavern. He had +seen such many times before, had been held in them more than once, but +had learned to spurn them. For weeks he had been robbing them of their +treasures, and its odor, like a calling voice, was still his guide. +Into the cavern he passed and it reeked with the smell of joy. There +was the luscious mass, and Monarch, with all caution lulled now, +licked and licked, then seized to tear the bag for more, when down +went the door with a low "bang!" The Monarch started, but all was +still and there was no smell of danger. He had forced such doors +before. His palate craved the honey still, and he licked and licked, +greedily at first, then calmly, then slowly, then drowsily—then at +last stopped. His eyes were closing, and he sank slowly down on the +earth and slept a heavy sleep. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/207.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Calm, but white-faced, were they—the men—when in the dawn they came. +There were the huge scarred tracks in-leading; there was the door +down; there dimly they could see a mass of fur that filled the pen, +that heaved in deepest sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Strong ropes, strong chains and bands of steel were at hand, with +chloroform, lest he should revive too soon. Through holes in the roof +with infinite toil they chained him, bound him—his paws to his neck, +his neck and breast and hind legs to a bolted beam. Then raising the +door, they dragged him out, not with horses—none would go near—but +with a windlass to a tree; and fearing the sleep of death, they let +him now revive. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/208.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Chained and double chained, frenzied, foaming, and impotent, what +words can tell the state of the fallen Monarch? They put him on a +sled, and six horses with a long chain drew it by stages to the plain, +to the railway. They fed him enough to save his life. A great +steam-derrick lifted Bear and beam and chain on to a flat-car, a +tarpaulin was spread above his helpless form; the engine puffed, +pulled out; and the Grizzly King was gone from his ancient hills. +</p> + +<p> +So they brought him to the great city, the Monarch born, in chains. +They put him in a cage not merely strong enough for a lion, but thrice +as strong, and once a rope gave way as the huge one strained his +bonds. "He is loose," went the cry, and an army of onlookers and +keepers fled; only the small man with the calm eye and the big man of +the hills were stanch, so the Monarch was still held. +</p> + +<p> +Free in the cage, he swung round, looked this way and that, then +heaved his powers against the triple angling steel and wrenched the +cage so not a part of it was square. In time he clearly would break +out. They dragged the prisoner to another that an elephant could not +break down, but it stood on the ground, and in an hour the great beast +had a cavern into the earth and was sinking out of sight, till a +stream of water sent after him filled the hole and forced him again to +view. They moved him to a new cage made for him since he came—a hard +rock floor, great bars of nearly two-inch steel that reached up nine +feet and then projected in for five. The Monarch wheeled once around, +then, rearing, raised his ponderous bulk, wrenched those bars, +unbreakable, and bent and turned them in their sockets with one heave +till the five-foot spears were pointed out, and then sprang to climb. +Nothing but pikes and blazing brands in a dozen ruthless hands could +hold him back. The keepers watched him night and day till a stronger +cage was made, impregnable with steel above and rocks below. +</p> + +<p> +The Untamed One passed swiftly around, tried every bar, examined every +corner, sought for a crack in the rocky floor, and found at last the +place where was a six-inch timber beam—the only piece of wood in its +frame. It was sheathed in iron, but exposed for an inch its whole +length. One claw could reach the wood, and here he lay on his side and +raked—raked all day till a great pile of shavings was lying by it and +the beam sawn in two; but the cross-bolts remained, and when Monarch +put his vast shoulder to the place it yielded not a whit. That was his +last hope; now it was gone; and the huge Bear sank down in the cage +with his nose in his paws and sobbed—long, heavy sobs, animal sounds +indeed, but telling just as truly as in man of the broken spirit—the +hope and the life gone out. The keepers came with food at the +appointed time, but the Bear moved not. They set it down, but in the +morning it was still untouched. The Bear was lying as before, his +ponderous form in the pose he had first taken. The sobbing was +replaced by a low moan at intervals. +</p> + +<p> +Two days went by. The food, untouched, was corrupting in the sun. The +third day, and Monarch still lay on his breast, his huge muzzle under +his huger paw. His eyes were hidden; only a slight heaving of his +broad chest was now seen. +</p> + +<p> +"He is dying," said one keeper. "He can't live overnight." +</p> + +<p> +"Send for Kellyan," said another. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/212.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +So Kellyan came, slight and thin. There was the beast that he had +chained, pining, dying. He had sobbed his life out in his last hope's +death, and a thrill of pity came over the hunter, for men of grit and +power love grit and power. He put his arm through the cage bars and +stroked him, but Monarch made no sign. His body was cold. At length a +little moan was sign of life, and Kellyan said, "Here, let me go in to +him." +</p> + +<p> +"You are mad," said the keepers, and they would not open the cage. But +Kellyan persisted till they put in a cross-grating in front of the +Bear. Then, with this between, he approached. His hand was on the +shaggy head, but Monarch lay as before. The hunter stroked his victim +and spoke to him. His hand went to the big round ears, small above the +head. They were rough to his touch. He looked again, then started. +What! is it true? Yes, the stranger's tale was true, for both ears +were pierced with a round hole—one torn large—and Kellyan knew that +once again he had met his little Jack. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, Jacky, I didn't know it was you. I never would have done it if I +had known it was you. Jacky, old pard, don't you know me?" +</p> + +<p> +But Jack stirred not, and Kellyan got up quickly. Back to the hotel he +flew; there he put on his hunter's suit, smoky and smelling of pine +gum and grease, and returned with a mass of honeycomb to reenter the +cage. +</p> + +<p> +"Jacky, Jacky!" he cried, "honey, honey!" and he held the tempting +comb before him. But Monarch lay as one dead now. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/214.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Jacky, Jacky! don't you know me?" He dropped the honey and laid his +hands on the great muzzle. +</p> + +<p> +The voice was forgotten. The old-time invitation, "Honey, +Jacky—honey," had lost its power, but the <i>smell</i> of the honey, +the coat, the hands that he had fondled, had together a hidden +potency. +</p> + +<p> +There is a time when the dying of our race forget their life, but +clearly remember the scenes of childhood; these only are real and +return with master power. And why not with a Bear? The power of scent +was there to call them back again, and Jacky, the Grizzly Monarch, +raised his head a little—just a little; the eyes were nearly closed, +but the big brown nose was jerked up feebly two or three times—the +sign of interest that Jacky used to give in days of old. Now it was +Kellyan that broke down even as the Bear had done. +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't know it was you, Jacky, or I never would have done it. Oh, +Jacky, forgive me!" He rose and fled from the cage. +</p> + +<p> +The keepers were there. They scarcely understood the scene, but one of +them, acting on the hint, pushed the honeycomb nearer and cried, +"Honey, Jacky—honey!" +</p> + +<p> +Filled by despair, he had lain down to die, but here was a new-born +hope, not clear, not exact as words might put it, but his conqueror +had shown himself a friend; this seemed a new hope, and the keeper, +taking up the old call, "Honey, Jacky—honey!" pushed the comb till it +touched his muzzle. The smell was wafted to his sense, its message +reached his brain; hope honored, it must awake response. The great +tongue licked the comb, appetite revived, and thus in newborn Hope +began the chapter of his gloom. +</p> + +<p> +Skilful keepers were there with plans to meet the Monarch's every +want. Delicate foods were offered and every shift was tried to tempt +him back to strength and prison life. +</p> + +<p> +He ate and—lived. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/217.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +And still he lives, but pacing—pacing—pacing—you may see him, +scanning not the crowds, but something beyond the crowds, breaking +down at times into petulant rages, but recovering anon his ponderous +dignity, looking—waiting—watching—held ever by that Hope, that +unknown Hope, that came. Kellyan has been to him since, but Monarch +knows him not. Over his head, beyond him, was the great Bear's gaze, +far away toward Tallac or far away on the sea, we knowing not which or +why, but pacing—pacing—pacing—held like the storied Wandering One +to a life of ceaseless journey—a journey aimless, endless, and sad. +</p> + +<p> +The wound-spots long ago have left his shaggy coat, but the earmarks +still are there, the ponderous strength, the elephantine dignity. His +eyes are dull,—never were bright,—but they seem not vacant, and most +often fixed on the Golden Gate where the river seeks the sea. +</p> + +<p> +The river, born in high Sierra's flank, that lived and rolled and +grew, through mountain pines, o'erleaping man-made barriers, then to +reach with growing power the plains and bring its mighty flood at last +to the Bay of Bays, a prisoner there to lie, the prisoner of the +Golden Gate, seeking forever Freedom's Blue, seeking and +raging—raging and seeking—back and forth, forever—in vain. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/218.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<br> +<br> + +<a name="illus8"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus8.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus8-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +MONARCH +</div> +</div> +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11135 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11135-h/images/001.gif 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac</p> +<p>Author: Ernest Thompson Seton</p> +<p>Release Date: February 17, 2004 [eBook #11135]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONARCH, THE BIG BEAR OF TALLAC***</p> +<br> +<br> +<center><h3>E-text prepared by Michelle Croyle<br> + and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders</h3></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full"> +<div class="content"> +<h1>MONARCH<br> +The BIG BEAR of Tallac</h1> +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/001.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> +<h3>With 100 Drawings<br> +by <font size="+2">Ernest Thompson Seton</font></h3> +<h5>Author of<br> +<i>Wild Animals I have known<br> +Trail of the Sandhill Stag<br> +Biography of a Grizzly<br> +Lives of the Hunted.<br> +Two Little Savages. Etc. +</i> +</h5> +<div class="figure"> +<img src="images/006.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<h4> +<b>Published by Charles Scribner's Sons. New York, 1919.</b><br> +</h4> + +<hr class="full"> +<p> +<b>THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED</b> +</p> +<p> +To the memory of the days in Tallac's Pines, where by the fire I heard +this epic tale. +</p> +<p> +Kind memory calls the picture up before me now, clear, living clear: I +see them as they sat, the one small and slight, the other tall and +brawny, leader and led, rough men of the hills. They told me this +tale—in broken bits they gave it, a sentence at a time. They were +ready to talk but knew not how. Few their words, and those they used +would be empty on paper, meaningless without the puckered lip, the +interhiss, the brutal semi-snarl restrained by human mastery, the snap +and jerk of wrist and gleam of steel-gray eye, that really told the +tale, of which the spoken word was mere headline. Another, a subtler +theme was theirs that night; not in the line but in the interline it +ran; and listening to the hunter's ruder tale, I heard as one may hear +the night bird singing in the storm; amid the glitter of the mica I +caught the glint of gold, for theirs was a parable of hill-born power +that fades when it finds the plains. They told of the giant redwood's +growth from a tiny seed; of the avalanche that, born a snowflake, +heaves and grows on the peaks, to shrink and die on the level lands +below. They told of the river at our feet: of its rise, a thread-like +rill, afar on Tallac's side, and its growth—a brook, a stream, a +little river, a river, a mighty flood that rolled and ran from hills +to plain to meet a final doom so strange that only the wise believe. +Yes, I have seen it; it is there to-day—the river, the wonderful +river, that unabated flows, but that never reaches the sea. +</p> +<p> +I give you the story then as it came to me, and yet I do not give it, +for theirs is a tongue unknown to script: I give a dim translation; +dim, but in all ways respectful, reverencing the indomitable spirit of +the mountaineer, worshiping the mighty Beast that nature built a +monument of power, and loving and worshiping the clash, the awful +strife heroic, at the close, when these two met. +</p> +<hr class="full"> + +<h4>In this Book the designs for<br> cover, title-page, and general<br> make-up +were done by <br>Grace Gallatin Seton.</h4> + +<div class="figure"> +<img src="images/011.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="list"> +<font size="+2"><b>List of Full-Page Drawings</b></font> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#illus1">"The pony bounded in terror while the Grizzly ran almost alongside"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus2">"Jack ate till his paunch looked like a rubber balloon"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus3">'Honey—Jacky—honey'"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus4">"Jack ... held up his sticky, greasy arms"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus5">The Thirty-foot Bear</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus6">"'Now, B'ar, I don't want no scrap with you'"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus7">"Rumbling and snorting, he made for the friendly hills"</a></li> + <li><a href="#illus8">Monarch</a></li> +</ul> + +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="list"> +<p><font size="+2"><b>List of The Chapters</b></font></p> + +<ol class="rom"> +<li><a href="#1">The Two Springs</a></li> +<li><a href="#2">The Springs and the Miner's Dam</a></li> +<li><a href="#3">The Trout Pool</a></li> +<li><a href="#4">The Stream that Sank in the Sand</a></li> +<li><a href="#5">The River Held in the Foothills</a></li> +<li><a href="#6">The Broken Dam</a></li> +<li><a href="#7">The Freshet</a></li> +<li><a href="#8">Roaring in the Cañon</a></li> +<li><a href="#9">Fire and Water</a></li> +<li><a href="#10">The Eddy</a></li> +<li><a href="#11">The Ford</a></li> +<li><a href="#12">Swirl and Pool and Growing Flood</a></li> +<li><a href="#13">The Deepening Channel</a></li> +<li><a href="#14">The Cataract</a></li> +<li><a href="#15">The Foaming Flood</a></li> +<li><a href="#16">Landlocked</a></li> +</ol> +</div> + + +<hr class="full"> + + +<h3>—FOREWORD—</h3> + + +<p> +The story of Monarch is founded on material gathered from many sources +as well as from personal experience, and the Bear is of necessity a +composite. The great Grizzly Monarch, still pacing his prison floor at +the Golden Gate Park, is the central fact of the tale. +</p> + +<p> +In telling it I have taken two liberties that I conceive to be proper +in a story of this sort. +</p> + +<p> +First, I have selected for my hero an unusual individual. +</p> + +<p> +Second, I have ascribed to that one animal the adventures of several +of his kind. +</p> + +<p> +The aim of the story is to picture the life of a Grizzly with the +added glamour of a remarkable Bear personality. The intention is to +convey the known truth. But the fact that liberties have been taken +excludes the story from the catalogue of pure science. It must be +considered rather an historical novel of Bear life. +</p> + +<p> +Many different Bears were concerned in the early adventures here +related, but the last two chapters, the captivity and the despair of +the Big Bear, are told as they were told to me by several witnesses, +including my friends the two mountaineers. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="1"></a>I. THE TWO SPRINGS +</h3> + + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/021.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +High above Sierra's peaks stands grim Mount Tallac. Ten thousand feet +above the sea it rears its head to gaze out north to that vast and +wonderful turquoise that men call Lake Tahoe, and northwest, across a +piney sea, to its great white sister, Shasta of the Snows; wonderful +colors and things on every side, mast-like pine trees strung with +jewelry, streams that a Buddhist would have made sacred, hills that an +Arab would have held holy. But Lan Kellyan's keen gray eyes were +turned to other things. The childish delight in life and light for +their own sakes had faded, as they must in one whose training had been +to make him hold them very cheap. Why value grass? All the world is +grass. Why value air, when it is everywhere in measureless immensity? +Why value life, when, all alive, his living came from taking life? His +senses were alert, not for the rainbow hills and the gem-bright lakes, +but for the living things that he must meet in daily rivalry, each +staking on the game, his life. Hunter was written on his leathern +garb, on his tawny face, on his lithe and sinewy form, and shone in +his clear gray eye. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/023.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The cloven granite peak might pass unmarked, but a faint dimple in the +sod did not. Calipers could not have told that it was widened at one +end, but the hunter's eye did, and following, he looked for and found +another, then smaller signs, and he knew that a big Bear and two +little ones had passed and were still close at hand, for the grass in +the marks was yet unbending. Lan rode his hunting pony on the trail. +It sniffed and stepped nervously, for it knew as well as the rider +that a Grizzly family was near. They came to a terrace leading to an +open upland. Twenty feet on this side of it Lan slipped to the ground, +dropped the reins, the well-known sign to the pony that he must stand +at that spot, then cocked his rifle and climbed the bank. At the top +he went with yet greater caution, and soon saw an old Grizzly with her +two cubs. She was lying down some fifty yards away and afforded a poor +shot; he fired at what seemed to be the shoulder. The aim was true, +but the Bear got only a flesh-wound. She sprang to her feet and made +for the place where the puff of smoke arose. The Bear had fifty yards +to cover, the man had fifteen, but she came racing down the bank +before he was fairly on the horse, and for a hundred yards the pony +bounded in terror while the old Grizzly ran almost alongside, striking +at him and missing by a scant hair's-breadth each time. But the +Grizzly rarely keeps up its great speed for many yards. The horse got +under full headway, and the shaggy mother, falling behind, gave up the +chase and returned to her cubs. +</p> + +<a name="illus1"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus1.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus1-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"THE PONY BOUNDED IN TERROR WHILE THE GRIZZLY RAN ALMOST ALONGSIDE" +</div> + +<p> +She was a singular old Bear. She had a large patch of white on her +breast, white cheeks and shoulders, graded into the brown elsewhere, +and Lan from this remembered her afterward as the "Pinto." She had +almost caught him that time, and the hunter was ready to believe that +he owed her a grudge. +</p> + +<p> +A week later his chance came. As he passed along the rim of Pocket +Gulch, a small, deep valley with sides of sheer rock in most places, +he saw afar the old Pinto Bear with her two little brown cubs. She was +crossing from one side where the wall was low to another part easy to +climb. As she stopped to drink at the clear stream Lan fired with his +rifle. At the shot Pinto turned on her cubs, and slapping first one, +then the other, she chased them up a tree. Now a second shot struck +her and she charged fiercely up the sloping part of the wall, clearly +recognizing the whole situation and determined to destroy that hunter. +She came snorting up the steep acclivity wounded and raging, only to +receive a final shot in the brain that sent her rolling back to lie +dead at the bottom of Pocket Gulch. The hunter, after waiting to make +sure, moved to the edge and fired another shot into the old one's +body; then reloading, he went cautiously down to the tree where still +were the cubs. They gazed at him with wild seriousness as he +approached them, and when he began to climb they scrambled up higher. +Here one set up a plaintive whining and the other an angry growling, +their outcries increasing as he came nearer. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/028.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He took out a stout cord, and noosing them in turn, dragged them to +the ground. One rushed at him and, though little bigger than a cat, +would certainly have done him serious injury had he not held it off +with a forked stick. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/030.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +After tying them to a strong but swaying branch he went to his horse, +got a grain-bag, dropped them into that, and rode with them to his +shanty. He fastened each with a collar and chain to a post, up which +they climbed, and sitting on the top they whined and growled, +according to their humor. For the first few days there was danger of +the cubs strangling themselves or of starving to death, but at length +they were beguiled into drinking some milk most ungently procured from +a range cow that was lassoed for the purpose. In another week they +seemed somewhat reconciled to their lot, and thenceforth plainly +notified their captor whenever they wanted food or water. +</p> + +<p> +And thus the two small rills ran on, a little farther down the +mountain now, deeper and wider, keeping near each other; leaping bars, +rejoicing in the sunlight, held for a while by some trivial dam, but +overleaping that and running on with pools and deeps that harbor +bigger things. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="2"></a>II. THE SPRINGS AND THE MINER'S DAM +</h3> + +<div style="width: 4%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/033.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +Jack and Jill, the hunter named the cubs; and Jill, the little fury, +did nothing to change his early impression of her bad temper. When at +food-time the man came she would get as far as possible up the post +and growl, or else sit in sulky fear and silence; Jack would scramble +down and strain at his chain to meet his captor, whining softly, and +gobbling his food at once with the greatest of gusto and the worst of +manners. He had many odd ways of his own, and he was a lasting rebuke +to those who say an animal has no sense of humor. In a month he had +grown so tame that he was allowed to run free. He followed his master +like a dog, and his tricks and funny doings were a continual delight +to Kellyan and the few friends he had in the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +On the creek-bottom below the shack was a meadow where Lan cut enough +hay each year to feed his two ponies through the winter. This year +when hay-time came Jack was his daily companion, either following him +about in dangerous nearness to the snorting scythe, or curling up an +hour at a time on his coat to guard it assiduously from such +aggressive monsters as Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks. An interesting +variation of the day came about whenever the mower found a bumblebees' +nest. Jack loved honey, of course, and knew quite well what a bees' +nest was, so the call, "Honey—Jacky—honey!" never failed to bring +him in waddling haste to the spot. Jerking his nose up in token of +pleasure, he would approach cautiously, for he knew that bees have +stings. Watching his chance, he would dexterously slap at them with +his paws till, one by one, they were knocked down and crushed; then +sniffing hard for the latest information, he would stir up the nest +gingerly till the very last was tempted forth to be killed. When the +dozen or more that formed the swarm were thus got rid of, Jack would +carefully dig out the nest and eat first the honey, next the grubs and +wax, and last of all the bees he had killed, champing his jaws like a +little Pig at a trough, while his long red, snaky tongue was ever busy +lashing the stragglers into his greedy maw. +</p> + +<a name="illus2"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus2.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus2-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"JACK ATE TILL HIS PAUNCH LOOKED LIKE A RUBBER BALLOON" +</div> + +<p> +Lan's nearest neighbor was Lou Bonamy, an ex-cowboy and sheep-herder, +now a prospecting miner. He lived, with his dog, in a shanty about a +mile below Kellyan's shack. Bonamy had seen Jack "perform on a +bee-crew." And one day, as he came to Kellyan's, he called out: "Lan, +bring Jack here and we'll have some fun." He led the way down the +stream into the woods. Kellyan followed him, and Jacky waddled at +Kellyan's heels, sniffing once in a while to make sure he was not +following the wrong pair of legs. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/038.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +"There, Jacky, honey—honey!" and Bonamy pointed up a tree to an +immense wasps' nest. +</p> + +<p> +Jack cocked his head on one side and swung his nose on the other. +Certainly those things buzzing about looked like bees, though he never +before saw a bees' nest of that shape, or in such a place. +</p> + +<p> +But he scrambled up the trunk. The men waited—Lan in doubt as to +whether he should let his pet cub go into such danger, Bonamy +insisting it would be a capital joke "to spring a surprise" on the +little Bear. Jack reached the branch that held the big nest high over +the deep water, but went with increasing caution. He had never seen a +bees' nest like this; it did not have the right smell. Then he took +another step forward on the branch—what an awful lot of bees; another +step—still they were undoubtedly bees; he cautiously advanced a +foot—and bees mean honey; a little farther—he was now within four +feet of the great paper globe. The bees hummed angrily and Jack +stepped back, in doubt. The men giggled; then Bonamy called softly and +untruthfully: "Honey—Jacky—honey!" +</p> + +<a name="illus3"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus3.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus3-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"'HONEY—JACKY—HONEY'" +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/043.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The little Bear, fortunately for himself, went slowly, since in doubt; +he made no sudden move, and he waited a long time, though urged to go +on, till the whole swarm of bees had reentered their nest. Now Jacky +jerked his nose up, hitched softly out a little farther till right +over the fateful paper globe. He reached out, and by lucky chance put +one horny little paw-pad over the hole; his other arm grasped the +nest, and leaping from the branch he plunged headlong into the pool +below, taking the whole thing with him. As soon as he reached the +water his hind feet were seen tearing into the nest, kicking it to +pieces; then he let it go and struck out for the shore, the nest +floating in rags down-stream. He ran alongside till the comb lodged +against a shallow place, then he plunged in again; the wasps were +drowned or too wet to be dangerous, and he carried his prize to the +bank in triumph. No honey; of course, that was a disappointment, but +there were lots of fat white grubs—almost as good—and Jack ate till +his paunch looked like a little rubber balloon. +</p> + +<p> +"How is that?" chuckled Lan. +</p> + +<p> +"The laugh is on us," answered Bonamy, with a grimace. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="3"></a> +III. THE TROUT POOL +</h3> + + +<p> +Jack was now growing into a sturdy cub, and he would follow Kellyan +even as far as Bonamy's shack. One day, as they watched him rolling +head over heels in riotous glee, Kellyan remarked to his friend: "I'm +afraid some one will happen on him an' shoot him in the woods for a +wild B'ar." +</p> + +<p> +"Then why don't you ear-mark him with them thar new sheep-rings?" was +the sheep-man's suggestion. +</p> +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/048.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +Thus it was that, much against his will, Jack's ears were punched and +he was decorated with earrings like a prize ram. The intention was +good, but they were neither ornamental nor comfortable. Jack fought +them for days, and when at length he came home trailing a branch that +was caught in the jewel of his left ear, Kellyan impatiently removed +them. +</p> + +<p> +At Bonamy's he formed two new acquaintances, a blustering, bullying +old ram that was "in storage" for a sheep-herder acquaintance, and +which inspired him with a lasting enmity for everything that smelt of +sheep—and Bonamy's dog. +</p> + +<p> +This latter was an active, yapping, unpleasant cur that seemed to +think it rare fun to snap at Jacky's heels, then bound out of reach. A +joke is a joke, but this horrid beast did not know where to stop, and +Jack's first and second visits to the Bonamy hut were quite spoiled by +the tyranny of the dog. If Jack could have got hold of him he might +have settled the account to his own satisfaction, but he was not quick +enough for that. His only refuge was up a tree. He soon discovered +that he was happier away from Bonamy's, and thenceforth when he saw +his protector take the turn that led to the miner's cabin, Jack said +plainly with a look, "No, thank you," and turned back to amuse himself +at home. +</p> +<div style="width: 14%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/049.gif" alt=""> +</div> +<p> +His enemy, however, often came with Bonamy to the hunter's cabin, and +there resumed his amusement of teasing the little Bear. It proved so +interesting a pursuit that the dog learned to come over on his own +account whenever he felt like having some fun, until at length Jack +was kept in continual terror of the yellow cur. But it all ended very +suddenly. +</p> + +<p> +One hot day, while the two men smoked in front of Kellyan's house, the +dog chased Jack up a tree and then stretched himself out for a +pleasant nap in the shade of its branches. Jack was forgotten as the +dog slumbered. The little Bear kept very quiet for a while, then, as +his twinkling brown eyes came back to that hateful dog, that he could +neither catch nor get away from, an idea seemed to grow in his small +brain. He began to move slowly and silently down the branch until he +was over the foe, slumbering, twitching his limbs, and making little +sounds that told of dreams of the chase, or, more likely, dreams of +tormenting a helpless Bear cub. Of course, Jack knew nothing of that. +His one thought, doubtless, was that he hated that cur and now he +could vent his hate. He came just over the tyrant, and taking careful +aim, he jumped and landed squarely on the dog's ribs. It was a +terribly rude awakening, but the dog gave no yelp, for the good reason +that the breath was knocked out of his body. No bones were broken, +though he was barely able to drag himself away in silent defeat, while +Jacky played a lively tune on his rear with paws that were fringed +with meat-hooks. +</p> + +<p> +Evidently it was a most excellent plan; and when the dog came around +after that, or when Jack went to Bonamy's with his master, as he soon +again ventured to do, he would scheme with more or less success to +"get the drop on the purp," as the men put it. The dog now rapidly +lost interest in Bear-baiting, and in a short time it was a forgotten +sport. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="4"></a> +IV. THE STREAM THAT SANK IN THE SAND +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/053.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<div style="width: 7%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/055.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Jack was funny; Jill was sulky. Jack was petted and given freedom, so +grew funnier; Jill was beaten and chained, so grew sulkier. She had a +bad name and she was often punished for it; it is usually so. +</p> + + +<p> +One day, while Lan was away, Jill got free and joined her brother. +They broke into the little storehouse and rioted among the provisions. +They gorged themselves with the choicest sorts; and the common stuffs, +like flour, butter, and baking-powder, brought fifty miles on +horseback, were good enough only to be thrown about the ground or +rolled in. Jack had just torn open the last bag of flour, and Jill was +puzzling over a box of miner's dynamite, when the doorway darkened and +there stood Kellyan, a picture of amazement and wrath. Little Bears do +not know anything about pictures, but they have some acquaintance with +wrath. They seemed to know that they were sinning, or at least in +danger, and Jill sneaked, sulky and snuffy, into a dark corner, where +she glared defiantly at the hunter. Jack put his head on one side, +then, quite forgetful of all his misbehavior, he gave a delighted +grunt, and scuttling toward the man, he whined, jerked his nose, and +held up his sticky, greasy arms to be lifted and petted as though he +were the best little Bear in the world. +</p> + +<a name="illus4"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus4.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus4-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"JACK ... HELD UP HIS STICKY, GREASY ARMS" +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/056.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Alas, how likely we are to be taken at our own estimate! The scowl +faded from the hunter's brow as the cheeky and deplorable little Bear +began to climb his leg. "You little divil," he growled, "I'll break +your cussed neck"; but he did not. He lifted the nasty, sticky little +beast and fondled him as usual, while Jill, no worse—even more +excusable, because less trained—suffered all the terrors of his wrath +and was double-chained to the post, so as to have no further chance of +such ill-doing. +</p> + +<p> +This was a day of bad luck for Kellyan. That morning he had fallen and +broken his rifle. Now, on his return home, he found his provisions +spoiled, and a new trial was before him. +</p> + +<p> +A stranger with a small pack-train called at his place that evening +and passed the night with him. Jack was in his most frolicsome mood +and amused them both with tricks half-puppy and half-monkey like, and +in the morning, when the stranger was leaving, he said: "Say, pard, +I'll give you twenty-five dollars for the pair." Lan hesitated, +thought of the wasted provisions, his empty purse, his broken rifle, +and answered: "Make it fifty and it's a go." +</p> + +<p> +"Shake on it." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/060.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +So the bargain was made, the money paid, and in fifteen minutes the +stranger was gone with a little Bear in each pannier of his horse. +</p> + +<p> +Jill was surly and silent; Jack kept up a whining that smote on Lan's +heart with a reproachful sound, but he braced himself with, "Guess +they're better out of the way; couldn't afford another storeroom +racket," and soon the pine forest had swallowed up the stranger, his +three led horses, and the two little Bears. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I'm glad he's gone," said Lan, savagely, though he knew quite +well that he was already scourged with repentance. He began to set his +shanty in order. He went to the storehouse and gathered the remnants +of the provisions. After all, there was a good deal left. He walked +past the box where Jack used to sleep. How silent it was! He noted the +place where Jack used to scratch the door to get into the cabin, and +started at the thought that he should hear it no more, and told +himself, with many cuss-words, that he was "mighty glad of it." He +pottered about, doing—doing—oh, anything, for an hour or more; then +suddenly he leaped on his pony and raced madly down the trail on the +track of the stranger. He put the pony hard to it, and in two hours he +overtook the train at the crossing of the river. +</p> + +<p> +"Say, pard, I done wrong. I didn't orter sell them little B'ars, +leastwise not Jacky. I—I—wall, now, I want to call it off. Here's +yer yellow." +</p> + +<p> +"I'm satisfied with my end of it," said the stranger, coldly. +</p> + +<p> +"Well, I ain't," said Lan, with warmth, "an' I want it off." +</p> + +<p> +"Ye're wastin' time if that's what ye come for," was the reply. +</p> + +<p> +"We'll see about that," and Lan threw the gold pieces at the rider and +walked over toward the pannier, where Jack was whining joyfully at the +sound of the familiar voice. +</p> + +<p> +"Hands up," said the stranger, with the short, sharp tone of one who +had said it before, and Lan turned to find himself covered with a .45 +navy Colt. +</p> + +<p> +"Ye got the drop on me," he said; "I ain't got no gun; but look-a +here, stranger, that there little B'ar is the only pard I got; he's my +stiddy company an' we're almighty fond o' each other. I didn't know +how much I was a-goin' to miss him. Now look-a here: take back yer +fifty; ye give me Jack an' keep Jill." +</p> + +<p> +"If ye got five hundred cold plunks in yaller ye kin get him; if not, +you walk straight to that tree thar an' don't drop yer hands or turn +or I'll fire. Now start." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/063.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Mountain etiquette is very strict, and Lan, being without weapons, +must needs obey the rules. He marched to the distant tree under cover +of the revolver. The wail of little Jack smote painfully on his ear, +but he knew the ways of the mountaineers too well to turn or make +another offer, and the stranger went on. +</p> + +<p> +Many a man has spent a thousand dollars in efforts to capture some +wild thing and felt it worth the cost—for a time. Then he is willing +to sell it for half cost, then for quarter, and at length he ends by +giving it away. The stranger was vastly pleased with his comical Bear +cubs at first, and valued them proportionately; but each day they +seemed more troublesome and less amusing, so that when, a week later, +at the Bell-Cross Ranch, he was offered a horse for the pair, he +readily closed, and their days of hamper-travel were over. +</p> + +<p> +The owner of the ranch was neither mild, refined, nor patient. Jack, +good-natured as he was, partly grasped these facts as he found himself +taken from the pannier, but when it came to getting cranky little Jill +out of the basket and into a collar, there ensued a scene so +unpleasant that no collar was needed. The ranchman wore his hand in a +sling for two weeks, and Jacky at his chain's end paced the ranch-yard +alone. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/065.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + + + +<h3> +<a name="5"></a> +V. THE RIVER HELD IN THE FOOTHILLS +</h3> + + +<p> +There was little of pleasant interest in the next eighteen months of +Jack's career. His share of the globe was a twenty-foot circle around +a pole in the yard. The blue hills of the offing, the nearer pine +grove, and even the ranch-house itself were fixed stars, far away and +sending merely faint suggestions of their splendors to his not very +bright eyes. Even the horses and men were outside his little sphere +and related to him about as much as comets are to the earth. The very +tricks that had made him valued were being forgotten as Jack grew up +in chains. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/070.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +At first a butter-firkin had made him an ample den, but he rapidly +passed through the various stages—butter-firkin, nail-keg, +flour-barrel, oil-barrel—and had now to be graded as a good average +hogshead Bear, though he was far from filling that big round wooden +cavern that formed his latest den. +</p> + +<p> +The ranch hotel lay just where the foothills of the Sierras with their +groves of live oaks were sloping into the golden plains of the +Sacramento. Nature had showered on it every wonderful gift in her lap. +A foreground rich with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade and sun, dry +pastures, rushing rivers, and murmuring rills, were here. Great trees +were variants of the view, and the high Sierras to the east overtopped +the wondrous plumy forests of their pines with blocks of sculptured +blue. Back of the house was a noble river of water from the hills, +fouled and chained by sluice and dam, but still a noble stream whose +earliest parent rill had gushed from grim old Tallac's slope. +</p> + +<p> +Things of beauty, life, and color were on every side, and yet most +sordid of the human race were the folk about the ranch hotel. To see +them in this setting might well raise doubt that any "rise from Nature +up to Nature's God." No city slum has ever shown a more ignoble crew, +and Jack, if his mind were capable of such things, must have graded +the two-legged ones lower in proportion as he knew them better. +</p> + +<p> +Cruelty was his lot, and hate was his response. Almost the only +amusing trick he now did was helping himself to a drink of beer. He +was very fond of beer, and the loafers about the tavern often gave him +a bottle to see how dexterously he would twist off the wire and work +out the cork. As soon as it popped, he would turn it up between his +paws and drink to the last drop. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/072.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The monotony of his life was occasionally varied with a dog fight. His +tormentors would bring their Bear dogs "to try them on the cub." It +seemed to be very pleasant sport to men and dogs, till Jack learned +how to receive them. At first he used to rush furiously at the nearest +tormentor until brought up with a jerk at the end of his chain and +completely exposed to attack behind from another dog. A month or two +entirely changed his method. He learned to sit against the hogshead +and quietly watch the noisy dogs around him, with much show of +inattention, making no move, no matter how near they were, until they +"bunched," that is, gathered in one place. Then he charged. It was +inevitable that the hind dogs would be the last to jump, and so +hindered the front ones; thus Jack would "get" one or more of them, +and the game became unpopular. +</p> + +<p> +When about eighteen months old, and half grown, an incident took place +which defied all explanation. Jack had won the name of being +dangerous, for he had crippled one man with a blow and nearly killed a +tipsy fool who volunteered to fight him. A harmless but +good-for-nothing sheep-herder who loafed about the place got very +drunk one night and offended some fire-eaters. They decided that, as +he had no gun, it would be the proper thing to club him to their +hearts' content instead of shooting him full of holes, in the manner +usually prescribed by their code. Faco Tampico made for the door and +staggered out into the darkness. His pursuers were even more drunk, +but, bent on mischief, they gave chase, and Faco dodged back of the +house and into the yard. The mountaineers had just wit enough to keep +out of reach of the Grizzly as they searched about for their victim, +but they did not find him. Then they got torches, and making sure that +he was not in the yard, were satisfied that he had fallen into the +river behind the barn and doubtless was drowned. A few rude jokes, and +they returned to the house. As they passed the Grizzly's den their +lanterns awoke in his eyes a glint of fire. In the morning the cook, +beginning his day, heard strange sounds in the yard. They came from +the Grizzly's den: "Hyar, you, lay over dahr," in sleepy tones; then a +deep, querulous grunting. +</p> + +<p> +The cook went as close as he dared and peeped in. Said the same voice +in sleepy tones: "Who are ye crowding, caramba!" and a human elbow was +seen jerking and pounding; and again impatient growling in bear-like +tones was the response. +</p> + +<p> +The sun came up and the astonished loafers found it was the missing +sheep-herder that was in the Bear's den, calmly sleeping off his +debauch in the very cave of death. The men tried to get him out, but +the Grizzly plainly showed that they could do so only over his dead +body. He charged with vindictive fury at any who ventured near, and +when they gave up the attempt he lay down at the door of the den on +guard. At length the sheep-herder came to himself, rose up on his +elbows, and realizing that he was in the power of the young Grizzly, +he stepped gingerly over his guardian's back and ran off without even +saying "Thank you." +</p> + +<p> +The Fourth of July was at hand now, and the owner of the tavern, +growing weary of the huge captive in the yard, announced that he would +celebrate Independence Day with a grand fight between a "picked and +fighting range bull and a ferocious Californian Grizzly." The news was +spread far and wide by the "Grapevine Telegraph." The roof of the +stable was covered with seats at fifty cents each. The hay-wagon was +half loaded and drawn alongside the corral; seats here gave a perfect +view and were sold at a dollar apiece. The old corral was repaired, +new posts put in where needed, and the first thing in the morning a +vicious old bull was herded in and tormented till he was "snuffy" and +extremely dangerous. +</p> + +<p> +Jack meanwhile had been roped, "choked down," and nailed up in his +hogshead. His chain and collar were permanently riveted together, so +the collar was taken off, as "it would be easy to rope him, <i>if need +be, after the bull was through with him.</i>" +</p> + +<p> +The hogshead was rolled over to the corral gate and all was ready. +</p> + +<p> +The cowboys came from far and near in their most gorgeous trappings, +and the California cowboy is the peacock of his race. Their best girls +were with them, and farmers and ranchmen came for fifty miles to enjoy +the Bull-and-Bear fight. Miners from the hills were there, Mexican +sheep-herders, storekeepers from Placerville, strangers from +Sacramento; town and county, mountain and plain, were represented. The +hay-wagon went so well that another was brought into market. The barn +roof was sold out. An ominous crack of the timbers somewhat shook the +prices, but a couple of strong uprights below restored the market, and +all "The Corners" was ready and eager for the great fight. Men who had +been raised among cattle were betting on the bull. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/078.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"I tell you, there ain't nothing on earth kin face a big range bull +that hez good use of hisself." +</p> + +<p> +But the hillmen were backing the Bear. "Pooh, what's a bull to a +Grizzly? I tell you, I seen a Grizzly send a horse clean over the +Hetch-Hetchy with one clip of his left. Bull! I'll bet he'll never +show up in the second round." +</p> + +<p> +So they wrangled and bet, while burly women, trying to look fetching, +gave themselves a variety of airs, were "scared at the whole thing, +nervous about the uproar, afraid it would be shocking," but really +were as keenly interested as the men. +</p> + +<p> +All was ready, and the boss of "The Corners" shouted: "Let her go, +boys; house is full an' time's up!" +</p> + +<p> +Faco Tampico had managed to tie a bundle of chaparral thorn to the +bull's tail, so that the huge creature had literally lashed himself +into a frenzy. +</p> + +<p> +Jack's hogshead meanwhile had been rolled around till he was raging +with disgust, and Faco, at the word of command, began to pry open the +door. The end of the barrel was close to the fence, the door cleared +away; now there was nothing for Jack to do but to go forth and claw +the bull to pieces. But he did not go. The noise, the uproar, the +strangeness of the crowd affected him so that he decided to stay where +he was, and the bull-backers raised a derisive cry. Their champion +came forward bellowing and sniffing, pausing often to paw the dust. He +held his head very high and approached slowly until he came within ten +feet of the Grizzly's den; then, giving a snort, he turned and ran to +the other end of the corral. Now it was the Bear-backers' turn to +shout. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/080.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +But the crowd wanted a fight, and Faco, forgetful of his debt to +Grizzly Jack, dropped a bundle of Fourth of July crackers into the +hogshead by way of the bung. "Crack!" and Jack jumped up. +"Fizz—crack—c-r-r-r-a-a-c-k, cr-k-crk-ck!" and Jack in surprise +rushed from his den into the arena. The bull was standing in a +magnificent attitude there in the middle, but when he saw the Bear +spring toward him, he gave two mighty snorts and retreated as far as +he could, amid cheers and hisses. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/082.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Perhaps the two main characteristics of the Grizzly are the quickness +with which he makes a plan and the vigor with which he follows it up. +Before the bull had reached the far side of the corral Jack seemed to +know the wisest of courses. His pig-like eyes swept the fence in a +flash—took in the most climbable part, a place where a cross-piece +was nailed on in the middle. In three seconds he was there, in two +seconds he was over, and in one second he dashed through the running, +scattering mob and was making for the hills as fast as his strong and +supple legs could carry him. Women screamed, men yelled, and dogs +barked; there was a wild dash for the horses tied far from the scene +of the fight, to spare their nerves, but the Grizzly had three hundred +yards' start, five hundred yards even, and before the gala mob gave +out a long and flying column of reckless, riotous riders, the Grizzly +had plunged into the river, a flood no dog cared to face, and had +reached the chaparral and the broken ground in line for the piney +hills. In an hour the ranch hotel, with its galling chain, its +cruelties, and its brutal human beings, was a thing of the past, shut +out by the hills of his youth, cut off by the river of his cub-hood, +the river grown from the rill born in his birthplace away in Tallac's +pines. That Fourth of July was a glorious Fourth—it was Independence +Day for Grizzly Jack. +</p> + + + +<h3> +<a name="6"></a> +VI. THE BROKEN DAM +</h3> + + +<p> +A wounded deer usually works downhill, a hunted Grizzly climbs. Jack +knew nothing of the country, but he did know that he wanted to get +away from that mob, so he sought the roughest ground, and climbed and +climbed. +</p> + +<p> +He had been alone for hours, traveling up and on. The plain was lost +to view. He was among the granite rocks, the pine trees, and the +berries now, and he gathered in food from the low bushes with +dexterous paws and tongue as he traveled, but stopped not at all until +among the tumbled rock, where the sun heat of the afternoon seemed to +command rather than invite him to rest. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/086.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The night was black when he awoke, but Bears are not afraid of the +dark—they rather fear the day—and he swung along, led, as before, by +the impulse to get up above the danger; and thus at last he reached +the highest range, the region of his native Tallac. +</p> + +<p> +He had but little of the usual training of a young Bear, but he had a +few instincts, his birthright, that stood him well in all the main +issues, and his nose was an excellent guide. Thus he managed to live, +and wild-life experiences coming fast gave his mind the chance to +grow. +</p> + +<p> +Jack's memory for faces and facts was not at all good, but his memory +for smells was imperishable. He had forgotten Bonamy's cur, but the +smell of Bonamy's cur would instantly have thrilled him with the old +feelings. He had forgotten the cross ram, but the smell of "Old Woolly +Whiskers" would have inspired him at once with anger and hate; and one +evening when the wind came richly laden with ram smell it was like a +bygone life returned. He had been living on roots and berries for +weeks and now began to experience that hankering for flesh that comes +on every candid vegetarian with dangerous force from time to time. The +ram smell seemed an answer to it. So down he went by night (no +sensible Bear travels by day), and the smell brought him from the +pines on the hillside to an open rocky dale. +</p> + +<p> +Long before he got there a curious light shone up. He knew what that +was; he had seen the two-legged ones make it near the ranch of evil +smells and memories, so feared it not. He swung along from ledge to +ledge in silence and in haste, for the smell of sheep grew stronger at +every stride, and when he reached a place above the fire he blinked +his eyes to find the sheep. The smell was strong now; it was rank, but +no sheep to be seen. Instead he saw in the valley a stretch of gray +water that seemed to reflect the stars, and yet they neither twinkled +nor rippled; there was a murmuring sound from the sheet, but it seemed +not at all like that of the lakes around. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/090.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The stars were clustered chiefly near the fire, and were less like +stars than spots of the phosphorescent wood that are scattered on the +ground when one knocks a rotten stump about to lick up its swarms of +wood-ants. So Jack came closer, and at last so close that even his +dull eyes could see. The great gray lake was a flock of sheep and the +phosphorescent specks were their eyes. Close by the fire was a log or +a low rough bank—that turned out to be the shepherd and his dog. Both +were objectionable features, but the sheep extended far from them. +Jack knew that his business was with the flock. +</p> + +<p> +He came very close to the edge and found them surrounded by a low +hedge of chaparral; but what little things they were compared with +that great and terrible ram that he dimly remembered! The blood-thirst +came on him. He swept the low hedge aside, charged into the mass of +sheep that surged away from him with rushing sounds of feet and +murmuring groans, struck down one, seized it, and turning away, he +scrambled back up the mountains. +</p> + +<p> +The sheep-herder leaped to his feet, fired his gun, and the dog came +running over the solid mass of sheep, barking loudly. But Jack was +gone. The sheep-herder contented himself with making two or three +fires, shooting off his gun, and telling his beads. +</p> + +<p> +That was Jack's first mutton, but it was not the last. Thenceforth +when he wanted a sheep—and it became a regular need—he knew he had +merely to walk along the ridge till his nose said, "Turn, and go so," +for smelling is believing in Bear life. +</p> + + +<a name="7"></a> +<h3> +VII. THE FRESHET +</h3> + + +<div style="width: 5%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/093.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Pedro Tampico and his brother Faco were not in the sheep business for +any maudlin sentiment. They did not march ahead of their beloveds +waving a crook as wand of office or appealing to the esthetic sides of +their ideal followers with a tabret and pipe. Far from leading the +flock with a symbol, they drove them with an armful of ever-ready +rocks and clubs. They were not shepherds; they were sheep-herders. +They did not view their charges as loved and loving followers, but as +four-legged cash; each sheep was worth a dollar bill. They were cared +for only as a man cares for his money, and counted after each alarm or +day of travel. It is not easy for any one to count three thousand +sheep, and for a Mexican sheep-herder it is an impossibility. But he +has a simple device which answers the purpose. In an ordinary flock +about one sheep in a hundred is a black one. If a portion of the flock +has gone astray, there is likely to be a black one in it. So by +counting his thirty black sheep each day Tampico kept rough count of +his entire flock. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/094.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Grizzly Jack had killed but one sheep that first night. On his next +visit he killed two, and on the next but one, yet that last one +happened to be black, and when Tampico found but twenty-nine of its +kind remaining he safely reasoned that he was losing sheep—according +to the index a hundred were gone. +</p> + +<p> +"If the land is unhealthy move out" is ancient wisdom. Tampico filled +his pocket with stones, and reviling his charges in all their walks in +life and history, he drove them from the country that was evidently +the range of a sheep-eater. At night he found a walled-in cañon, a +natural corral, and the woolly scattering swarm, condensed into a +solid fleece, went pouring into the gap, urged intelligently by the +dog and idiotically by the man. At one side of the entrance Tampico +made his fire. Some thirty feet away was a sheer wall of rock. +</p> + +<p> +Ten miles may be a long day's travel for a wretched wool-plant, but it +is little more than two hours for a Grizzly. It is farther than +eyesight, but it is well within nosesight, and Jack, feeling +mutton-hungry, had not the least difficulty in following his prey. His +supper was a little later than usual, but his appetite was the better +for that. There was no alarm in camp, so Tampico had fallen asleep. A +growl from the dog awakened him. He started up to behold the most +appalling creature that he had ever seen or imagined, a monster Bear +standing on his hind legs, and thirty feet high at least. The dog fled +in terror, but was valor itself compared with Pedro. He was so +frightened that he could not express the prayer that was in his +breast: "Blessed saints, let him have every sin-blackened sheep in the +band, but spare your poor worshiper," and he hid his head; so never +learned that he saw, not a thirty-foot Bear thirty feet away, but a +seven-foot Bear not far from the fire and casting a black thirty-foot +shadow on the smooth rock behind. And, helpless with fear, poor Pedro +groveled in the dust. +</p> + +<a name="illus5"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus5.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus5-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +THE THIRTY-FOOT BEAR +</div> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/096.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +When he looked up the giant Bear was gone. There was a rushing of the +sheep. A small body of them scurried out of the cañon into the night, +and after them went an ordinary-sized Bear, undoubtedly a cub of the +monster. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/099.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Pedro had been neglecting his prayers for some months back, but he +afterward assured his father confessor that on this night he caught up +on all arrears and had a goodly surplus before morning. At sunrise he +left his dog in charge of the flock and set out to seek the runaways, +knowing, first, that there was little danger in the day-time, second, +that some would escape. The missing ones were a considerable number, +raised to the second power indeed, for two more black ones were gone. +Strange to tell, they had not scattered, and Pedro trailed them a mile +or more in the wilderness till he reached another very small box +cañon. Here he found the missing flock perched in various places on +boulders and rocky pinnacles as high up as they could get. He was +delighted and worked for half a minute on his bank surplus of prayers, +but was sadly upset to find that nothing would induce the sheep to +come down from the rocks or leave that cañon. One or two that he +manoeuvered as far as the outlet sprang back in fear from <i>something on +the ground</i>, which, on examination, he found—yes, he swears to +this—to be the deep-worn, fresh-worn pathway of a Grizzly from one +wall across to the other. All the sheep were now back again beyond his +reach. Pedro began to fear for himself, so hastily returned to the +main flock. He was worse off than ever now. The other Grizzly was a +Bear of ordinary size and ate a sheep each night, but the new one, +into whose range he had entered, was a monster, a Bear mountain, +requiring forty or fifty sheep to a meal. The sooner he was out of +this the better. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/101.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It was now late, too late, and the sheep were too tired to travel, so +Pedro made unusual preparations for the night: two big fires at the +entrance to the cañon, and a platform fifteen feet up in a tree for +his own bed. The dog could look out for himself. +</p> + + +<a name="8"></a> +<h3> +VIII. ROARING IN THE CAÑON +</h3> + + +<p> +Pedro knew that the big Bear was coming; for the fifty sheep in the +little cañon were not more than an appetizer for such a creature. He +loaded his gun carefully as a matter of habit and went up-stairs to +bed. Whatever defects his dormitory had the ventilation was good, and +Pedro was soon a-shiver. He looked down in envy at his dog curled up +by the fire; then he prayed that the saints might intervene and direct +the steps of the Bear toward the flock of some neighbor, and carefully +specified the neighbor to avoid mistakes. He tried to pray himself to +sleep. It had never failed in church when he was at the Mission, so +why now? But for once it did not succeed. The fearsome hour of +midnight passed, then the gray dawn, the hour of dull despair, was +near. Tampico felt it, and a long groan vibrated through his +chattering teeth. His dog leaped up, barked savagely, the sheep began +to stir, then went backing into the gloom; there was a rushing of +stampeding sheep and a huge, dark form loomed up. Tampico grasped his +gun and would have fired, when it dawned on him with sickening horror +that the Bear was thirty feet high, his platform was only fifteen, +just a convenient height for the monster. None but a madman would +invite the Bear to eat by shooting at him now. So Pedro flattened +himself face downward on the platform, and, with his mouth to a crack, +he poured forth prayers to his representative in the sky, regretting +his unconventional attitude and profoundly hoping that it would be +overlooked as unavoidable, and that somehow the petitions would get +the right direction after leaving the under side of the platform. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning he had proof that his prayers had been favorably +received. There was a Bear-track, indeed, but the number of black +sheep was unchanged, so Pedro filled his pocket with stones and began +his usual torrent of remarks as he drove the flock. +</p> + +<p> +"Hyah, Capitan—you huajalote," as the dog paused to drink. "Bring +back those ill-descended sons of perdition," and a stone gave force to +the order, which the dog promptly obeyed. Hovering about the great +host of grumbling hoofy locusts, he kept them together and on the +move, while Pedro played the part of a big, noisy, and troublesome +second. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/108.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As they journeyed through the open country the sheep-herder's eye fell +on a human figure, a man sitting on a rock above them to the left. +Pedro gazed inquiringly; the man saluted and beckoned. This meant +"friend"; had he motioned him to pass on it might have meant, "Keep +away or I shoot." Pedro walked toward him a little way and sat down. +The man came forward. It was Lan Kellyan, the hunter. +</p> + +<p> +Each was glad of a chance to "talk with a human" and to get the news. +The latest concerning the price of wool, the Bull-and-Bear fiasco, +and, above all, the monster Bear that had killed Tampico's +sheep, afforded topics of talk. "Ah, a Bear devill—de hell-brute—a +Gringo Bear—pardon, my amigo, I mean a very terroar." +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/109.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As the sheep-herder enlarged on the marvelous cunning of the Bear that +had a private sheep corral of his own, and the size of the monster, +forty or fifty feet high now—for such Bears are of rapid and +continuous growth—Kellyan's eye twinkled and he said: +</p> + +<p> +"Say, Pedro, I believe you once lived pretty nigh the Hassayampa, +didn't you?" +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/110.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +This does not mean that that is a country of great Bears, but was an +allusion to the popular belief that any one who tastes a single drop +of the Hassayampa River can never afterward tell the truth. Some +scientists who have looked into the matter aver that this wonderful +property is common to the Rio Grande as well as the Hassayampa, and, +indeed, all the rivers of Mexico, as well as their branches, and the +springs, wells, ponds, lakes, and irrigation ditches. However that may +be, the Hassayampa is the best-known stream of this remarkable +peculiarity. The higher one goes, the greater its potency, and Pedro +was from the headwaters. But he protested by all the saints that his +story was true. He pulled out a little bottle of garnets, got by +glancing over the rubbish laid about their hills by the desert ants; +he thrust it back into his wallet and produced another bottle with a +small quantity of gold-dust, also gathered at the rare times when he +was not sleepy, and the sheep did not need driving, watering, stoning, +or reviling. +</p> + +<p> +"Here, I bet dat it ees so." +</p> + +<p> +Gold is a loud talker. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan paused. "I can't cover your bet, Pedro, but I'll kill your +Bear for what's in the bottle." +</p> + +<p> +"I take you," said the sheep-herder, "eef you breeng back dose sheep +dat are now starving up on de rocks of de cañon of Baxstaire's." +</p> + +<p> +The Mexican's eyes twinkled as the white man closed on the offer. The +gold in the bottle, ten or fifteen dollars, was a trifle, and yet +enough to send the hunter on the quest—enough to lure him into the +enterprise, and that was all that was needed. Pedro knew his man: get +him going and profit would count for nothing; having put his hand to +the plow Lan Kellyan would finish the furrow at any cost; he was +incapable of turning back. And again he took up the trail of Grizzly +Jack, his one-time "pard," now grown beyond his ken. +</p> + +<p> +The hunter went straight to Baxter's cañon and found the sheep +high-perched upon the rocks. By the entrance he found the remains of +two of them recently devoured, and about them the tracks of a +medium-sized Bear. He saw nothing of the pathway—the dead-line—made +by the Grizzly to keep the sheep prisoners till he should need them. +But the sheep were standing in stupid terror on various high places, +apparently willing to starve rather than come down. Lan dragged one +down; at once it climbed up again. He now realized the situation, so +made a small pen of chaparral outside the cañon, and dragging the dull +creatures down one at a time, he carried them—except one—out of the +prison of death and into the pen. Next he made a hasty fence across +the cañon's mouth, and turning the sheep out of the pen, he drove them +by slow stages toward the rest of the flock. +</p> + +<p> +Only six or seven miles across country, but it was late night when Lan +arrived. +</p> + +<p> +Tampico gladly turned over half of the promised dust. That night they +camped together, and, of course, no Bear appeared. +</p> + +<p> +In the morning Lan went back to the cañon and found, as expected, that +the Bear had returned and killed the remaining sheep. +</p> + +<p> +The hunter piled the rest of the carcasses in an open place, lightly +sprinkled the Grizzly's trail with some very dry brush, then making a +platform some fifteen feet from the ground in a tree, he rolled up in +his blanket there and slept. +</p> + +<p> +An old Bear will rarely visit a place three nights in succession; a +cunning Bear will avoid a trail that has been changed overnight; a +skilful Bear goes in absolute silence. But Jack was neither old, +cunning, nor skilful. He came for the fourth time to the cañon of the +sheep. He followed his old trail straight to the delicious mutton +bones. He found the human trail, but there was something about it that +rather attracted him. He strode along on the dry boughs. "Crack!" went +one; "crack-crack!" went another; and Kellyan arose on the platform +and strained his eyes in the gloom till a dark form moved into the +opening by the bones of the sheep. The hunter's rifle cracked, the +Bear snorted, wheeled into the bushes, and, crashing away, was gone. +</p> + + +<a name="9"></a> +<h3> +IX. FIRE AND WATER +</h3> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/117.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +That was Jack's baptism of fire, for the rifle had cut a deep +flesh-wound in his back. Snorting with pain and rage, he tore through +the bushes and traveled on for an hour or more, then lay down and +tried to lick the wound, but it was beyond reach. He could only rub it +against a log. He continued his journey back toward Tallac, and there, +in a cave that was formed of tumbled rocks, he lay down to rest. He +was still rolling about in pain when the sun was high and a strange +smell of fire came searching through the cave; it increased, and +volumes of blinding smoke were about him. It grew so choking that he +was forced to move, but it followed him till he could bear it no +longer, and he dashed out of another of the ways that led into the +cavern. As he went he caught a distant glimpse of a man throwing wood +on the fire by the in-way, and the whiff that the wind brought him +said: "This is the man that was last night watching the sheep." +Strange as it may seem, the woods were clear of smoke except for a +trifling belt that floated in the trees, and Jack went striding away +in peace. He passed over the ridge, and finding berries, ate the first +meal he had known since killing his last sheep. He had wandered on, +gathering fruit and digging roots, for an hour or two, when the smoke +grew blacker, the smell of fire stronger. He worked away from it, but +in no haste. The birds, deer, and wood hares were now seen scurrying +past him. There was a roaring in the air. It grew louder, was coming +nearer, and Jack turned to stride after the wood things that fled. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/120.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The whole forest was ablaze; the wind was rising, and the flames, +gaining and spreading, were flying now like wild horses. Jack had no +place in his brain for such a thing; but his instinct warned him to +shun that coming roaring that sent above dark clouds and flying +fire-flakes, and messengers of heat below, so he fled before it, as +the forest host was doing. Fast as he went, and few animals can outrun +a Grizzly in rough country, the hot hurricane was gaining on him. His +sense of danger had grown almost to terror, terror of a kind that he +had never known before, for here there was nothing he could fight; +nothing that he could resist. The flames were all around him now; +birds without number, hares, and deer had gone down before the red +horror. He was plunging wildly on through chaparral and manzanita +thickets that held all feebler things until the fury seized them; his +hair was scorching, his wound was forgotten, and he thought only of +escape when the brush ahead opened, and the Grizzly, smoke-blinded, +half roasted, plunged down a bank and into a small clear pool. The fur +on his back said "hiss," for it was sizzling-hot. Down below he went, +gulping the cool drink, wallowing in safety and unheat. Down below the +surface he crouched as long as his lungs would bear the strain, then +slowly and cautiously he raised his head. The sky above was one great +sheet of flame. Sticks aflame and flying embers came in hissing +showers on the water. The air was hot, but breathable at times, and he +filled his lungs till he had difficulty in keeping his body down +below. Other creatures there were in the pool, some burnt, some dead, +some small and in the margin, some bigger in the deeper places, and +one of them was close beside him. Oh, he knew that smell; fire—all +Sierra's woods ablaze—could not disguise the hunter who had shot at +him from the platform, and, though he did not know this, the hunter +really who had followed him all day, and who had tried to smoke him +out of his den and thereby set the woods ablaze. Here they were, face +to face, in the deepest end of the little pool; they were only ten +feet apart and could not get more than twenty feet apart. The flames +grew unbearable. The Bear and man each took a hasty breath and bobbed +below the surface, each wondering, according to his intelligence, what +the other would do. In half a minute both came up again, each relieved +to find the other no nearer. Each tried to keep his nose and one eye +above the water. But the fire was raging hot; they had to dip under +and stay as long as possible. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/122.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +The roaring of the flame was like a hurricane. A huge pine tree came +crashing down across the pool; it barely missed the man. The splash of +water quenched the blazes for the most part, but it gave off such a +heat that he had to move—a little nearer to the Bear. Another fell at +an angle, killing a coyote, and crossing the first tree. They blazed +fiercely at their junction, and the Bear edged from it a little nearer +the man. Now they were within touching distance. His useless gun was +lying in shallow water near shore, but the man had his knife ready, +ready for self-defense. It was not needed; the fiery power had +proclaimed a peace. Bobbing up and dodging under, keeping a nose in +the air and an eye on his foe, each spent an hour or more. The red +hurricane passed on. The smoke was bad in the woods, but no longer +intolerable, and as the Bear straightened up in the pool to move away +into shallower water and off into the woods, the man got a glimpse of +red blood streaming from the shaggy back and dyeing the pool. The +blood on the trail had not escaped him. He knew that this was the Bear +of Baxter's cañon, this was the Gringo Bear, but he did not know that +this was also his old-time Grizzly Jack. He scrambled out of the pond, +on the other side from that taken by the Grizzly, and, hunter and +hunted, they went their diverse ways. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 35%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/124.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="10"></a> +<h3> +X. THE EDDY +</h3> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/127.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +All the west slopes of Tallac were swept by the fire, and Kellyan +moved to a new hut on the east side, where still were green patches; +so did the grouse and the rabbit and the coyote, and so did Grizzly +Jack. His wound healed quickly, but his memory of the rifle smell +continued; it was a dangerous smell, a new and horrible kind of +smoke—one he was destined to know too well; one, indeed, he was soon +to meet again. Jack was wandering down the side of Tallac, following a +sweet odor that called up memories of former joys—the smell of honey, +though he did not know it. A flock of grouse got leisurely out of his +way and flew to a low tree, when he caught a whiff of man smell, then +heard a crack like that which had stung him in the sheep-corral, and +down fell one of the grouse close beside him. He stepped forward to +sniff just as a man also stepped forward from the opposite bushes. +They were within ten feet of each other, and they recognized each +other, for the hunter saw that it was a singed Bear with a wounded +side, and the Bear smelt the rifle-smoke and the leather clothes. +Quick as a Grizzly—that is, quicker than a flash—the Bear reared. +The man sprang backward, tripped and fell, and the Grizzly was upon +him. Face to earth the hunter lay like dead, but, ere he struck, Jack +caught a scent that made him pause. He smelt his victim, and the smell +was the rolling back of curtains or the conjuring up of a past. The +days in the hunter's shanty were forgotten, but the feelings of those +days were ready to take command at the bidding of the nose. His nose +drank deep of a draft that quelled all rage. The Grizzly's humor +changed. He turned and left the hunter quite unharmed. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/129.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +Oh, blind one with the gun! All he could find in explanation was: "You +kin never tell what a Grizzly will do, but it's good play to lay low +when he has you cornered." It never came into his mind to credit the +shaggy brute with an impulse born of good, and when he told the +sheep-herder of his adventure in the pool, of his hitting high on the +body and of losing the trail in the forest fire—"down by the shack, +when he turned up sudden and had me I thought my last day was come. +Why he didn't swat me, I don't know. But I tell you this, Pedro: the +B'ar what killed your sheep on the upper pasture and in the sheep +cañon is the same. No two B'ars has hind feet alike when you get a +clear-cut track, and this holds out even right along." +</p> + +<p> +"What about the fifty-foot B'ar I saw wit' mine own eyes, caramba?" +</p> + +<p> +"That must have been the night you were working a kill-care with your +sheep-herder's delight. But don't worry; I'll get him yet." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/130.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +So Kellyan set out on a long hunt, and put in practice every trick he +knew for the circumventing of a Bear. Lou Bonamy was invited to join +with him, for his yellow cur was a trailer. They packed four horses +with stuff and led them over the ridge to the east side of Tallac, and +down away from Jack's Peak, that Kellyan had named in honor of his +Bear cub, toward Fallen Leaf Lake. The hunter believed that here he +would meet not, only the Gringo Bear that he was after, but would also +stand a chance of finding others, for the place had escaped the fire. +</p> + +<p> +They quickly camped, setting up their canvas sheet for shade more than +against rain, and after picketing their horses in a meadow, went out +to hunt. By circling around Leaf Lake they got a good idea of the wild +population: plenty of deer, some Black Bear, and one or two Cinnamon +and Grizzly, and one track along the shore that Kellyan pointed to, +briefly saying: "That's him." +</p> + +<p> +"Ye mean old Pedro's Gringo?" +</p> + +<p> +"Yep. That's the fifty-foot Grizzly. I suppose he stands maybe seven +foot high in daylight, but, 'course, B'ars pulls out long at night." +</p> + +<p> +So the yellow cur was put on the track, and led away with funny little +yelps, while the two hunters came stumbling along behind him as fast +as they could, calling, at times, to the dog not to go so fast, and +thus making a good deal of noise, which Gringo Jack heard a mile away +as he ambled along the mountain-side above them. He was following his +nose to many good and eatable things, and therefore going up-wind. +This noise behind was so peculiar that he wanted to smell it, and to +do that he swung along back over the clamor, then descended to the +down-wind side, and thus he came on the trail of the hunters and their +dog. +</p> + +<p> +His nose informed him at once. Here was the hunter he once felt kindly +toward and two other smells of far-back—both hateful; all three were +now the smell-marks of foes, and a rumbling "woof" was the expressive +sound that came from his throat. +</p> + +<p> +That dog-smell in particular roused him, though it is very sure he had +forgotten all about the dog, and Gringo's feet went swiftly and +silently, yes, with marvelous silence, along the tracks of the enemy. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/133.gif" alt=""> +</div> + + +<p> +On rough, rocky ground a dog is scarcely quicker than a Bear, and +since the dog was constantly held back by the hunters the Bear had no +difficulty in overtaking them. Only a hundred yards or so behind he +continued, partly in curiosity, pursuing the dog that was pursuing +him, till a shift of the wind brought the dog a smell-call from the +Bear behind. He wheeled—of course you never follow trail smell when +you can find body smell—and came galloping back with a different +yapping and a bristling in his mane. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't understand that," whispered Bonamy. +</p> + +<p> +"It's B'ar, all right," was the answer; and the dog, bounding high, +went straight toward the foe. +</p> + +<p> +Jack heard him coming, smelt him coming, and at length saw him coming; +but it was the smell that roused him—the full scent of the bully of +his youth. The anger of those days came on him, and cunning enough to +make him lurk in ambush: he backed to one side of the trail where it +passed under a root, and, as the little yellow tyrant came, Jack hit +him once, hit him as he had done some years before, but now with the +power of a grown Grizzly. No yelp escaped the dog, no second blow was +needed. The hunters searched in silence for half an hour before they +found the place and learned the tale from many silent tongues. +</p> + +<p> +"I'll get even with him," muttered Bonamy, for he loved that +contemptible little yap-cur. +</p> + +<p> +"That's Pedro's Gringo, all right. He's sure cunning to run his own +back track. But we'll fix him yet," and they vowed to kill that Bear +or "get done up" themselves. +</p> + +<p> +Without a dog, they must make a new plan of hunting. They picked out +two or three good places for pen-traps, where trees stood in pairs to +make the pillars of the den. Then Kellyan returned to camp for the ax +while Bonamy prepared the ground. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/136.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +As Kellyan came near their open camping-place, he stopped from habit +and peeped ahead for a minute. He was about to go down when a movement +caught his eye. There, on his haunches, sat a Grizzly, looking down on +the camp. The singed brown of his head and neck, and the white spot on +each side of his back, left no doubt that Kellyan and Pedro's Gringo +were again face to face. It was a long shot, but the rifle went up, +and as he was about to fire, the Bear suddenly bent his head down, and +lifting his hind paw, began to lick at a little cut. This brought the +head and chest nearly in line with Kellyan—a sure shot; so sure that +he fired hastily. He missed the head and the shoulder, but, strange to +say, he hit the Bear in the mouth and in the hind toe, carrying away +one of his teeth and the side of one toe. The Grizzly sprang up with a +snort, and came tearing down the hill toward the hunter. Kellyan +climbed a tree and got ready, but the camp lay just between them, and +the Bear charged on that instead. One sweep of his paw and the canvas +tent was down and torn. Whack! and tins went flying this way. Whisk! +and flour-sacks went that. Rip! and the flour went off like smoke. +Slap—crack! and a boxful of odds and ends was scattered into the +fire. Whack! and a bagful of cartridges was tumbled after it. Whang! +and the water-pail was crushed. Pat-pat-pat! and all the cups were in +useless bits. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan, safe up the tree, got no fair view to shoot—could only wait +till the storm-center cleared a little. The Bear chanced on a bottle +of something with a cork loosely in it. He seized it adroitly in his +paws, twisted out the cork, and held the bottle up to his mouth with a +comical dexterity that told of previous experience. But, whatever it +was, it did not please the invader; he spat and spilled it out, and +flung the bottle down as Kellyan gazed, astonished. A remarkable +"crack! crack! crack!" from the fire was heard now, and the cartridges +began to go off in ones, twos, fours, and numbers unknown. Gringo +whirled about; he had smashed everything in view. He did not like that +Fourth of July sound, so, springing to a bank, he went bumping and +heaving down to the meadow and had just stampeded the horses when, for +the first time, Gringo exposed himself to the hunter's aim. His flank +was grazed by another leaden stinger, and Gringo, wheeling, went off +into the woods. +</p> + +<p> +The hunters were badly defeated. It was fully a week before they had +repaired all the damage done by their shaggy visitor and were once +more at Fallen Leaf Lake with a new store of ammunition and +provisions, their tent repaired, and their camp outfit complete. They +said little about their vow to kill that Bear. Both took for granted +that it was a fight to the finish. They never said, "<i>If</i> we get him," +but, "<i>When</i> we get him." +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/139.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="11"></a> +<h3> +XI. THE FORD +</h3> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/143.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Gringo, savage, but still discreet, scaled the long mountain-side when +he left the ruined camp, and afar on the southern slope he sought a +quiet bed in a manzanita thicket, there to lie down and nurse his +wounds and ease his head so sorely aching with the jar of his +shattered tooth. There he lay for a day and a night, sometimes in +great pain, and at no time inclined to stir. But, driven forth by +hunger on the second day, he quit his couch and, making for the +nearest ridge, he followed that and searched the wind with his nose. +The smell of a mountain hunter reached him. Not knowing just what to +do he sat down and did nothing. The smell grew stronger, he heard +sounds of trampling; closer they came, then the brush parted and a man +on horseback appeared. The horse snorted and tried to wheel, but the +ridge was narrow and one false step might have been serious. The +cowboy held his horse in hand and, although he had a gun, he made no +attempt to shoot at the surly animal blinking at him and barring his +path. He was an old mountaineer, and he now used a trick that had long +been practised by the Indians, from whom, indeed, he learned it. He +began "making medicine with his voice." +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/144.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"See here now, B'ar," he called aloud, "I ain't doing nothing to you. +I ain't got no grudge ag'in' you, an' you ain't got no right to a +grudge ag'in' me." +</p> + +<p> +"Gro-o-o-h," said Gringo, deep and low. +</p> + +<p> +"Now, I don't want no scrap with you, though I have my scrap-iron +right handy, an' what I want you to do is just step aside an' let me +pass that narrer trail an' go about my business." +</p> + +<p> +"Grow—woo-oo-wow," grumbled Gringo. +</p> + +<p> +"I'm honest about it, pard. You let me alone, and I'll let you alone; +all I want is right of way for five minutes." +</p> + +<p> +"Grow-grow-wow-oo-umph," was the answer. +</p> + +<p> +"Ye see, thar's no way round an' on'y one way through, an' you happen +to be settin' in it. I got to take it, for I can't turn back. Come, +now, is it a bargain—hands off and no scrap?" +</p> + +<p> +It is very sure that Gringo could see in this nothing but a human +making queer, unmenacing, monotonous sounds, so giving a final +"Gr-u-ph," the Bear blinked his eyes, rose to his feet and strode down +the bank, and the cowboy forced his unwilling horse to and past the +place. +</p> + +<p> +"Wall, wall," he chuckled, "I never knowed it to fail. Thar's whar +most B'ars is alike." +</p> + +<p> +If Gringo had been able to think clearly, he might have said: "This +surely is a new kind of man." +</p> + +<a name="illus6"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus6.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus6-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"NOW, B'AR, I DON'T WANT NO SCRAP WITH YOU" +</div> + + +<a name="12"></a> +<h3> +XII. SWIRL AND POOL AND GROWING FLOOD +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/149.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<p> +Gringo wandered on with nose alert, passing countless odors of +berries, roots, grouse, deer, till a new and pleasing smell came with +especial force. It was not sheep, or game, or a dead thing. It was a +smell of living meat. He followed the guide to a little meadow, and +there he found it. There were five of them, red, or red and +white—great things as big as himself; but he had no fear of them. The +hunter instinct came on him, and the hunter's audacity and love of +achievement. He sneaked toward them upwind in order that he might +still smell them, and it also kept them from smelling him. He reached +the edge of the wood. Here he must stop or be seen. There was a +watering-place close by. He silently drank, then lay down in a thicket +where he could watch. An hour passed thus. The sun went down and the +cattle arose to graze. One of them, a small one, wandered nearer, +then, acting suddenly with purpose, walked to the water-hole. Gringo +watched his chance, and as she floundered in the mud and stooped he +reared and struck with all his force. Square at her skull he aimed, +and the blow went straight. But Gringo knew nothing of horns. The +young, sharp horn, upcurling, hit his foot and was broken off; the +blow lost half its power. The beef went down, but Gringo had to follow +up the blow, then raged and tore in anger for his wounded paw. The +other cattle fled from the scene. The Grizzly took the heifer in his +jaws, then climbed the hill to his lair, and with this store of food +he again lay down to nurse his wounds. Though painful, they were not +serious, and within a week or so Grizzly Jack was as well as ever and +roaming the woods about Fallen Leaf Lake and farther south and east, +for he was extending his range as he grew—the king was coming to his +kingdom. In time he met others of his kind and matched his strength +with theirs. Sometimes he won and sometimes lost, but he kept on +growing as the months went by, growing and learning and adding to his +power. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/152.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Kellyan had kept track of him and knew at least the main facts of his +life, because he had one or two marks that always served to +distinguish him. A study of the tracks had told of the round wound in +the front foot and the wound in the hind foot. But there was another: +the hunter had picked up the splinters of bone at the camp where he +had fired at the Bear, and, after long doubt, he guessed that he had +broken a tusk. He hesitated to tell the story of hitting a tooth and +hind toe at the same shot till, later, he had clearer proof of its +truth. +</p> + + +<p> +No two animals are alike. Kinds which herd have more sameness than +those that do not, and the Grizzly, being a solitary kind, shows great +individuality. Most Grizzlies mark their length on the trees by +rubbing their backs, and some will turn on the tree and claw it with +their fore paws; others hug the tree with fore paws and rake it with +their hind claws. Gringo's peculiarity of marking was to rub first, +then turn and tear the trunk with his teeth. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/154.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It was on examining one of the Bear trees one day that Kellyan +discovered the facts. He had been tracking the Bear all morning, had a +fine set of tracks in the dusty trail, and thus learned that the +rifle-wound was a toe-shot in the hind foot, but his fore foot of the +same side had a large round wound, the one really made by the cow's +horn. When he came to the Bear tree where Gringo had carved his +initials, the marks were clearly made by the Bear's teeth, and one of +the upper tusks was broken off, so the evidence of identity was +complete. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/155.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"It's the same old B'ar," said Lan to his pard. +</p> + +<p> +They failed to get sight of him in all this time, so the partners set +to work at a series of Bear-traps. These are made of heavy logs and +have a sliding door of hewn planks. The bait is on a trigger at the +far end; a tug on this lets the door drop. It was a week's hard work +to make four of these traps. They did not set them at once, for no +Bear will go near a thing so suspiciously new-looking. Some Bears will +not approach one till it is weather-beaten and gray. But they removed +all chips and covered the newly cut wood with mud, then rubbed the +inside with stale meat, and hung a lump of ancient venison on the +trigger of each trap. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/156.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +They did not go around for three days, knowing that the human smell +must first be dissipated, and then they found but one trap sprung—the +door down. Bonamy became greatly excited, for they had crossed the +Grizzly's track close by. But Kellyan had been studying the dust and +suddenly laughed aloud. +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/157.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Look at that,"—he pointed to a thing like a Bear-track, but scarcely +two inches long. "There's the B'ar we'll find in that; that's a +bushy-tailed B'ar," and Bonamy joined in the laugh when he realized +that the victim in the big trap was nothing but a little skunk. +</p> + +<p> +"Next time we'll set the bait higher and not set the trigger so fine." +</p> + +<p> +They rubbed their boots with stale meat when they went the rounds, +then left the traps for a week. +</p> + +<p> +There are Bears that eat little but roots and berries; there are Bears +that love best the great black salmon they can hook out of the pools +when the long "run" is on; and there are Bears that have a special +fondness for flesh. These are rare; they are apt to develop unusual +ferocity and meet an early death. Gringo was one of them, and he grew +like the brawny, meat-fed gladiators of old—bigger, stronger, and +fiercer than his fruit-and root-fed kin. In contrast with this was his +love of honey. The hunter on his trail learned that he never failed to +dig out any bees' nest he could find, or, finding none, he would eat +the little honey-flowers that hung like sleigh-bells on the heather. +Kellyan was quick to mark the signs. "Say, Bonamy, we've got to find +some honey." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/159.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +It is not easy to find a bee tree without honey to fill your +bee-guides; so Bonamy rode down the mountain to the nearest camp, the +Tampico sheep camp, and got not honey but some sugar, of which they +made syrup. They caught bees at three or four different places, tagged +them with cotton, filled them with syrup and let them fly, watching +till the cotton tufts were lost to view, and by going on the lines +till they met they found the hive. A piece of gunny-sack filled with +comb was put on each trigger, and that night, as Gringo strode with +that long, untiring swing that eats up miles like steam-wheels, his +sentinel nose reported the delicious smell, the one that above the +rest meant joy. So Gringo Jack followed fast and far, for the place +was a mile away, and reaching the curious log cavern, he halted and +sniffed. There were hunters' smells; yes, but, above all, that smell +of joy. He walked around to be sure, and knew it was inside; then +cautiously he entered. Some wood-mice scurried by. He sniffed the +bait, licked it, mumbled it, slobbered it, reveled in it, tugged to +increase the flow, when "bang!" went the great door behind and Jack was +caught. He backed up with a rush, bumped into the door, and had a +sense, at least, of peril. He turned over with an effort and attacked +the door, but it was strong. He examined the pen; went all around the +logs where their rounded sides seemed easiest to tear at with his +teeth. But they yielded nothing. He tried them all; he tore at the +roof, the floor; but all were heavy, hard logs, spiked and pinned as +one. +</p> + +<p> +The sun came up as he raged, and shone through the little cracks of +the door, and so he turned all his power on that. The door was flat, +gave little hold, but he battered with his paws and tore with his +teeth till plank after plank gave way. With a final crash be drove the +wreck before him and Jack was free again. +</p> + +<p> +The men read the story as though in print; yes, better, for bits of +plank can tell no lies, and the track to the pen and from the pen was +the track of a big Bear with a cut on the hind foot and a curious +round peg-like scar on the front paw, while the logs inside, where +little torn, gave proof of a broken tooth. +</p> + +<p> +"We had him that time, but he knew too much for us. Never mind, we'll +see." +</p> + +<p> +So they kept on and caught him again, for honey he could not resist. +But the wreckage of the trap was all they found in the morning. +</p> + +<p> +Pedro's brother knew a man who had trapped Bears, and the sheep-herder +remembered that it is necessary to have the door quite <i>light-tight</i> +rather than very strong, so they battened all with tar-paper outside. +But Gringo was learning "pen-traps." He did not break the door that he +did not see through, but he put one paw under and heaved it up when he +had finished the bait. Thus he baffled them and sported with the +traps, till Kellyan made the door drop into a deep groove so that the +Bear could put no claw beneath it. But it was cold weather now. There +was deepening snow on the Sierras. The Bear sign disappeared. The +hunters knew that Gringo was sleeping his winter's sleep. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 10%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/163.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="13"></a> +<h3> +XIII. THE DEEPENING CHANNEL +</h3> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/165.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +April was bidding high Sierra snows go back to Mother Sea. The +California woodwales screamed in clamorous joy. They thought it was +about a few acorns left in storage in the Live Oak bark, but it really +was joy of being alive. This outcry was to them what music is to the +thrush, what joy-bells are to us—a great noise to tell how glad they +were. The deer were bounding, grouse were booming, rills were +rushing—all things were full of noisy gladness. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan and Bonamy were back on the Grizzly quest. "Time he was out +again, and good trailing to get him, with lots of snow in the +hollows." They had come prepared for a long hunt. Honey for bait, +great steel traps with crocodilian jaws, and guns there were in the +outfit. The pen-trap, the better for the aging, was repaired and +re-baited, and several Black Bears were taken. But Gringo, if about, +had learned to shun it. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/166.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He was about, and the men soon learned that. His winter sleep was +over. They found the peg-print in the snow, but with it, or just +ahead, was another, the tracks of a smaller Bear. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/167.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"See that," and Kellyan pointed to the smaller mark. "This is +mating-time; this is Gringo's honeymoon," and he followed the trail +for a while, not expecting to find them, but simply to know their +movements. He followed several times and for miles, and the trail told +him many things. Here was the track of a third Bear joining. Here were +marks of a combat, and a rival driven away was written there, and then +the pair went on. Down from the rugged hills it took him once to where +a love-feast had been set by the bigger Bear; for the carcass of a +steer lay half devoured, and the telltale ground said much of the +struggle that foreran the feast. As though to show his power, the Bear +had seized the steer by the nose and held him for a while—so said the +trampled earth for rods—struggling, bellowing, no doubt, music for my +lady's ears, till Gringo judged it time to strike him down with paws +of steel. +</p> + +<p> +Once only the hunters saw the pair—a momentary Glimpse of a Bear so +huge they half believed Tampico's tale, and a Bear of lesser size in +fur that rolled and rippled in the sun with brown and silver lights. +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, ain't that just the beautifulest thing that ever walked!" and +both the hunters gazed as she strode from view in the chaparral. It +was only a neck of the thicket; they both must reappear in a minute at +the other side, and the men prepared to fire; but for some +incomprehensible reason the two did not appear again. They never quit +the cover, and had wandered far away before the hunters knew it, and +were seen of them no more. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/169.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +But Faco Tampico saw them. He was visiting his brother with the sheep, +and hunting in the foot-hills to the eastward, in hopes of getting a +deer, his small black eyes fell on a pair of Bears, still love-bound, +roaming in the woods. They were far below him. He was safe, and he +sent a ball that laid the she-Bear low; her back was broken. She fell +with a cry of pain and vainly tried to rise. Then Gringo rushed +around, sniffed the wind for the foe, and Faco fired again. The sound +and the smoke-puff told Gringo where the man lay hid. He raged up the +cliff, but Faco climbed a tree, and Gringo went back to his mate. Faco +fired again; Gringo made still another effort to reach him, but could +not find him now, so returned to his "Silver-brown." +</p> + +<p> +Whether it was chance or choice can never be known, but when Faco +fired once more, Gringo Jack was between, and the ball struck him. It +was the last in Faco's pouch, and the Grizzly, charging as before, +found not a trace of the foe. He was gone—had swung across a place no +Bear could cross and soon was a mile away. The big Bear limped back to +his mate, but she no longer responded to his touch. He watched about +for a time, but no one came. The silvery hide was never touched by +man, and when the semblance of his mate was gone, Gringo quit the +place. +</p> + +<p> +The world was full of hunters, traps, and guns. He turned toward the +lower hills where the sheep grazed, where once he had raided Pedro's +flocks, limping along, for now he had another flesh-wound. He found +the scent of the foe that killed his "Silver-brown," and would have +followed, but it ceased at a place where a horse-track joined. Yet he +found it again that night, mixed with the sheep smell so familiar +once. He followed this, sore and savage. It led him to a settler's +flimsy shack, the house of Tampico's parents, and as the big Bear +reached it two human beings scrambled out of the rear door. +</p> + +<p> +"My husband," shrieked the woman, "pray! Let us pray to the saints for +help!" +</p> + +<p> +"Where is my pistol?" cried the husband. +</p> + +<p> +"Trust in the saints," said the frightened woman. +</p> + +<p> +"Yes, if I had a cannon, or if this was a cat; but with only a +pepper-box pistol to meet a Bear mountain it is better to trust to a +tree," and old Tampico scrambled up a pine. +</p> + +<p> +The Grizzly looked into the shack, then passed to the pig-pen, killed +the largest there, for this was a new kind of meat, and carrying it +off, he made his evening meal. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/172.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/173.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +He came again and again to that pig-pen. He found his food there till +his wound was healed. Once he met with a spring-gun, but it was set +too high. Six feet up, the sheep-folk judged, would be just about +right for such a Bear; the charge went over his head, and so he passed +unharmed—a clear proof that he was a devil. He was learning this: the +human smell in any form is a smell of danger. He quit the little +valley of the shack, wandering downward toward the plains. He passed a +house one night, and walking up, he discovered a hollow thing with a +delicious smell. It was a ten-gallon keg that had been used for sugar, +some of which was still in the bottom, and thrusting in his huge head, +the keg-rim, bristling with nails, stuck to him. He raged about, +clawing at it wildly and roaring in it until a charge of shot from the +upper windows stirred him to such effort that the keg was smashed to +bits and his blinders removed. +</p> + +<p> +Thus the idea was slowly borne in on him: going near a man-den is sure +to bring trouble. Thenceforth he sought his prey in the woods or on +the plains. He one day found the man scent that enraged him the day he +lost his "Silver-brown." He took the trail, and passing in silence +incredible for such a bulk, he threaded chaparral and manzanita on and +down through tule-beds till the level plain was reached. The scent led +on, was fresher now. Far out were white specks—moving things. They +meant nothing to Gringo, for he had never smelt wild geese, had +scarcely seen them, but the trail he was hunting went on. He swiftly +followed till the tule ahead rustled gently, and the scent was <i>body +scent</i>. A ponderous rush, a single blow—and the goose-hunt was +ended ere well begun, and Faco's sheep became the brother's heritage. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 15%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/174.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<a name="14"></a> +<h3> +XIV. THE CATARACT +</h3> + + +<p> +Just as fads will for a time sway human life, so crazes may run +through all animals of a given kind. This was the year when a +beef-eating craze seemed to possess every able-bodied Grizzly of the +Sierras. They had long been known as a root-eating, berry-picking, +inoffensive race when let alone, but now they seemed to descend on the +cattle-range in a body and make their diet wholly of flesh. +</p> + +<p> +One cattle outfit after another was attacked, and the whole country +seemed divided up among Bears of incredible size, cunning, and +destructiveness. The cattlemen offered bounties—good bounties, +growing bounties, very large bounties at last—but still the Bears +kept on. Very few were killed, and it became a kind of rude jest to +call each section of the range, not by the cattle brand, but by the +Grizzly that was quartered on its stock. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/178.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Wonderful tales were told of these various Bears of the new breed. The +swiftest was Reelfoot, the Placerville cattle-killer that could charge +from a thicket thirty yards away and certainly catch a steer before it +could turn and run, and that could even catch ponies in the open when +they were poor. The most cunning of all was Brin, the Mokelumne +Grizzly that killed by preference blooded stock, would pick out a +Merino ram or a white-faced Hereford from among fifty grades; that +killed a new beef every night; that never again returned to it, or +gave the chance for traps or poisoning. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/179.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The Pegtrack Grizzly of Feather River was rarely seen by any. He was +enveloped in mysterious terror. He moved and killed by night. Pigs +were his favorite food, and he had also killed a number of men. +</p> + +<p> +But Pedro's Grizzly was the most marvelous. "Hassayampa," as the +sheep-herder was dubbed, came one night to Kellyan's hut. +</p> + +<p> +"I tell you he's still dere. He has keel me a t'ousand sheep. You +telled me you keel heem; you haff not. He is beegare as dat tree. He +eat only sheep—much sheep. I tell you he ees Gringo devil—he ees +devil Bear. I haff three cows, two fat, one theen. He catch and keel +de fat; de lean run off. He roll een dust—make great dust. Cow come +for see what make dust; he catch her an' keel. My fader got bees. De +devil Bear chaw pine; I know he by hees broke toof. He gum hees face +and nose wit' pine gum so bees no sting, then eat all bees. He devil +all time. He get much rotten manzanita and eat till +drunk—locoed—then go crazy and keel sheep just for fun. He get beeg +bull by nose and drag like rat for fun. He keel cow, sheep, and keel +Face, too, for fun. He devil. You promise me you keel heem; you +nevaire keel." +</p> + +<p> +This is a condensation of Pedro's excited account. +</p> + +<p> +And there was yet one more—the big Bear that owned the range from the +Stanislaus to the Merced, the "Monarch of the Range" he had been +styled. He was believed—yes, known to be—the biggest Bear alive, a +creature of supernatural intelligence. He killed cows for food, and +scattered sheep or conquered bulls for pleasure. It was even said that +the appearance of an unusually big bull anywhere was a guaranty that +Monarch would be there for the joy of combat with a worthy foe. A +destroyer of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, and yet a creature known +only by his track. He was never seen, and his nightly raids seemed +planned with consummate skill to avoid all kinds of snares. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/181.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +The cattlemen clubbed together and offered an enormous bounty for +every Grizzly killed in the range. Bear-trappers came and caught some +Bears, Brown and Cinnamon, but the cattle-killing went on. They set +out better traps of massive steel and iron bars, and at length they +caught a killer, the Mokelumne Grizzly; yes, and read in the dust how +he had come at last and made the fateful step; but steel will break +and iron will bend. The great Bear-trail was there to tell the tale: +for a while he had raged and chafed at the hard black reptile biting +into his paw; then, seeking a boulder, he had released the paw by +smashing the trap to pieces on it. Thenceforth each year he grew more +cunning, huge, and destructive. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/182.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Kellyan and Bonamy came down from the mountains now, tempted by the +offered rewards. They saw the huge tracks; they learned that cattle +were not killed in all places at once. They studied and hunted. They +got at length in the dust the full impressions of the feet of the +various monsters in regions wide apart, and they saw that all the +cattle were killed in the same way—their muzzles torn, their necks +broken; and last, the marks on the trees where the Bears had reared +and rubbed, then scored them with a broken tusk, the same all through +the wide range; and Kellyan told them with calm certainty: "Pedro's +Gringo, Old Pegtrack, the Placerville Grizzly, and the Monarch of the +Range <i>are one and the same Bear."</i> +</p> + +<p> +The little man from the mountains and the big man from the hills set +about the task of hunting him down with an intensity of purpose which, +like the river that is dammed, grew more fierce from being balked. +</p> + +<p> +All manner of traps had failed for him. Steel traps he could smash, no +log trap was strong enough to hold this furry elephant; he would not +come to a bait; he never fed twice from the same kill. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/184.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Two reckless boys once trailed him to a rocky glen. The horses would +not enter; the boys went in afoot, and were never seen again. The +Mexicans held him in superstitious terror, believing that he could not +be killed; and he passed another year in the cattle-land, known and +feared now as the "Monarch of the Range," killing in the open by +night, and retiring by day to his fastness in the near hills, where +horsemen could not follow. +</p> + +<p> +Bonamy had been called away; but all that summer, and winter, +too,—for the Grizzly no longer "denned up,"—Kellyan rode and rode, +each time too late or too soon to meet the Monarch. He was almost +giving up, not in despair, but for lack of means, when a message came +from a rich man, a city journalist, offering to multiply the reward by +ten if, instead of killing the Monarch, he would bring him in alive. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan sent for his old partner, and when word came that the previous +night three cows were killed in the familiar way near the Bell-Dash +pasture, they spared neither horse nor man to reach the spot. A +ten-hour ride by night meant worn-out horses, but the men were iron, +and new horses with scarcely a minute's delay were brought them. Here +were the newly killed beeves, there the mighty footprints with the +scars that spelled his name. No hound could have tracked him better +than Kellyan did. Five miles away from the foot of the hills was an +impenetrable thicket of chaparral. The great tracks went in, did not +come out, so Bonamy sat sentinel while Kellyan rode back with the +news. "Saddle up the best we got!" was the order. Rifles were taken +down and cartridge-belts being swung when Kellyan called a halt. +</p> + +<p> +"Say, boys, we've got him safe enough. He won't try to leave the +chaparral till night. If we shoot him we get the cattlemen's bounty; +if we take him alive—an' it's easy in the open—we get the newspaper +bounty, ten times as big. Let's leave all guns behind; lariats are +enough." +</p> + +<p> +"Why not have the guns along to be handy?" +</p> + +<p> +"'Cause I know the crowd too well; they couldn't resist the chance to +let him have it; so no guns at all. It's ten to one on the riata." +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/187.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Nevertheless three of them brought their heavy revolvers. Seven +gallant riders on seven fine horses, they rode out that day to meet +the Monarch of the Range. He was still in the thicket, for it was yet +morning. They threw stones in and shouted to drive him out, without +effect, till the noon breeze of the plains arose—the down-current of +air from the hills. Then they fired the grass in several places, and +it sent a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into the thicket. There was +a crackling louder than the fire, a smashing of brush, and from the +farther side out hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, Grizzly Jack. +Horsemen were all about him now, armed not with guns but with the +rawhide snakes whose loops in air spell bonds or death. The men were +calm, but the horses were snorting and plunging in fear. This way and +that the Grizzly looked up at the horsemen—a little bit; scarcely up +at the horses; then turning without haste, he strode toward the +friendly hills. +</p> + +<p> +"Look out, now, Bill! Manuel! It's up to you." +</p> + +<p> +Oh, noble horses, nervy men! oh, grand old Grizzly, how I see you now! +Cattle-keepers and cattle-killer face to face! +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/188.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Three riders of the range that horse had never thrown were sailing, +swooping, like falcons; their lariats swung, sang—sang higher—and +Monarch, much perplexed, but scarcely angered yet, rose to his hind +legs, then from his towering height looked down on horse and man. If, +as they say, the vanquished prowess goes into the victor, then surely +in that mighty chest, those arms like necks of bulls, was the power of +the thousand cattle he had downed in fight. +</p> + +<p> +"Caramba! what a Bear! Pedro was not so far astray." +</p> + +<div style="width: 10%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/189.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Sing—sing—sing!" the lariats flew. "Swish—pat!" one, two, three, +they fell. These were not men to miss. Three ropes, three horses, +leaping away to bear on the great beast's neck. But swifter than +thought the supple paws went up. The ropes were slipped, and the +spurred cow-ponies, ready for the shock, went, shockless, +bounding—loose ropes trailing afar. +</p> + +<p> +"Hi—Hal! Ho—Lan! Head him!" as the Grizzly, liking not the unequal +fight, made for the hills. But a deft Mexican in silver gear sent his +hide riata whistling, then haunched his horse as the certain coil sank +in the Grizzly's hock, and checked the Monarch with a heavy jar. +Uttering one great snort of rage, he turned; his huge jaws crossed the +rope, back nearly to his ears it went, and he ground it as a dog might +grind a twig, so the straining pony bounded free. +</p> + +<p> +Round and round him now the riders swooped, waiting their chance. More +than once his neck was caught, but he slipped the noose as though it +were all play. Again he was caught by a foot and wrenched, almost +thrown, by the weight of two strong steeds, and now he foamed in rage. +Memories of olden days, or more likely the habit of olden days, came +on him—days when he learned to strike the yelping pack that dodged +his blows. He was far from the burnt thicket, but a single bush was +near, and setting his broad back to that, he waited for the circling +foe. Nearer and nearer they urged the frightened steeds, and Monarch +watched—waited, as of old, for the dogs, till they were almost +touching each other, then he sprang like an avalanche of rock. What +can elude a Grizzly's dash? The earth shivered as he launched himself, +and trembled when he struck. Three men, three horses, in each other's +way. The dust was thick; they only knew he struck—struck—struck! The +horses never rose. +</p> + +<p> +"Santa Maria!" came a cry of death, and hovering riders dashed to draw +the Bear away. Three horses dead, one man dead, one nearly so, and +only one escaped. +</p> + +<p> +"Crack! crack! crack!" went the pistols now as the Bear went rocking +his huge form in rapid charge for the friendly hills; and the four +riders, urged by Kellyan, followed fast. They passed him, wheeled, +faced him. The pistols had wounded him in many places. +</p> + +<p> +"Don't shoot—don't shoot, but tire him out," the hunter urged. +</p> + +<p> +"Tire him out? Look at Carlos and Manuel back there. How many minutes +will it be before the rest are down with them?" So the infuriating +pistols popped till all their shots were gone, and Monarch foamed with +slobbering jaws of rage. +</p> + +<p> +"Keep on! keep cool," cried Kellyan. +</p> + +<p> +His lariat flew as the cattle-killing paw was lifted for an instant. +The lasso bound his wrist. "Sing! Sing!" went two, and caught him by +the neck. A bull with his great club-foot in a noose is surely caught, +but the Grizzly raised his supple, hand-like, tapering paw and gave +one jerk that freed it. Now the two on his neck were tight; he could +not slip them. The horses at the ends—they were dragging, choking +him; men were shouting, hovering, watching for a new chance, when +Monarch, firmly planting both paws, braced, bent those mighty +shoulders, and, spite of shortening breath, leaned back on those two +ropes as Samson did on pillars of the house of Baal, and straining +horses with their riders were dragged forward more and more, long +grooves being plowed behind; dragging them, he backed faster and +faster still. His eyes were starting, his tongue lolling out. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/192.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<p> +"Keep on! hold tight!" was the cry, till the ropers swung together, +the better to resist; and Monarch, big and strong with frenzied hate, +seeing now his turn, sprang forward like a shot. The horses leaped and +escaped—almost; the last was one small inch too slow. The awful paw +with jags of steel just grazed his flank. How slight it sounds! But +what it really means is better not writ down. +</p> + +<p> +The riders had slipped their ropes in fear, and the Monarch, rumbling, +snorting, bounding, trailed them to the hills, there to bite them off +in peace, while the remnant of the gallant crew went, sadly muttering, +back. +</p> + +<p> +Bitter words went round. Kellyan was cursed. +</p> + +<p> +"His fault. Why didn't we have the guns?" +</p> + +<p> +"We were all in it," was the answer, and more hard words, till Kellyan +flushed, forgot his calm, and drew a pistol hitherto concealed, and +the other "took it back." +</p> + +<a name="illus7"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus7.jpg"><img width="50%" src="images/illus7-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +"RUMBLING AND SNORTING, HE MADE FOR THE FRIENDLY HILLS" +</div> + +<a name="15"></a> +<h3> +XV. THE FOAMING FLOOD +</h3> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/199.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"What is next, Lan?" said Lou, as they sat dispirited by the fire that +night. +</p> + +<p> +Kellyan was silent for a time, then said slowly and earnestly, with a +gleam in his eye: "Lou, that's the greatest Bear alive. When I seen +him set up there like a butte and swat horses like they was flies, I +jest loved him. He's the greatest thing God has turned loose in these +yer hills. Before to-day, I sure wanted to get him; now, Lou, I'm +a-going to get him, an' get him alive, if it takes all my natural +days. I think I kin do it alone, but I know I kin do it with you," and +deep in Kellyan's eyes there glowed a little spark of something not +yet rightly named. +</p> + +<p> +They were camped in the hills, being no longer welcome at the ranch; +the ranchers thought their price too high. Some even decided that the +Monarch, being a terror to sheep, was not an undesirable neighbor. The +cattle bounty was withdrawn, but the newspaper bounty was not. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/200.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"I want you to bring in that Bear," was the brief but pregnant message +from the rich newsman when he heard of the fight with the riders. +</p> + +<p> +"How are you going about it, Lan?" +</p> + +<p> +Every bridge has its rotten plank, every fence its flimsy rail, every +great one his weakness, and Kellyan, as he pondered, knew how mad it +was to meet this one of brawn with mere brute force. +</p> + +<p> +"Steel traps are no good; he smashes them. Lariats won't do, and he +knows all about log traps. But I have a scheme. First, we must follow +him up and learn his range. I reckon that'll take three months." +</p> + +<p> +So the two kept on. They took up that Bear-trail next day; they found +the lariats chewed off. They followed day after day. They learned what +they could from rancher and sheepherder, and much more was told them +than they could believe. +</p> + +<p> +Three months, Lan said, but it took six months to carry out his plan; +meanwhile Monarch killed and killed. +</p> + +<p> +In each section of his range they made one or two cage- or pen-traps +of bolted logs. At the back end of each they put a small grating of +heavy steel bars. The door was carefully made and fitted into grooves. +It was of double plank, with tar-paper between to make it surely +light-tight. It was sheeted with iron on the inside, and when it +dropped it went into an iron-bound groove in the floor. +</p> + +<p> +They left these traps open and unset till they were grayed with age +and smelt no more of man. Then the two hunters prepared for the final +play. They baited all without setting them—baited them with honey, +the lure that Monarch never had refused—and when at length they found +the honey baits were gone, they came where he now was taking toll and +laid the long-planned snare. Every trap was set, and baited as before +with a mass of honey—but <i>honey now mixed with a potent sleeping +draft</i>. +</p> + + +<a name="16"></a> +<h3> +XVI. LANDLOCKED +</h3> + +<center> +<div style="width: 40%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/203.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/206.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +That night the great Bear left his lair, one of his many lairs, and, +cured of all his wounds, rejoicing in the fullness of his mighty +strength, he strode toward the plains. His nose, ever alert, +reported—sheep, a deer, a grouse; men—more sheep, some cows, and +some calves; a bull—a fighting bull—and Monarch wheeled in big, +rude, Bearish joy at the coming battle brunt; but as he hugely hulked +from hill to hill a different message came, so soft and low, so +different from the smell of beefish brutes, one might well wonder he +could sense it, but like a tiny ringing bell when thunder booms it +came, and Monarch wheeled at once. Oh, it cast a potent spell! It +stood for something very near to ecstasy with him, and down the hill +and through the pines he went, on and on faster yet, abandoned to its +sorcery. Here to its home he traced it, a long, low cavern. He had +seen such many times before, had been held in them more than once, but +had learned to spurn them. For weeks he had been robbing them of their +treasures, and its odor, like a calling voice, was still his guide. +Into the cavern he passed and it reeked with the smell of joy. There +was the luscious mass, and Monarch, with all caution lulled now, +licked and licked, then seized to tear the bag for more, when down +went the door with a low "bang!" The Monarch started, but all was +still and there was no smell of danger. He had forced such doors +before. His palate craved the honey still, and he licked and licked, +greedily at first, then calmly, then slowly, then drowsily—then at +last stopped. His eyes were closing, and he sank slowly down on the +earth and slept a heavy sleep. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/207.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Calm, but white-faced, were they—the men—when in the dawn they came. +There were the huge scarred tracks in-leading; there was the door +down; there dimly they could see a mass of fur that filled the pen, +that heaved in deepest sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Strong ropes, strong chains and bands of steel were at hand, with +chloroform, lest he should revive too soon. Through holes in the roof +with infinite toil they chained him, bound him—his paws to his neck, +his neck and breast and hind legs to a bolted beam. Then raising the +door, they dragged him out, not with horses—none would go near—but +with a windlass to a tree; and fearing the sleep of death, they let +him now revive. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/208.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +Chained and double chained, frenzied, foaming, and impotent, what +words can tell the state of the fallen Monarch? They put him on a +sled, and six horses with a long chain drew it by stages to the plain, +to the railway. They fed him enough to save his life. A great +steam-derrick lifted Bear and beam and chain on to a flat-car, a +tarpaulin was spread above his helpless form; the engine puffed, +pulled out; and the Grizzly King was gone from his ancient hills. +</p> + +<p> +So they brought him to the great city, the Monarch born, in chains. +They put him in a cage not merely strong enough for a lion, but thrice +as strong, and once a rope gave way as the huge one strained his +bonds. "He is loose," went the cry, and an army of onlookers and +keepers fled; only the small man with the calm eye and the big man of +the hills were stanch, so the Monarch was still held. +</p> + +<p> +Free in the cage, he swung round, looked this way and that, then +heaved his powers against the triple angling steel and wrenched the +cage so not a part of it was square. In time he clearly would break +out. They dragged the prisoner to another that an elephant could not +break down, but it stood on the ground, and in an hour the great beast +had a cavern into the earth and was sinking out of sight, till a +stream of water sent after him filled the hole and forced him again to +view. They moved him to a new cage made for him since he came—a hard +rock floor, great bars of nearly two-inch steel that reached up nine +feet and then projected in for five. The Monarch wheeled once around, +then, rearing, raised his ponderous bulk, wrenched those bars, +unbreakable, and bent and turned them in their sockets with one heave +till the five-foot spears were pointed out, and then sprang to climb. +Nothing but pikes and blazing brands in a dozen ruthless hands could +hold him back. The keepers watched him night and day till a stronger +cage was made, impregnable with steel above and rocks below. +</p> + +<p> +The Untamed One passed swiftly around, tried every bar, examined every +corner, sought for a crack in the rocky floor, and found at last the +place where was a six-inch timber beam—the only piece of wood in its +frame. It was sheathed in iron, but exposed for an inch its whole +length. One claw could reach the wood, and here he lay on his side and +raked—raked all day till a great pile of shavings was lying by it and +the beam sawn in two; but the cross-bolts remained, and when Monarch +put his vast shoulder to the place it yielded not a whit. That was his +last hope; now it was gone; and the huge Bear sank down in the cage +with his nose in his paws and sobbed—long, heavy sobs, animal sounds +indeed, but telling just as truly as in man of the broken spirit—the +hope and the life gone out. The keepers came with food at the +appointed time, but the Bear moved not. They set it down, but in the +morning it was still untouched. The Bear was lying as before, his +ponderous form in the pose he had first taken. The sobbing was +replaced by a low moan at intervals. +</p> + +<p> +Two days went by. The food, untouched, was corrupting in the sun. The +third day, and Monarch still lay on his breast, his huge muzzle under +his huger paw. His eyes were hidden; only a slight heaving of his +broad chest was now seen. +</p> + +<p> +"He is dying," said one keeper. "He can't live overnight." +</p> + +<p> +"Send for Kellyan," said another. +</p> + +<div style="width: 15%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/212.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +So Kellyan came, slight and thin. There was the beast that he had +chained, pining, dying. He had sobbed his life out in his last hope's +death, and a thrill of pity came over the hunter, for men of grit and +power love grit and power. He put his arm through the cage bars and +stroked him, but Monarch made no sign. His body was cold. At length a +little moan was sign of life, and Kellyan said, "Here, let me go in to +him." +</p> + +<p> +"You are mad," said the keepers, and they would not open the cage. But +Kellyan persisted till they put in a cross-grating in front of the +Bear. Then, with this between, he approached. His hand was on the +shaggy head, but Monarch lay as before. The hunter stroked his victim +and spoke to him. His hand went to the big round ears, small above the +head. They were rough to his touch. He looked again, then started. +What! is it true? Yes, the stranger's tale was true, for both ears +were pierced with a round hole—one torn large—and Kellyan knew that +once again he had met his little Jack. +</p> + +<p> +"Why, Jacky, I didn't know it was you. I never would have done it if I +had known it was you. Jacky, old pard, don't you know me?" +</p> + +<p> +But Jack stirred not, and Kellyan got up quickly. Back to the hotel he +flew; there he put on his hunter's suit, smoky and smelling of pine +gum and grease, and returned with a mass of honeycomb to reenter the +cage. +</p> + +<p> +"Jacky, Jacky!" he cried, "honey, honey!" and he held the tempting +comb before him. But Monarch lay as one dead now. +</p> + +<div style="width: 7%;" class="left"> + <img width="100%" src="images/214.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +"Jacky, Jacky! don't you know me?" He dropped the honey and laid his +hands on the great muzzle. +</p> + +<p> +The voice was forgotten. The old-time invitation, "Honey, +Jacky—honey," had lost its power, but the <i>smell</i> of the honey, +the coat, the hands that he had fondled, had together a hidden +potency. +</p> + +<p> +There is a time when the dying of our race forget their life, but +clearly remember the scenes of childhood; these only are real and +return with master power. And why not with a Bear? The power of scent +was there to call them back again, and Jacky, the Grizzly Monarch, +raised his head a little—just a little; the eyes were nearly closed, +but the big brown nose was jerked up feebly two or three times—the +sign of interest that Jacky used to give in days of old. Now it was +Kellyan that broke down even as the Bear had done. +</p> + +<p> +"I didn't know it was you, Jacky, or I never would have done it. Oh, +Jacky, forgive me!" He rose and fled from the cage. +</p> + +<p> +The keepers were there. They scarcely understood the scene, but one of +them, acting on the hint, pushed the honeycomb nearer and cried, +"Honey, Jacky—honey!" +</p> + +<p> +Filled by despair, he had lain down to die, but here was a new-born +hope, not clear, not exact as words might put it, but his conqueror +had shown himself a friend; this seemed a new hope, and the keeper, +taking up the old call, "Honey, Jacky—honey!" pushed the comb till it +touched his muzzle. The smell was wafted to his sense, its message +reached his brain; hope honored, it must awake response. The great +tongue licked the comb, appetite revived, and thus in newborn Hope +began the chapter of his gloom. +</p> + +<p> +Skilful keepers were there with plans to meet the Monarch's every +want. Delicate foods were offered and every shift was tried to tempt +him back to strength and prison life. +</p> + +<p> +He ate and—lived. +</p> + +<div style="width: 20%;" class="right"> + <img width="100%" src="images/217.gif" alt=""> +</div> + +<p> +And still he lives, but pacing—pacing—pacing—you may see him, +scanning not the crowds, but something beyond the crowds, breaking +down at times into petulant rages, but recovering anon his ponderous +dignity, looking—waiting—watching—held ever by that Hope, that +unknown Hope, that came. Kellyan has been to him since, but Monarch +knows him not. Over his head, beyond him, was the great Bear's gaze, +far away toward Tallac or far away on the sea, we knowing not which or +why, but pacing—pacing—pacing—held like the storied Wandering One +to a life of ceaseless journey—a journey aimless, endless, and sad. +</p> + +<p> +The wound-spots long ago have left his shaggy coat, but the earmarks +still are there, the ponderous strength, the elephantine dignity. His +eyes are dull,—never were bright,—but they seem not vacant, and most +often fixed on the Golden Gate where the river seeks the sea. +</p> + +<p> +The river, born in high Sierra's flank, that lived and rolled and +grew, through mountain pines, o'erleaping man-made barriers, then to +reach with growing power the plains and bring its mighty flood at last +to the Bay of Bays, a prisoner there to lie, the prisoner of the +Golden Gate, seeking forever Freedom's Blue, seeking and +raging—raging and seeking—back and forth, forever—in vain. +</p> + +<center> +<div style="width: 25%" class="figure"> +<img src="images/218.gif" width="100%" alt=""> +</div> +</center> + +<br> +<br> + +<a name="illus8"></a> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="images/illus8.jpg"><img width="70%" src="images/illus8-thumb.jpg" alt="Illustration"></a><br> +MONARCH +</div> +</div> +<br> +<hr class="full"> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONARCH, THE BIG BEAR OF TALLAC***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 11135-h.txt or 11135-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/3/11135">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/3/11135</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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mode 100644 index 0000000..1724017 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11135-h/images/illus7.jpg diff --git a/old/11135-h/images/illus8-thumb.jpg b/old/11135-h/images/illus8-thumb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5e2a82 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11135-h/images/illus8-thumb.jpg diff --git a/old/11135-h/images/illus8.jpg b/old/11135-h/images/illus8.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7ca8106 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11135-h/images/illus8.jpg diff --git a/old/11135.txt b/old/11135.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4778322 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11135.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2592 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac, by Ernest +Thompson Seton + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac + +Author: Ernest Thompson Seton + +Release Date: February 17, 2004 [eBook #11135] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONARCH, THE BIG BEAR OF TALLAC*** + + +E-text prepared by Michelle Croyle and Project Gutenberg Distributed +Proofreaders + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 11135-h.htm or 11135-h.zip: + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/3/11135/11135-h/11135-h.htm) + or + (http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/1/1/1/3/11135/11135-h.zip) + + + + + +MONARCH, The BIG BEAR of Tallac + +With 100 Drawings + +by Ernest Thompson Seton + +Author of +Wild Animals I have known +Trail of the Sandhill Stag +Biography of a Grizzly +Lives of the Hunted. +Two Little Savages. Etc. + +1919 + + + + + + +THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED + +To the memory of the days in Tallac's Pines, where by the fire I heard +this epic tale. + +Kind memory calls the picture up before me now, clear, living clear: I +see them as they sat, the one small and slight, the other tall and +brawny, leader and led, rough men of the hills. They told me this +tale--in broken bits they gave it, a sentence at a time. They were +ready to talk but knew not how. Few their words, and those they used +would be empty on paper, meaningless without the puckered lip, the +interhiss, the brutal semi-snarl restrained by human mastery, the snap +and jerk of wrist and gleam of steel-gray eye, that really told the +tale, of which the spoken word was mere headline. Another, a subtler +theme was theirs that night; not in the line but in the interline it +ran; and listening to the hunter's ruder tale, I heard as one may hear +the night bird singing in the storm; amid the glitter of the mica I +caught the glint of gold, for theirs was a parable of hill-born power +that fades when it finds the plains. They told of the giant redwood's +growth from a tiny seed; of the avalanche that, born a snowflake, +heaves and grows on the peaks, to shrink and die on the level lands +below. They told of the river at our feet: of its rise, a thread-like +rill, afar on Tallac's side, and its growth--a brook, a stream, a +little river, a river, a mighty flood that rolled and ran from hills +to plain to meet a final doom so strange that only the wise believe. +Yes, I have seen it; it is there to-day--the river, the wonderful +river, that unabated flows, but that never reaches the sea. + +I give you the story then as it came to me, and yet I do not give it, +for theirs is a tongue unknown to script: I give a dim translation; +dim, but in all ways respectful, reverencing the indomitable spirit of +the mountaineer, worshiping the mighty Beast that nature built a +monument of power, and loving and worshiping the clash, the awful +strife heroic, at the close, when these two met. + + + + +In this Book the designs for cover, title-page, and general make-up +were done by Grace Gallatin Seton. + + + + +List of Full-Page Drawings + +"The pony bounded in terror while the Grizzly ran almost alongside" + +"Jack ate till his paunch looked like a rubber balloon" + +"'Honey--Jacky--honey'" + +"Jack ... held up his sticky, greasy arms" + +The Thirty-foot Bear + +"'Now, B'ar, I don't want no scrap with you'" + +"Rumbling and snorting, he made for the friendly hills" + +Monarch + + + + + +List of The Chapters + + + I. The Two Springs + + II. The Springs and the Miner's Dam + + III. The Trout Pool + + IV. The Stream that Sank in the Sand + + V. The River Held in the Foothills + + VI. The Broken Dam + + VII. The Freshet + +VIII. Roaring in the Canon + + IX. Fire and Water + + X. The Eddy + + XI. The Ford + + XII. Swirl and Pool and Growing Flood + +XIII. The Deepening Channel + + XIV. The Cataract + + XV. The Foaming Flood + + XVI. Landlocked + + + + + +FOREWORD + + +The story of Monarch is founded on material gathered from many sources +as well as from personal experience, and the Bear is of necessity a +composite. The great Grizzly Monarch, still pacing his prison floor at +the Golden Gate Park, is the central fact of the tale. + +In telling it I have taken two liberties that I conceive to be proper +in a story of this sort. + +First, I have selected for my hero an unusual individual. + +Second, I have ascribed to that one animal the adventures of several +of his kind. + +The aim of the story is to picture the life of a Grizzly with the +added glamour of a remarkable Bear personality. The intention is to +convey the known truth. But the fact that liberties have been taken +excludes the story from the catalogue of pure science. It must be +considered rather an historical novel of Bear life. + +Many different Bears were concerned in the early adventures here +related, but the last two chapters, the captivity and the despair of +the Big Bear, are told as they were told to me by several witnesses, +including my friends the two mountaineers. + + + +I. THE TWO SPRINGS + + +High above Sierra's peaks stands grim Mount Tallac. Ten thousand feet +above the sea it rears its head to gaze out north to that vast and +wonderful turquoise that men call Lake Tahoe, and northwest, across a +piney sea, to its great white sister, Shasta of the Snows; wonderful +colors and things on every side, mast-like pine trees strung with +jewelry, streams that a Buddhist would have made sacred, hills that an +Arab would have held holy. But Lan Kellyan's keen gray eyes were +turned to other things. The childish delight in life and light for +their own sakes had faded, as they must in one whose training had been +to make him hold them very cheap. Why value grass? All the world is +grass. Why value air, when it is everywhere in measureless immensity? +Why value life, when, all alive, his living came from taking life? His +senses were alert, not for the rainbow hills and the gem-bright lakes, +but for the living things that he must meet in daily rivalry, each +staking on the game, his life. Hunter was written on his leathern +garb, on his tawny face, on his lithe and sinewy form, and shone in +his clear gray eye. + +The cloven granite peak might pass unmarked, but a faint dimple in the +sod did not. Calipers could not have told that it was widened at one +end, but the hunter's eye did, and following, he looked for and found +another, then smaller signs, and he knew that a big Bear and two +little ones had passed and were still close at hand, for the grass in +the marks was yet unbending. Lan rode his hunting pony on the trail. +It sniffed and stepped nervously, for it knew as well as the rider +that a Grizzly family was near. They came to a terrace leading to an +open upland. Twenty feet on this side of it Lan slipped to the ground, +dropped the reins, the well-known sign to the pony that he must stand +at that spot, then cocked his rifle and climbed the bank. At the top +he went with yet greater caution, and soon saw an old Grizzly with her +two cubs. She was lying down some fifty yards away and afforded a poor +shot; he fired at what seemed to be the shoulder. The aim was true, +but the Bear got only a flesh-wound. She sprang to her feet and made +for the place where the puff of smoke arose. The Bear had fifty yards +to cover, the man had fifteen, but she came racing down the bank +before he was fairly on the horse, and for a hundred yards the pony +bounded in terror while the old Grizzly ran almost alongside, striking +at him and missing by a scant hair's-breadth each time. But the +Grizzly rarely keeps up its great speed for many yards. The horse got +under full headway, and the shaggy mother, falling behind, gave up the +chase and returned to her cubs. + +[Illustration: "THE PONY BOUNDED IN TERROR WHILE THE GRIZZLY RAN +ALMOST ALONGSIDE"] + +She was a singular old Bear. She had a large patch of white on her +breast, white cheeks and shoulders, graded into the brown elsewhere, +and Lan from this remembered her afterward as the "Pinto." She had +almost caught him that time, and the hunter was ready to believe that +he owed her a grudge. + +A week later his chance came. As he passed along the rim of Pocket +Gulch, a small, deep valley with sides of sheer rock in most places, +he saw afar the old Pinto Bear with her two little brown cubs. She was +crossing from one side where the wall was low to another part easy to +climb. As she stopped to drink at the clear stream Lan fired with his +rifle. At the shot Pinto turned on her cubs, and slapping first one, +then the other, she chased them up a tree. Now a second shot struck +her and she charged fiercely up the sloping part of the wall, clearly +recognizing the whole situation and determined to destroy that hunter. +She came snorting up the steep acclivity wounded and raging, only to +receive a final shot in the brain that sent her rolling back to lie +dead at the bottom of Pocket Gulch. The hunter, after waiting to make +sure, moved to the edge and fired another shot into the old one's +body; then reloading, he went cautiously down to the tree where still +were the cubs. They gazed at him with wild seriousness as he +approached them, and when he began to climb they scrambled up higher. +Here one set up a plaintive whining and the other an angry growling, +their outcries increasing as he came nearer. + +He took out a stout cord, and noosing them in turn, dragged them to +the ground. One rushed at him and, though little bigger than a cat, +would certainly have done him serious injury had he not held it off +with a forked stick. + +After tying them to a strong but swaying branch he went to his horse, +got a grain-bag, dropped them into that, and rode with them to his +shanty. He fastened each with a collar and chain to a post, up which +they climbed, and sitting on the top they whined and growled, +according to their humor. For the first few days there was danger of +the cubs strangling themselves or of starving to death, but at length +they were beguiled into drinking some milk most ungently procured from +a range cow that was lassoed for the purpose. In another week they +seemed somewhat reconciled to their lot, and thenceforth plainly +notified their captor whenever they wanted food or water. + +And thus the two small rills ran on, a little farther down the +mountain now, deeper and wider, keeping near each other; leaping bars, +rejoicing in the sunlight, held for a while by some trivial dam, but +overleaping that and running on with pools and deeps that harbor +bigger things. + + + +II. THE SPRINGS AND THE MINER'S DAM + + +Jack and Jill, the hunter named the cubs; and Jill, the little fury, +did nothing to change his early impression of her bad temper. When at +food-time the man came she would get as far as possible up the post +and growl, or else sit in sulky fear and silence; Jack would scramble +down and strain at his chain to meet his captor, whining softly, and +gobbling his food at once with the greatest of gusto and the worst of +manners. He had many odd ways of his own, and he was a lasting rebuke +to those who say an animal has no sense of humor. In a month he had +grown so tame that he was allowed to run free. He followed his master +like a dog, and his tricks and funny doings were a continual delight +to Kellyan and the few friends he had in the mountains. + +On the creek-bottom below the shack was a meadow where Lan cut enough +hay each year to feed his two ponies through the winter. This year +when hay-time came Jack was his daily companion, either following him +about in dangerous nearness to the snorting scythe, or curling up an +hour at a time on his coat to guard it assiduously from such +aggressive monsters as Ground Squirrels and Chipmunks. An interesting +variation of the day came about whenever the mower found a bumblebees' +nest. Jack loved honey, of course, and knew quite well what a bees' +nest was, so the call, "Honey--Jacky--honey!" never failed to bring +him in waddling haste to the spot. Jerking his nose up in token of +pleasure, he would approach cautiously, for he knew that bees have +stings. Watching his chance, he would dexterously slap at them with +his paws till, one by one, they were knocked down and crushed; then +sniffing hard for the latest information, he would stir up the nest +gingerly till the very last was tempted forth to be killed. When the +dozen or more that formed the swarm were thus got rid of, Jack would +carefully dig out the nest and eat first the honey, next the grubs and +wax, and last of all the bees he had killed, champing his jaws like a +little Pig at a trough, while his long red, snaky tongue was ever busy +lashing the stragglers into his greedy maw. + +[Illustration: "JACK ATE TILL HIS PAUNCH LOOKED LIKE A RUBBER +BALLOON"] + +Lan's nearest neighbor was Lou Bonamy, an ex-cowboy and sheep-herder, +now a prospecting miner. He lived, with his dog, in a shanty about a +mile below Kellyan's shack. Bonamy had seen Jack "perform on a +bee-crew." And one day, as he came to Kellyan's, he called out: "Lan, +bring Jack here and we'll have some fun." He led the way down the +stream into the woods. Kellyan followed him, and Jacky waddled at +Kellyan's heels, sniffing once in a while to make sure he was not +following the wrong pair of legs. + +"There, Jacky, honey--honey!" and Bonamy pointed up a tree to an +immense wasps' nest. + +Jack cocked his head on one side and swung his nose on the other. +Certainly those things buzzing about looked like bees, though he never +before saw a bees' nest of that shape, or in such a place. + +But he scrambled up the trunk. The men waited--Lan in doubt as to +whether he should let his pet cub go into such danger, Bonamy +insisting it would be a capital joke "to spring a surprise" on the +little Bear. Jack reached the branch that held the big nest high over +the deep water, but went with increasing caution. He had never seen a +bees' nest like this; it did not have the right smell. Then he took +another step forward on the branch--what an awful lot of bees; another +step--still they were undoubtedly bees; he cautiously advanced a +foot--and bees mean honey; a little farther--he was now within four +feet of the great paper globe. The bees hummed angrily and Jack +stepped back, in doubt. The men giggled; then Bonamy called softly and +untruthfully: "Honey--Jacky--honey!" + +[Illustration: "'HONEY--JACKY--HONEY'"] + +The little Bear, fortunately for himself, went slowly, since in doubt; +he made no sudden move, and he waited a long time, though urged to go +on, till the whole swarm of bees had reentered their nest. Now Jacky +jerked his nose up, hitched softly out a little farther till right +over the fateful paper globe. He reached out, and by lucky chance put +one horny little paw-pad over the hole; his other arm grasped the +nest, and leaping from the branch he plunged headlong into the pool +below, taking the whole thing with him. As soon as he reached the +water his hind feet were seen tearing into the nest, kicking it to +pieces; then he let it go and struck out for the shore, the nest +floating in rags down-stream. He ran alongside till the comb lodged +against a shallow place, then he plunged in again; the wasps were +drowned or too wet to be dangerous, and he carried his prize to the +bank in triumph. No honey; of course, that was a disappointment, but +there were lots of fat white grubs--almost as good--and Jack ate till +his paunch looked like a little rubber balloon. + +"How is that?" chuckled Lan. + +"The laugh is on us," answered Bonamy, with a grimace. + + + +III. THE TROUT POOL + + +Jack was now growing into a sturdy cub, and he would follow Kellyan +even as far as Bonamy's shack. One day, as they watched him rolling +head over heels in riotous glee, Kellyan remarked to his friend: "I'm +afraid some one will happen on him an' shoot him in the woods for a +wild B'ar." + +"Then why don't you ear-mark him with them thar new sheep-rings?" was +the sheep-man's suggestion. + +Thus it was that, much against his will, Jack's ears were punched and +he was decorated with earrings like a prize ram. The intention was +good, but they were neither ornamental nor comfortable. Jack fought +them for days, and when at length he came home trailing a branch that +was caught in the jewel of his left ear, Kellyan impatiently removed +them. + +At Bonamy's he formed two new acquaintances, a blustering, bullying +old ram that was "in storage" for a sheep-herder acquaintance, and +which inspired him with a lasting enmity for everything that smelt of +sheep--and Bonamy's dog. + +This latter was an active, yapping, unpleasant cur that seemed to +think it rare fun to snap at Jacky's heels, then bound out of reach. A +joke is a joke, but this horrid beast did not know where to stop, and +Jack's first and second visits to the Bonamy hut were quite spoiled by +the tyranny of the dog. If Jack could have got hold of him he might +have settled the account to his own satisfaction, but he was not quick +enough for that. His only refuge was up a tree. He soon discovered +that he was happier away from Bonamy's, and thenceforth when he saw +his protector take the turn that led to the miner's cabin, Jack said +plainly with a look, "No, thank you," and turned back to amuse himself +at home. + +His enemy, however, often came with Bonamy to the hunter's cabin, and +there resumed his amusement of teasing the little Bear. It proved so +interesting a pursuit that the dog learned to come over on his own +account whenever he felt like having some fun, until at length Jack +was kept in continual terror of the yellow cur. But it all ended very +suddenly. + +One hot day, while the two men smoked in front of Kellyan's house, the +dog chased Jack up a tree and then stretched himself out for a +pleasant nap in the shade of its branches. Jack was forgotten as the +dog slumbered. The little Bear kept very quiet for a while, then, as +his twinkling brown eyes came back to that hateful dog, that he could +neither catch nor get away from, an idea seemed to grow in his small +brain. He began to move slowly and silently down the branch until he +was over the foe, slumbering, twitching his limbs, and making little +sounds that told of dreams of the chase, or, more likely, dreams of +tormenting a helpless Bear cub. Of course, Jack knew nothing of that. +His one thought, doubtless, was that he hated that cur and now he +could vent his hate. He came just over the tyrant, and taking careful +aim, he jumped and landed squarely on the dog's ribs. It was a +terribly rude awakening, but the dog gave no yelp, for the good reason +that the breath was knocked out of his body. No bones were broken, +though he was barely able to drag himself away in silent defeat, while +Jacky played a lively tune on his rear with paws that were fringed +with meat-hooks. + +Evidently it was a most excellent plan; and when the dog came around +after that, or when Jack went to Bonamy's with his master, as he soon +again ventured to do, he would scheme with more or less success to +"get the drop on the purp," as the men put it. The dog now rapidly +lost interest in Bear-baiting, and in a short time it was a forgotten +sport. + + + +IV. THE STREAM THAT SANK IN THE SAND + + +Jack was funny; Jill was sulky. Jack was petted and given freedom, so +grew funnier; Jill was beaten and chained, so grew sulkier. She had a +bad name and she was often punished for it; it is usually so. + +One day, while Lan was away, Jill got free and joined her brother. +They broke into the little storehouse and rioted among the provisions. +They gorged themselves with the choicest sorts; and the common stuffs, +like flour, butter, and baking-powder, brought fifty miles on +horseback, were good enough only to be thrown about the ground or +rolled in. Jack had just torn open the last bag of flour, and Jill was +puzzling over a box of miner's dynamite, when the doorway darkened and +there stood Kellyan, a picture of amazement and wrath. Little Bears do +not know anything about pictures, but they have some acquaintance with +wrath. They seemed to know that they were sinning, or at least in +danger, and Jill sneaked, sulky and snuffy, into a dark corner, where +she glared defiantly at the hunter. Jack put his head on one side, +then, quite forgetful of all his misbehavior, he gave a delighted +grunt, and scuttling toward the man, he whined, jerked his nose, and +held up his sticky, greasy arms to be lifted and petted as though he +were the best little Bear in the world. + +[Illustration: "JACK ... HELD UP HIS STICKY, GREASY ARMS"] + +Alas, how likely we are to be taken at our own estimate! The scowl +faded from the hunter's brow as the cheeky and deplorable little Bear +began to climb his leg. "You little divil," he growled, "I'll break +your cussed neck"; but he did not. He lifted the nasty, sticky little +beast and fondled him as usual, while Jill, no worse--even more +excusable, because less trained--suffered all the terrors of his wrath +and was double-chained to the post, so as to have no further chance of +such ill-doing. + +This was a day of bad luck for Kellyan. That morning he had fallen and +broken his rifle. Now, on his return home, he found his provisions +spoiled, and a new trial was before him. + +A stranger with a small pack-train called at his place that evening +and passed the night with him. Jack was in his most frolicsome mood +and amused them both with tricks half-puppy and half-monkey like, and +in the morning, when the stranger was leaving, he said: "Say, pard, +I'll give you twenty-five dollars for the pair." Lan hesitated, +thought of the wasted provisions, his empty purse, his broken rifle, +and answered: "Make it fifty and it's a go." + +"Shake on it." + +So the bargain was made, the money paid, and in fifteen minutes the +stranger was gone with a little Bear in each pannier of his horse. + +Jill was surly and silent; Jack kept up a whining that smote on Lan's +heart with a reproachful sound, but he braced himself with, "Guess +they're better out of the way; couldn't afford another storeroom +racket," and soon the pine forest had swallowed up the stranger, his +three led horses, and the two little Bears. + +"Well, I'm glad he's gone," said Lan, savagely, though he knew quite +well that he was already scourged with repentance. He began to set his +shanty in order. He went to the storehouse and gathered the remnants +of the provisions. After all, there was a good deal left. He walked +past the box where Jack used to sleep. How silent it was! He noted the +place where Jack used to scratch the door to get into the cabin, and +started at the thought that he should hear it no more, and told +himself, with many cuss-words, that he was "mighty glad of it." He +pottered about, doing--doing--oh, anything, for an hour or more; then +suddenly he leaped on his pony and raced madly down the trail on the +track of the stranger. He put the pony hard to it, and in two hours he +overtook the train at the crossing of the river. + +"Say, pard, I done wrong. I didn't orter sell them little B'ars, +leastwise not Jacky. I--I--wall, now, I want to call it off. Here's +yer yellow." + +"I'm satisfied with my end of it," said the stranger, coldly. + +"Well, I ain't," said Lan, with warmth, "an' I want it off." + +"Ye're wastin' time if that's what ye come for," was the reply. + +"We'll see about that," and Lan threw the gold pieces at the rider and +walked over toward the pannier, where Jack was whining joyfully at the +sound of the familiar voice. + +"Hands up," said the stranger, with the short, sharp tone of one who +had said it before, and Lan turned to find himself covered with a .45 +navy Colt. + +"Ye got the drop on me," he said; "I ain't got no gun; but look-a +here, stranger, that there little B'ar is the only pard I got; he's my +stiddy company an' we're almighty fond o' each other. I didn't know +how much I was a-goin' to miss him. Now look-a here: take back yer +fifty; ye give me Jack an' keep Jill." + +"If ye got five hundred cold plunks in yaller ye kin get him; if not, +you walk straight to that tree thar an' don't drop yer hands or turn +or I'll fire. Now start." + +Mountain etiquette is very strict, and Lan, being without weapons, +must needs obey the rules. He marched to the distant tree under cover +of the revolver. The wail of little Jack smote painfully on his ear, +but he knew the ways of the mountaineers too well to turn or make +another offer, and the stranger went on. + +Many a man has spent a thousand dollars in efforts to capture some +wild thing and felt it worth the cost--for a time. Then he is willing +to sell it for half cost, then for quarter, and at length he ends by +giving it away. The stranger was vastly pleased with his comical Bear +cubs at first, and valued them proportionately; but each day they +seemed more troublesome and less amusing, so that when, a week later, +at the Bell-Cross Ranch, he was offered a horse for the pair, he +readily closed, and their days of hamper-travel were over. + +The owner of the ranch was neither mild, refined, nor patient. Jack, +good-natured as he was, partly grasped these facts as he found himself +taken from the pannier, but when it came to getting cranky little Jill +out of the basket and into a collar, there ensued a scene so +unpleasant that no collar was needed. The ranchman wore his hand in a +sling for two weeks, and Jacky at his chain's end paced the ranch-yard +alone. + + + +V. THE RIVER HELD IN THE FOOTHILLS + + +There was little of pleasant interest in the next eighteen months of +Jack's career. His share of the globe was a twenty-foot circle around +a pole in the yard. The blue hills of the offing, the nearer pine +grove, and even the ranch-house itself were fixed stars, far away and +sending merely faint suggestions of their splendors to his not very +bright eyes. Even the horses and men were outside his little sphere +and related to him about as much as comets are to the earth. The very +tricks that had made him valued were being forgotten as Jack grew up +in chains. + +At first a butter-firkin had made him an ample den, but he rapidly +passed through the various stages--butter-firkin, nail-keg, +flour-barrel, oil-barrel--and had now to be graded as a good average +hogshead Bear, though he was far from filling that big round wooden +cavern that formed his latest den. + +The ranch hotel lay just where the foothills of the Sierras with their +groves of live oaks were sloping into the golden plains of the +Sacramento. Nature had showered on it every wonderful gift in her lap. +A foreground rich with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade and sun, dry +pastures, rushing rivers, and murmuring rills, were here. Great trees +were variants of the view, and the high Sierras to the east overtopped +the wondrous plumy forests of their pines with blocks of sculptured +blue. Back of the house was a noble river of water from the hills, +fouled and chained by sluice and dam, but still a noble stream whose +earliest parent rill had gushed from grim old Tallac's slope. + +Things of beauty, life, and color were on every side, and yet most +sordid of the human race were the folk about the ranch hotel. To see +them in this setting might well raise doubt that any "rise from Nature +up to Nature's God." No city slum has ever shown a more ignoble crew, +and Jack, if his mind were capable of such things, must have graded +the two-legged ones lower in proportion as he knew them better. + +Cruelty was his lot, and hate was his response. Almost the only +amusing trick he now did was helping himself to a drink of beer. He +was very fond of beer, and the loafers about the tavern often gave him +a bottle to see how dexterously he would twist off the wire and work +out the cork. As soon as it popped, he would turn it up between his +paws and drink to the last drop. + +The monotony of his life was occasionally varied with a dog fight. His +tormentors would bring their Bear dogs "to try them on the cub." It +seemed to be very pleasant sport to men and dogs, till Jack learned +how to receive them. At first he used to rush furiously at the nearest +tormentor until brought up with a jerk at the end of his chain and +completely exposed to attack behind from another dog. A month or two +entirely changed his method. He learned to sit against the hogshead +and quietly watch the noisy dogs around him, with much show of +inattention, making no move, no matter how near they were, until they +"bunched," that is, gathered in one place. Then he charged. It was +inevitable that the hind dogs would be the last to jump, and so +hindered the front ones; thus Jack would "get" one or more of them, +and the game became unpopular. + +When about eighteen months old, and half grown, an incident took place +which defied all explanation. Jack had won the name of being +dangerous, for he had crippled one man with a blow and nearly killed a +tipsy fool who volunteered to fight him. A harmless but +good-for-nothing sheep-herder who loafed about the place got very +drunk one night and offended some fire-eaters. They decided that, as +he had no gun, it would be the proper thing to club him to their +hearts' content instead of shooting him full of holes, in the manner +usually prescribed by their code. Faco Tampico made for the door and +staggered out into the darkness. His pursuers were even more drunk, +but, bent on mischief, they gave chase, and Faco dodged back of the +house and into the yard. The mountaineers had just wit enough to keep +out of reach of the Grizzly as they searched about for their victim, +but they did not find him. Then they got torches, and making sure that +he was not in the yard, were satisfied that he had fallen into the +river behind the barn and doubtless was drowned. A few rude jokes, and +they returned to the house. As they passed the Grizzly's den their +lanterns awoke in his eyes a glint of fire. In the morning the cook, +beginning his day, heard strange sounds in the yard. They came from +the Grizzly's den: "Hyar, you, lay over dahr," in sleepy tones; then a +deep, querulous grunting. + +The cook went as close as he dared and peeped in. Said the same voice +in sleepy tones: "Who are ye crowding, caramba!" and a human elbow was +seen jerking and pounding; and again impatient growling in bear-like +tones was the response. + +The sun came up and the astonished loafers found it was the missing +sheep-herder that was in the Bear's den, calmly sleeping off his +debauch in the very cave of death. The men tried to get him out, but +the Grizzly plainly showed that they could do so only over his dead +body. He charged with vindictive fury at any who ventured near, and +when they gave up the attempt he lay down at the door of the den on +guard. At length the sheep-herder came to himself, rose up on his +elbows, and realizing that he was in the power of the young Grizzly, +he stepped gingerly over his guardian's back and ran off without even +saying "Thank you." + +The Fourth of July was at hand now, and the owner of the tavern, +growing weary of the huge captive in the yard, announced that he would +celebrate Independence Day with a grand fight between a "picked and +fighting range bull and a ferocious Californian Grizzly." The news was +spread far and wide by the "Grapevine Telegraph." The roof of the +stable was covered with seats at fifty cents each. The hay-wagon was +half loaded and drawn alongside the corral; seats here gave a perfect +view and were sold at a dollar apiece. The old corral was repaired, +new posts put in where needed, and the first thing in the morning a +vicious old bull was herded in and tormented till he was "snuffy" and +extremely dangerous. + +Jack meanwhile had been roped, "choked down," and nailed up in his +hogshead. His chain and collar were permanently riveted together, so +the collar was taken off, as "it would be easy to rope him, _if need +be, after the bull was through with him."_ + +The hogshead was rolled over to the corral gate and all was ready. + +The cowboys came from far and near in their most gorgeous trappings, +and the California cowboy is the peacock of his race. Their best girls +were with them, and farmers and ranchmen came for fifty miles to enjoy +the Bull-and-Bear fight. Miners from the hills were there, Mexican +sheep-herders, storekeepers from Placerville, strangers from +Sacramento; town and county, mountain and plain, were represented. The +hay-wagon went so well that another was brought into market. The barn +roof was sold out. An ominous crack of the timbers somewhat shook the +prices, but a couple of strong uprights below restored the market, and +all "The Corners" was ready and eager for the great fight. Men who had +been raised among cattle were betting on the bull. + +"I tell you, there ain't nothing on earth kin face a big range bull +that hez good use of hisself." + +But the hillmen were backing the Bear. "Pooh, what's a bull to a +Grizzly? I tell you, I seen a Grizzly send a horse clean over the +Hetch-Hetchy with one clip of his left. Bull! I'll bet he'll never +show up in the second round." + +So they wrangled and bet, while burly women, trying to look fetching, +gave themselves a variety of airs, were "scared at the whole thing, +nervous about the uproar, afraid it would be shocking," but really +were as keenly interested as the men. + +All was ready, and the boss of "The Corners" shouted: "Let her go, +boys; house is full an' time's up!" + +Faco Tampico had managed to tie a bundle of chaparral thorn to the +bull's tail, so that the huge creature had literally lashed himself +into a frenzy. + +Jack's hogshead meanwhile had been rolled around till he was raging +with disgust, and Faco, at the word of command, began to pry open the +door. The end of the barrel was close to the fence, the door cleared +away; now there was nothing for Jack to do but to go forth and claw +the bull to pieces. But he did not go. The noise, the uproar, the +strangeness of the crowd affected him so that he decided to stay where +he was, and the bull-backers raised a derisive cry. Their champion +came forward bellowing and sniffing, pausing often to paw the dust. He +held his head very high and approached slowly until he came within ten +feet of the Grizzly's den; then, giving a snort, he turned and ran to +the other end of the corral. Now it was the Bear-backers' turn to +shout. + +But the crowd wanted a fight, and Faco, forgetful of his debt to +Grizzly Jack, dropped a bundle of Fourth of July crackers into the +hogshead by way of the bung. "Crack!" and Jack jumped up. +"Fizz--crack--c-r-r-r-a-a-c-k, cr-k-crk-ck!" and Jack in surprise +rushed from his den into the arena. The bull was standing in a +magnificent attitude there in the middle, but when he saw the Bear +spring toward him, he gave two mighty snorts and retreated as far as +he could, amid cheers and hisses. + +Perhaps the two main characteristics of the Grizzly are the quickness +with which he makes a plan and the vigor with which he follows it up. +Before the bull had reached the far side of the corral Jack seemed to +know the wisest of courses. His pig-like eyes swept the fence in a +flash--took in the most climbable part, a place where a cross-piece +was nailed on in the middle. In three seconds he was there, in two +seconds he was over, and in one second he dashed through the running, +scattering mob and was making for the hills as fast as his strong and +supple legs could carry him. Women screamed, men yelled, and dogs +barked; there was a wild dash for the horses tied far from the scene +of the fight, to spare their nerves, but the Grizzly had three hundred +yards' start, five hundred yards even, and before the gala mob gave +out a long and flying column of reckless, riotous riders, the Grizzly +had plunged into the river, a flood no dog cared to face, and had +reached the chaparral and the broken ground in line for the piney +hills. In an hour the ranch hotel, with its galling chain, its +cruelties, and its brutal human beings, was a thing of the past, shut +out by the hills of his youth, cut off by the river of his cub-hood, +the river grown from the rill born in his birthplace away in Tallac's +pines. That Fourth of July was a glorious Fourth--it was Independence +Day for Grizzly Jack. + + + +VI. THE BROKEN DAM + + +A wounded deer usually works downhill, a hunted Grizzly climbs. Jack +knew nothing of the country, but he did know that he wanted to get +away from that mob, so he sought the roughest ground, and climbed and +climbed. + +He had been alone for hours, traveling up and on. The plain was lost +to view. He was among the granite rocks, the pine trees, and the +berries now, and he gathered in food from the low bushes with +dexterous paws and tongue as he traveled, but stopped not at all until +among the tumbled rock, where the sun heat of the afternoon seemed to +command rather than invite him to rest. + +The night was black when he awoke, but Bears are not afraid of the +dark--they rather fear the day--and he swung along, led, as before, by +the impulse to get up above the danger; and thus at last he reached +the highest range, the region of his native Tallac. + +He had but little of the usual training of a young Bear, but he had a +few instincts, his birthright, that stood him well in all the main +issues, and his nose was an excellent guide. Thus he managed to live, +and wild-life experiences coming fast gave his mind the chance to +grow. + +Jack's memory for faces and facts was not at all good, but his memory +for smells was imperishable. He had forgotten Bonamy's cur, but the +smell of Bonamy's cur would instantly have thrilled him with the old +feelings. He had forgotten the cross ram, but the smell of "Old Woolly +Whiskers" would have inspired him at once with anger and hate; and one +evening when the wind came richly laden with ram smell it was like a +bygone life returned. He had been living on roots and berries for +weeks and now began to experience that hankering for flesh that comes +on every candid vegetarian with dangerous force from time to time. The +ram smell seemed an answer to it. So down he went by night (no +sensible Bear travels by day), and the smell brought him from the +pines on the hillside to an open rocky dale. + +Long before he got there a curious light shone up. He knew what that +was; he had seen the two-legged ones make it near the ranch of evil +smells and memories, so feared it not. He swung along from ledge to +ledge in silence and in haste, for the smell of sheep grew stronger at +every stride, and when he reached a place above the fire he blinked +his eyes to find the sheep. The smell was strong now; it was rank, but +no sheep to be seen. Instead he saw in the valley a stretch of gray +water that seemed to reflect the stars, and yet they neither twinkled +nor rippled; there was a murmuring sound from the sheet, but it seemed +not at all like that of the lakes around. + +[Illustration: The Herd of Eyes] + +The stars were clustered chiefly near the fire, and were less like +stars than spots of the phosphorescent wood that are scattered on the +ground when one knocks a rotten stump about to lick up its swarms of +wood-ants. So Jack came closer, and at last so close that even his +dull eyes could see. The great gray lake was a flock of sheep and the +phosphorescent specks were their eyes. Close by the fire was a log or +a low rough bank--that turned out to be the shepherd and his dog. Both +were objectionable features, but the sheep extended far from them. +Jack knew that his business was with the flock. + +He came very close to the edge and found them surrounded by a low +hedge of chaparral; but what little things they were compared with +that great and terrible ram that he dimly remembered! The blood-thirst +came on him. He swept the low hedge aside, charged into the mass of +sheep that surged away from him with rushing sounds of feet and +murmuring groans, struck down one, seized it, and turning away, he +scrambled back up the mountains. + +The sheep-herder leaped to his feet, fired his gun, and the dog came +running over the solid mass of sheep, barking loudly. But Jack was +gone. The sheep-herder contented himself with making two or three +fires, shooting off his gun, and telling his beads. + +That was Jack's first mutton, but it was not the last. Thenceforth +when he wanted a sheep--and it became a regular need--he knew he had +merely to walk along the ridge till his nose said, "Turn, and go so," +for smelling is believing in Bear life. + + + +VII. THE FRESHET + + +Pedro Tampico and his brother Faco were not in the sheep business for +any maudlin sentiment. They did not march ahead of their beloveds +waving a crook as wand of office or appealing to the esthetic sides of +their ideal followers with a tabret and pipe. Far from leading the +flock with a symbol, they drove them with an armful of ever-ready +rocks and clubs. They were not shepherds; they were sheep-herders. +They did not view their charges as loved and loving followers, but as +four-legged cash; each sheep was worth a dollar bill. They were cared +for only as a man cares for his money, and counted after each alarm or +day of travel. It is not easy for any one to count three thousand +sheep, and for a Mexican sheep-herder it is an impossibility. But he +has a simple device which answers the purpose. In an ordinary flock +about one sheep in a hundred is a black one. If a portion of the flock +has gone astray, there is likely to be a black one in it. So by +counting his thirty black sheep each day Tampico kept rough count of +his entire flock. + +Grizzly Jack had killed but one sheep that first night. On his next +visit he killed two, and on the next but one, yet that last one +happened to be black, and when Tampico found but twenty-nine of its +kind remaining he safely reasoned that he was losing sheep--according +to the index a hundred were gone. + +"If the land is unhealthy move out" is ancient wisdom. Tampico filled +his pocket with stones, and reviling his charges in all their walks in +life and history, he drove them from the country that was evidently +the range of a sheep-eater. At night he found a walled-in canon, a +natural corral, and the woolly scattering swarm, condensed into a +solid fleece, went pouring into the gap, urged intelligently by the +dog and idiotically by the man. At one side of the entrance Tampico +made his fire. Some thirty feet away was a sheer wall of rock. + +Ten miles may be a long day's travel for a wretched wool-plant, but it +is little more than two hours for a Grizzly. It is farther than +eyesight, but it is well within nosesight, and Jack, feeling +mutton-hungry, had not the least difficulty in following his prey. His +supper was a little later than usual, but his appetite was the better +for that. There was no alarm in camp, so Tampico had fallen asleep. A +growl from the dog awakened him. He started up to behold the most +appalling creature that he had ever seen or imagined, a monster Bear +standing on his hind legs, and thirty feet high at least. The dog fled +in terror, but was valor itself compared with Pedro. He was so +frightened that he could not express the prayer that was in his +breast: "Blessed saints, let him have every sin-blackened sheep in the +band, but spare your poor worshiper," and he hid his head; so never +learned that he saw, not a thirty-foot Bear thirty feet away, but a +seven-foot Bear not far from the fire and casting a black thirty-foot +shadow on the smooth rock behind. And, helpless with fear, poor Pedro +groveled in the dust. + +[Illustration: THE THIRTY-FOOT BEAR] + +When he looked up the giant Bear was gone. There was a rushing of the +sheep. A small body of them scurried out of the canon into the night, +and after them went an ordinary-sized Bear, undoubtedly a cub of the +monster. + +Pedro had been neglecting his prayers for some months back, but he +afterward assured his father confessor that on this night he caught up +on all arrears and had a goodly surplus before morning. At sunrise he +left his dog in charge of the flock and set out to seek the runaways, +knowing, first, that there was little danger in the day-time, second, +that some would escape. The missing ones were a considerable number, +raised to the second power indeed, for two more black ones were gone. +Strange to tell, they had not scattered, and Pedro trailed them a mile +or more in the wilderness till he reached another very small box +canon. Here he found the missing flock perched in various places on +boulders and rocky pinnacles as high up as they could get. He was +delighted and worked for half a minute on his bank surplus of prayers, +but was sadly upset to find that nothing would induce the sheep to +come down from the rocks or leave that canon. One or two that he +manoeuvered as far as the outlet sprang back in fear from _something on +the ground_, which, on examination, he found--yes, he swears to +this--to be the deep-worn, fresh-worn pathway of a Grizzly from one +wall across to the other. All the sheep were now back again beyond his +reach. Pedro began to fear for himself, so hastily returned to the +main flock. He was worse off than ever now. The other Grizzly was a +Bear of ordinary size and ate a sheep each night, but the new one, +into whose range he had entered, was a monster, a Bear mountain, +requiring forty or fifty sheep to a meal. The sooner he was out of +this the better. + +It was now late, too late, and the sheep were too tired to travel, so +Pedro made unusual preparations for the night: two big fires at the +entrance to the canon, and a platform fifteen feet up in a tree for +his own bed. The dog could look out for himself. + + + +VIII. ROARING IN THE CANON + + +Pedro knew that the big Bear was coming; for the fifty sheep in the +little canon were not more than an appetizer for such a creature. He +loaded his gun carefully as a matter of habit and went up-stairs to +bed. Whatever defects his dormitory had the ventilation was good, and +Pedro was soon a-shiver. He looked down in envy at his dog curled up +by the fire; then he prayed that the saints might intervene and direct +the steps of the Bear toward the flock of some neighbor, and carefully +specified the neighbor to avoid mistakes. He tried to pray himself to +sleep. It had never failed in church when he was at the Mission, so +why now? But for once it did not succeed. The fearsome hour of +midnight passed, then the gray dawn, the hour of dull despair, was +near. Tampico felt it, and a long groan vibrated through his +chattering teeth. His dog leaped up, barked savagely, the sheep began +to stir, then went backing into the gloom; there was a rushing of +stampeding sheep and a huge, dark form loomed up. Tampico grasped his +gun and would have fired, when it dawned on him with sickening horror +that the Bear was thirty feet high, his platform was only fifteen, +just a convenient height for the monster. None but a madman would +invite the Bear to eat by shooting at him now. So Pedro flattened +himself face downward on the platform, and, with his mouth to a crack, +he poured forth prayers to his representative in the sky, regretting +his unconventional attitude and profoundly hoping that it would be +overlooked as unavoidable, and that somehow the petitions would get +the right direction after leaving the under side of the platform. + +In the morning he had proof that his prayers had been favorably +received. There was a Bear-track, indeed, but the number of black +sheep was unchanged, so Pedro filled his pocket with stones and began +his usual torrent of remarks as he drove the flock. + +"Hyah, Capitan--you huajalote," as the dog paused to drink. "Bring +back those ill-descended sons of perdition," and a stone gave force to +the order, which the dog promptly obeyed. Hovering about the great +host of grumbling hoofy locusts, he kept them together and on the +move, while Pedro played the part of a big, noisy, and troublesome +second. + +As they journeyed through the open country the sheep-herder's eye fell +on a human figure, a man sitting on a rock above them to the left. +Pedro gazed inquiringly; the man saluted and beckoned. This meant +"friend"; had he motioned him to pass on it might have meant, "Keep +away or I shoot." Pedro walked toward him a little way and sat down. +The man came forward. It was Lan Kellyan, the hunter. + +Each was glad of a chance to "talk with a human" and to get the news. +The latest concerning the price of wool, the Bull-and-Bear fiasco, +and, above all, the monster Bear that had killed Tampico's +sheep, afforded topics of talk. "Ah, a Bear devill--de hell-brute--a +Gringo Bear--pardon, my amigo, I mean a very terroar." + +As the sheep-herder enlarged on the marvelous cunning of the Bear that +had a private sheep corral of his own, and the size of the monster, +forty or fifty feet high now--for such Bears are of rapid and +continuous growth--Kellyan's eye twinkled and he said: + +"Say, Pedro, I believe you once lived pretty nigh the Hassayampa, +didn't you?" + +This does not mean that that is a country of great Bears, but was an +allusion to the popular belief that any one who tastes a single drop +of the Hassayampa River can never afterward tell the truth. Some +scientists who have looked into the matter aver that this wonderful +property is common to the Rio Grande as well as the Hassayampa, and, +indeed, all the rivers of Mexico, as well as their branches, and the +springs, wells, ponds, lakes, and irrigation ditches. However that may +be, the Hassayampa is the best-known stream of this remarkable +peculiarity. The higher one goes, the greater its potency, and Pedro +was from the headwaters. But he protested by all the saints that his +story was true. He pulled out a little bottle of garnets, got by +glancing over the rubbish laid about their hills by the desert ants; +he thrust it back into his wallet and produced another bottle with a +small quantity of gold-dust, also gathered at the rare times when he +was not sleepy, and the sheep did not need driving, watering, stoning, +or reviling. + +"Here, I bet dat it ees so." + +Gold is a loud talker. + +Kellyan paused. "I can't cover your bet, Pedro, but I'll kill your +Bear for what's in the bottle." + +"I take you," said the sheep-herder, "eef you breeng back dose sheep +dat are now starving up on de rocks of de canon of Baxstaire's." + +The Mexican's eyes twinkled as the white man closed on the offer. The +gold in the bottle, ten or fifteen dollars, was a trifle, and yet +enough to send the hunter on the quest--enough to lure him into the +enterprise, and that was all that was needed. Pedro knew his man: get +him going and profit would count for nothing; having put his hand to +the plow Lan Kellyan would finish the furrow at any cost; he was +incapable of turning back. And again he took up the trail of Grizzly +Jack, his one-time "pard," now grown beyond his ken. + +The hunter went straight to Baxter's canon and found the sheep +high-perched upon the rocks. By the entrance he found the remains of +two of them recently devoured, and about them the tracks of a +medium-sized Bear. He saw nothing of the pathway--the dead-line--made +by the Grizzly to keep the sheep prisoners till he should need them. +But the sheep were standing in stupid terror on various high places, +apparently willing to starve rather than come down. Lan dragged one +down; at once it climbed up again. He now realized the situation, so +made a small pen of chaparral outside the canon, and dragging the dull +creatures down one at a time, he carried them--except one--out of the +prison of death and into the pen. Next he made a hasty fence across +the canon's mouth, and turning the sheep out of the pen, he drove them +by slow stages toward the rest of the flock. + +Only six or seven miles across country, but it was late night when Lan +arrived. + +Tampico gladly turned over half of the promised dust. That night they +camped together, and, of course, no Bear appeared. + +In the morning Lan went back to the canon and found, as expected, that +the Bear had returned and killed the remaining sheep. + +The hunter piled the rest of the carcasses in an open place, lightly +sprinkled the Grizzly's trail with some very dry brush, then making a +platform some fifteen feet from the ground in a tree, he rolled up in +his blanket there and slept. + +An old Bear will rarely visit a place three nights in succession; a +cunning Bear will avoid a trail that has been changed overnight; a +skilful Bear goes in absolute silence. But Jack was neither old, +cunning, nor skilful. He came for the fourth time to the canon of the +sheep. He followed his old trail straight to the delicious mutton +bones. He found the human trail, but there was something about it that +rather attracted him. He strode along on the dry boughs. "Crack!" went +one; "crack-crack!" went another; and Kellyan arose on the platform +and strained his eyes in the gloom till a dark form moved into the +opening by the bones of the sheep. The hunter's rifle cracked, the +Bear snorted, wheeled into the bushes, and, crashing away, was gone. + + + +IX. FIRE AND WATER + + +That was Jack's baptism of fire, for the rifle had cut a deep +flesh-wound in his back. Snorting with pain and rage, he tore through +the bushes and traveled on for an hour or more, then lay down and +tried to lick the wound, but it was beyond reach. He could only rub it +against a log. He continued his journey back toward Tallac, and there, +in a cave that was formed of tumbled rocks, he lay down to rest. He +was still rolling about in pain when the sun was high and a strange +smell of fire came searching through the cave; it increased, and +volumes of blinding smoke were about him. It grew so choking that he +was forced to move, but it followed him till he could bear it no +longer, and he dashed out of another of the ways that led into the +cavern. As he went he caught a distant glimpse of a man throwing wood +on the fire by the in-way, and the whiff that the wind brought him +said: "This is the man that was last night watching the sheep." +Strange as it may seem, the woods were clear of smoke except for a +trifling belt that floated in the trees, and Jack went striding away +in peace. He passed over the ridge, and finding berries, ate the first +meal he had known since killing his last sheep. He had wandered on, +gathering fruit and digging roots, for an hour or two, when the smoke +grew blacker, the smell of fire stronger. He worked away from it, but +in no haste. The birds, deer, and wood hares were now seen scurrying +past him. There was a roaring in the air. It grew louder, was coming +nearer, and Jack turned to stride after the wood things that fled. + +The whole forest was ablaze; the wind was rising, and the flames, +gaining and spreading, were flying now like wild horses. Jack had no +place in his brain for such a thing; but his instinct warned him to +shun that coming roaring that sent above dark clouds and flying +fire-flakes, and messengers of heat below, so he fled before it, as +the forest host was doing. Fast as he went, and few animals can outrun +a Grizzly in rough country, the hot hurricane was gaining on him. His +sense of danger had grown almost to terror, terror of a kind that he +had never known before, for here there was nothing he could fight; +nothing that he could resist. The flames were all around him now; +birds without number, hares, and deer had gone down before the red +horror. He was plunging wildly on through chaparral and manzanita +thickets that held all feebler things until the fury seized them; his +hair was scorching, his wound was forgotten, and he thought only of +escape when the brush ahead opened, and the Grizzly, smoke-blinded, +half roasted, plunged down a bank and into a small clear pool. The fur +on his back said "hiss," for it was sizzling-hot. Down below he went, +gulping the cool drink, wallowing in safety and unheat. Down below the +surface he crouched as long as his lungs would bear the strain, then +slowly and cautiously he raised his head. The sky above was one great +sheet of flame. Sticks aflame and flying embers came in hissing +showers on the water. The air was hot, but breathable at times, and he +filled his lungs till he had difficulty in keeping his body down +below. Other creatures there were in the pool, some burnt, some dead, +some small and in the margin, some bigger in the deeper places, and +one of them was close beside him. Oh, he knew that smell; fire--all +Sierra's woods ablaze--could not disguise the hunter who had shot at +him from the platform, and, though he did not know this, the hunter +really who had followed him all day, and who had tried to smoke him +out of his den and thereby set the woods ablaze. Here they were, face +to face, in the deepest end of the little pool; they were only ten +feet apart and could not get more than twenty feet apart. The flames +grew unbearable. The Bear and man each took a hasty breath and bobbed +below the surface, each wondering, according to his intelligence, what +the other would do. In half a minute both came up again, each relieved +to find the other no nearer. Each tried to keep his nose and one eye +above the water. But the fire was raging hot; they had to dip under +and stay as long as possible. + +The roaring of the flame was like a hurricane. A huge pine tree came +crashing down across the pool; it barely missed the man. The splash of +water quenched the blazes for the most part, but it gave off such a +heat that he had to move--a little nearer to the Bear. Another fell at +an angle, killing a coyote, and crossing the first tree. They blazed +fiercely at their junction, and the Bear edged from it a little nearer +the man. Now they were within touching distance. His useless gun was +lying in shallow water near shore, but the man had his knife ready, +ready for self-defense. It was not needed; the fiery power had +proclaimed a peace. Bobbing up and dodging under, keeping a nose in +the air and an eye on his foe, each spent an hour or more. The red +hurricane passed on. The smoke was bad in the woods, but no longer +intolerable, and as the Bear straightened up in the pool to move away +into shallower water and off into the woods, the man got a glimpse of +red blood streaming from the shaggy back and dyeing the pool. The +blood on the trail had not escaped him. He knew that this was the Bear +of Baxter's canon, this was the Gringo Bear, but he did not know that +this was also his old-time Grizzly Jack. He scrambled out of the pond, +on the other side from that taken by the Grizzly, and, hunter and +hunted, they went their diverse ways. + + + +X. THE EDDY + + +All the west slopes of Tallac were swept by the fire, and Kellyan +moved to a new hut on the east side, where still were green patches; +so did the grouse and the rabbit and the coyote, and so did Grizzly +Jack. His wound healed quickly, but his memory of the rifle smell +continued; it was a dangerous smell, a new and horrible kind of +smoke--one he was destined to know too well; one, indeed, he was soon +to meet again. Jack was wandering down the side of Tallac, following a +sweet odor that called up memories of former joys--the smell of honey, +though he did not know it. A flock of grouse got leisurely out of his +way and flew to a low tree, when he caught a whiff of man smell, then +heard a crack like that which had stung him in the sheep-corral, and +down fell one of the grouse close beside him. He stepped forward to +sniff just as a man also stepped forward from the opposite bushes. +They were within ten feet of each other, and they recognized each +other, for the hunter saw that it was a singed Bear with a wounded +side, and the Bear smelt the rifle-smoke and the leather clothes. +Quick as a Grizzly--that is, quicker than a flash--the Bear reared. +The man sprang backward, tripped and fell, and the Grizzly was upon +him. Face to earth the hunter lay like dead, but, ere he struck, Jack +caught a scent that made him pause. He smelt his victim, and the smell +was the rolling back of curtains or the conjuring up of a past. The +days in the hunter's shanty were forgotten, but the feelings of those +days were ready to take command at the bidding of the nose. His nose +drank deep of a draft that quelled all rage. The Grizzly's humor +changed. He turned and left the hunter quite unharmed. + +Oh, blind one with the gun! All he could find in explanation was: "You +kin never tell what a Grizzly will do, but it's good play to lay low +when he has you cornered." It never came into his mind to credit the +shaggy brute with an impulse born of good, and when he told the +sheep-herder of his adventure in the pool, of his hitting high on the +body and of losing the trail in the forest fire--"down by the shack, +when he turned up sudden and had me I thought my last day was come. +Why he didn't swat me, I don't know. But I tell you this, Pedro: the +B'ar what killed your sheep on the upper pasture and in the sheep +canon is the same. No two B'ars has hind feet alike when you get a +clear-cut track, and this holds out even right along." + +"What about the fifty-foot B'ar I saw wit' mine own eyes, caramba?" + +"That must have been the night you were working a kill-care with your +sheep-herder's delight. But don't worry; I'll get him yet." + +So Kellyan set out on a long hunt, and put in practice every trick he +knew for the circumventing of a Bear. Lou Bonamy was invited to join +with him, for his yellow cur was a trailer. They packed four horses +with stuff and led them over the ridge to the east side of Tallac, and +down away from Jack's Peak, that Kellyan had named in honor of his +Bear cub, toward Fallen Leaf Lake. The hunter believed that here he +would meet not, only the Gringo Bear that he was after, but would also +stand a chance of finding others, for the place had escaped the fire. + +They quickly camped, setting up their canvas sheet for shade more than +against rain, and after picketing their horses in a meadow, went out +to hunt. By circling around Leaf Lake they got a good idea of the wild +population: plenty of deer, some Black Bear, and one or two Cinnamon +and Grizzly, and one track along the shore that Kellyan pointed to, +briefly saying: "That's him." + +"Ye mean old Pedro's Gringo?" + +"Yep. That's the fifty-foot Grizzly. I suppose he stands maybe seven +foot high in daylight, but, 'course, B'ars pulls out long at night." + +So the yellow cur was put on the track, and led away with funny little +yelps, while the two hunters came stumbling along behind him as fast +as they could, calling, at times, to the dog not to go so fast, and +thus making a good deal of noise, which Gringo Jack heard a mile away +as he ambled along the mountain-side above them. He was following his +nose to many good and eatable things, and therefore going up-wind. +This noise behind was so peculiar that he wanted to smell it, and to +do that he swung along back over the clamor, then descended to the +down-wind side, and thus he came on the trail of the hunters and their +dog. + +His nose informed him at once. Here was the hunter he once felt kindly +toward and two other smells of far-back--both hateful; all three were +now the smell-marks of foes, and a rumbling "woof" was the expressive +sound that came from his throat. + +That dog-smell in particular roused him, though it is very sure he had +forgotten all about the dog, and Gringo's feet went swiftly and +silently, yes, with marvelous silence, along the tracks of the enemy. + +On rough, rocky ground a dog is scarcely quicker than a Bear, and +since the dog was constantly held back by the hunters the Bear had no +difficulty in overtaking them. Only a hundred yards or so behind he +continued, partly in curiosity, pursuing the dog that was pursuing +him, till a shift of the wind brought the dog a smell-call from the +Bear behind. He wheeled--of course you never follow trail smell when +you can find body smell--and came galloping back with a different +yapping and a bristling in his mane. + +"Don't understand that," whispered Bonamy. + +"It's B'ar, all right," was the answer; and the dog, bounding high, +went straight toward the foe. + +Jack heard him coming, smelt him coming, and at length saw him coming; +but it was the smell that roused him--the full scent of the bully of +his youth. The anger of those days came on him, and cunning enough to +make him lurk in ambush: he backed to one side of the trail where it +passed under a root, and, as the little yellow tyrant came, Jack hit +him once, hit him as he had done some years before, but now with the +power of a grown Grizzly. No yelp escaped the dog, no second blow was +needed. The hunters searched in silence for half an hour before they +found the place and learned the tale from many silent tongues. + +"I'll get even with him," muttered Bonamy, for he loved that +contemptible little yap-cur. + +"That's Pedro's Gringo, all right. He's sure cunning to run his own +back track. But we'll fix him yet," and they vowed to kill that Bear +or "get done up" themselves. + +Without a dog, they must make a new plan of hunting. They picked out +two or three good places for pen-traps, where trees stood in pairs to +make the pillars of the den. Then Kellyan returned to camp for the ax +while Bonamy prepared the ground. + +As Kellyan came near their open camping-place, he stopped from habit +and peeped ahead for a minute. He was about to go down when a movement +caught his eye. There, on his haunches, sat a Grizzly, looking down on +the camp. The singed brown of his head and neck, and the white spot on +each side of his back, left no doubt that Kellyan and Pedro's Gringo +were again face to face. It was a long shot, but the rifle went up, +and as he was about to fire, the Bear suddenly bent his head down, and +lifting his hind paw, began to lick at a little cut. This brought the +head and chest nearly in line with Kellyan--a sure shot; so sure that +he fired hastily. He missed the head and the shoulder, but, strange to +say, he hit the Bear in the mouth and in the hind toe, carrying away +one of his teeth and the side of one toe. The Grizzly sprang up with a +snort, and came tearing down the hill toward the hunter. Kellyan +climbed a tree and got ready, but the camp lay just between them, and +the Bear charged on that instead. One sweep of his paw and the canvas +tent was down and torn. Whack! and tins went flying this way. Whisk! +and flour-sacks went that. Rip! and the flour went off like smoke. +Slap--crack! and a boxful of odds and ends was scattered into the +fire. Whack! and a bagful of cartridges was tumbled after it. Whang! +and the water-pail was crushed. Pat-pat-pat! and all the cups were in +useless bits. + +Kellyan, safe up the tree, got no fair view to shoot--could only wait +till the storm-center cleared a little. The Bear chanced on a bottle +of something with a cork loosely in it. He seized it adroitly in his +paws, twisted out the cork, and held the bottle up to his mouth with a +comical dexterity that told of previous experience. But, whatever it +was, it did not please the invader; he spat and spilled it out, and +flung the bottle down as Kellyan gazed, astonished. A remarkable +"crack! crack! crack!" from the fire was heard now, and the cartridges +began to go off in ones, twos, fours, and numbers unknown. Gringo +whirled about; he had smashed everything in view. He did not like that +Fourth of July sound, so, springing to a bank, he went bumping and +heaving down to the meadow and had just stampeded the horses when, for +the first time, Gringo exposed himself to the hunter's aim. His flank +was grazed by another leaden stinger, and Gringo, wheeling, went off +into the woods. + +The hunters were badly defeated. It was fully a week before they had +repaired all the damage done by their shaggy visitor and were once +more at Fallen Leaf Lake with a new store of ammunition and +provisions, their tent repaired, and their camp outfit complete. They +said little about their vow to kill that Bear. Both took for granted +that it was a fight to the finish. They never said, "_If_ we get him," +but, "_When_ we get him." + + + +XI. THE FORD + + +Gringo, savage, but still discreet, scaled the long mountain-side when +he left the ruined camp, and afar on the southern slope he sought a +quiet bed in a manzanita thicket, there to lie down and nurse his +wounds and ease his head so sorely aching with the jar of his +shattered tooth. There he lay for a day and a night, sometimes in +great pain, and at no time inclined to stir. But, driven forth by +hunger on the second day, he quit his couch and, making for the +nearest ridge, he followed that and searched the wind with his nose. +The smell of a mountain hunter reached him. Not knowing just what to +do he sat down and did nothing. The smell grew stronger, he heard +sounds of trampling; closer they came, then the brush parted and a man +on horseback appeared. The horse snorted and tried to wheel, but the +ridge was narrow and one false step might have been serious. The +cowboy held his horse in hand and, although he had a gun, he made no +attempt to shoot at the surly animal blinking at him and barring his +path. He was an old mountaineer, and he now used a trick that had long +been practised by the Indians, from whom, indeed, he learned it. He +began "making medicine with his voice." + +"See here now, B'ar," he called aloud, "I ain't doing nothing to you. +I ain't got no grudge ag'in' you, an' you ain't got no right to a +grudge ag'in' me." + +"Gro-o-o-h," said Gringo, deep and low. + +"Now, I don't want no scrap with you, though I have my scrap-iron +right handy, an' what I want you to do is just step aside an' let me +pass that narrer trail an' go about my business." + +"Grow--woo-oo-wow," grumbled Gringo. + +"I'm honest about it, pard. You let me alone, and I'll let you alone; +all I want is right of way for five minutes." + +"Grow-grow-wow-oo-umph," was the answer. + +"Ye see, thar's no way round an' on'y one way through, an' you happen +to be settin' in it. I got to take it, for I can't turn back. Come, +now, is it a bargain--hands off and no scrap?" + +It is very sure that Gringo could see in this nothing but a human +making queer, unmenacing, monotonous sounds, so giving a final +"Gr-u-ph," the Bear blinked his eyes, rose to his feet and strode down +the bank, and the cowboy forced his unwilling horse to and past the +place. + +"Wall, wall," he chuckled, "I never knowed it to fail. Thar's whar +most B'ars is alike." + +If Gringo had been able to think clearly, he might have said: "This +surely is a new kind of man." + +[Illustration: "NOW, B'AR, I DON'T WANT NO SCRAP WITH YOU"] + + + +XII. SWIRL AND POOL AND GROWING FLOOD + + +Gringo wandered on with nose alert, passing countless odors of +berries, roots, grouse, deer, till a new and pleasing smell came with +especial force. It was not sheep, or game, or a dead thing. It was a +smell of living meat. He followed the guide to a little meadow, and +there he found it. There were five of them, red, or red and +white--great things as big as himself; but he had no fear of them. The +hunter instinct came on him, and the hunter's audacity and love of +achievement. He sneaked toward them upwind in order that he might +still smell them, and it also kept them from smelling him. He reached +the edge of the wood. Here he must stop or be seen. There was a +watering-place close by. He silently drank, then lay down in a thicket +where he could watch. An hour passed thus. The sun went down and the +cattle arose to graze. One of them, a small one, wandered nearer, +then, acting suddenly with purpose, walked to the water-hole. Gringo +watched his chance, and as she floundered in the mud and stooped he +reared and struck with all his force. Square at her skull he aimed, +and the blow went straight. But Gringo knew nothing of horns. The +young, sharp horn, upcurling, hit his foot and was broken off; the +blow lost half its power. The beef went down, but Gringo had to follow +up the blow, then raged and tore in anger for his wounded paw. The +other cattle fled from the scene. The Grizzly took the heifer in his +jaws, then climbed the hill to his lair, and with this store of food +he again lay down to nurse his wounds. Though painful, they were not +serious, and within a week or so Grizzly Jack was as well as ever and +roaming the woods about Fallen Leaf Lake and farther south and east, +for he was extending his range as he grew--the king was coming to his +kingdom. In time he met others of his kind and matched his strength +with theirs. Sometimes he won and sometimes lost, but he kept on +growing as the months went by, growing and learning and adding to his +power. + +Kellyan had kept track of him and knew at least the main facts of his +life, because he had one or two marks that always served to +distinguish him. A study of the tracks had told of the round wound in +the front foot and the wound in the hind foot. But there was another: +the hunter had picked up the splinters of bone at the camp where he +had fired at the Bear, and, after long doubt, he guessed that he had +broken a tusk. He hesitated to tell the story of hitting a tooth and +hind toe at the same shot till, later, he had clearer proof of its +truth. + +No two animals are alike. Kinds which herd have more sameness than +those that do not, and the Grizzly, being a solitary kind, shows great +individuality. Most Grizzlies mark their length on the trees by +rubbing their backs, and some will turn on the tree and claw it with +their fore paws; others hug the tree with fore paws and rake it with +their hind claws. Gringo's peculiarity of marking was to rub first, +then turn and tear the trunk with his teeth. + +It was on examining one of the Bear trees one day that Kellyan +discovered the facts. He had been tracking the Bear all morning, had a +fine set of tracks in the dusty trail, and thus learned that the +rifle-wound was a toe-shot in the hind foot, but his fore foot of the +same side had a large round wound, the one really made by the cow's +horn. When he came to the Bear tree where Gringo had carved his +initials, the marks were clearly made by the Bear's teeth, and one of +the upper tusks was broken off, so the evidence of identity was +complete. + +"It's the same old B'ar," said Lan to his pard. + +They failed to get sight of him in all this time, so the partners set +to work at a series of Bear-traps. These are made of heavy logs and +have a sliding door of hewn planks. The bait is on a trigger at the +far end; a tug on this lets the door drop. It was a week's hard work +to make four of these traps. They did not set them at once, for no +Bear will go near a thing so suspiciously new-looking. Some Bears will +not approach one till it is weather-beaten and gray. But they removed +all chips and covered the newly cut wood with mud, then rubbed the +inside with stale meat, and hung a lump of ancient venison on the +trigger of each trap. + +They did not go around for three days, knowing that the human smell +must first be dissipated, and then they found but one trap sprung--the +door down. Bonamy became greatly excited, for they had crossed the +Grizzly's track close by. But Kellyan had been studying the dust and +suddenly laughed aloud. + +"Look at that,"--he pointed to a thing like a Bear-track, but scarcely +two inches long. "There's the B'ar we'll find in that; that's a +bushy-tailed B'ar," and Bonamy joined in the laugh when he realized +that the victim in the big trap was nothing but a little skunk. + +"Next time we'll set the bait higher and not set the trigger so fine." + +They rubbed their boots with stale meat when they went the rounds, +then left the traps for a week. + +There are Bears that eat little but roots and berries; there are Bears +that love best the great black salmon they can hook out of the pools +when the long "run" is on; and there are Bears that have a special +fondness for flesh. These are rare; they are apt to develop unusual +ferocity and meet an early death. Gringo was one of them, and he grew +like the brawny, meat-fed gladiators of old--bigger, stronger, and +fiercer than his fruit-and root-fed kin. In contrast with this was his +love of honey. The hunter on his trail learned that he never failed to +dig out any bees' nest he could find, or, finding none, he would eat +the little honey-flowers that hung like sleigh-bells on the heather. +Kellyan was quick to mark the signs. "Say, Bonamy, we've got to find +some honey." + +It is not easy to find a bee tree without honey to fill your +bee-guides; so Bonamy rode down the mountain to the nearest camp, the +Tampico sheep camp, and got not honey but some sugar, of which they +made syrup. They caught bees at three or four different places, tagged +them with cotton, filled them with syrup and let them fly, watching +till the cotton tufts were lost to view, and by going on the lines +till they met they found the hive. A piece of gunny-sack filled with +comb was put on each trigger, and that night, as Gringo strode with +that long, untiring swing that eats up miles like steam-wheels, his +sentinel nose reported the delicious smell, the one that above the +rest meant joy. So Gringo Jack followed fast and far, for the place +was a mile away, and reaching the curious log cavern, he halted and +sniffed. There were hunters' smells; yes, but, above all, that smell +of joy. He walked around to be sure, and knew it was inside; then +cautiously he entered. Some wood-mice scurried by. He sniffed the +bait, licked it, mumbled it, slobbered it, reveled in it, tugged to +increase the flow, when "bang!" went the great door behind and Jack was +caught. He backed up with a rush, bumped into the door, and had a +sense, at least, of peril. He turned over with an effort and attacked +the door, but it was strong. He examined the pen; went all around the +logs where their rounded sides seemed easiest to tear at with his +teeth. But they yielded nothing. He tried them all; he tore at the +roof, the floor; but all were heavy, hard logs, spiked and pinned as +one. + +The sun came up as he raged, and shone through the little cracks of +the door, and so he turned all his power on that. The door was flat, +gave little hold, but he battered with his paws and tore with his +teeth till plank after plank gave way. With a final crash be drove the +wreck before him and Jack was free again. + +The men read the story as though in print; yes, better, for bits of +plank can tell no lies, and the track to the pen and from the pen was +the track of a big Bear with a cut on the hind foot and a curious +round peg-like scar on the front paw, while the logs inside, where +little torn, gave proof of a broken tooth. + +"We had him that time, but he knew too much for us. Never mind, we'll +see." + +So they kept on and caught him again, for honey he could not resist. +But the wreckage of the trap was all they found in the morning. + +Pedro's brother knew a man who had trapped Bears, and the sheep-herder +remembered that it is necessary to have the door quite _light-tight_ +rather than very strong, so they battened all with tar-paper outside. +But Gringo was learning "pen-traps." He did not break the door that he +did not see through, but he put one paw under and heaved it up when he +had finished the bait. Thus he baffled them and sported with the +traps, till Kellyan made the door drop into a deep groove so that the +Bear could put no claw beneath it. But it was cold weather now. There +was deepening snow on the Sierras. The Bear sign disappeared. The +hunters knew that Gringo was sleeping his winter's sleep. + + + +XIII. THE DEEPENING CHANNEL + + +April was bidding high Sierra snows go back to Mother Sea. The +California woodwales screamed in clamorous joy. They thought it was +about a few acorns left in storage in the Live Oak bark, but it really +was joy of being alive. This outcry was to them what music is to the +thrush, what joy-bells are to us--a great noise to tell how glad they +were. The deer were bounding, grouse were booming, rills were +rushing--all things were full of noisy gladness. + +Kellyan and Bonamy were back on the Grizzly quest. "Time he was out +again, and good trailing to get him, with lots of snow in the +hollows." They had come prepared for a long hunt. Honey for bait, +great steel traps with crocodilian jaws, and guns there were in the +outfit. The pen-trap, the better for the aging, was repaired and +re-baited, and several Black Bears were taken. But Gringo, if about, +had learned to shun it. + +He was about, and the men soon learned that. His winter sleep was +over. They found the peg-print in the snow, but with it, or just +ahead, was another, the tracks of a smaller Bear. + +"See that," and Kellyan pointed to the smaller mark. "This is +mating-time; this is Gringo's honeymoon," and he followed the trail +for a while, not expecting to find them, but simply to know their +movements. He followed several times and for miles, and the trail told +him many things. Here was the track of a third Bear joining. Here were +marks of a combat, and a rival driven away was written there, and then +the pair went on. Down from the rugged hills it took him once to where +a love-feast had been set by the bigger Bear; for the carcass of a +steer lay half devoured, and the telltale ground said much of the +struggle that foreran the feast. As though to show his power, the Bear +had seized the steer by the nose and held him for a while--so said the +trampled earth for rods--struggling, bellowing, no doubt, music for my +lady's ears, till Gringo judged it time to strike him down with paws +of steel. + +Once only the hunters saw the pair--a momentary Glimpse of a Bear so +huge they half believed Tampico's tale, and a Bear of lesser size in +fur that rolled and rippled in the sun with brown and silver lights. + +"Oh, ain't that just the beautifulest thing that ever walked!" and +both the hunters gazed as she strode from view in the chaparral. It +was only a neck of the thicket; they both must reappear in a minute at +the other side, and the men prepared to fire; but for some +incomprehensible reason the two did not appear again. They never quit +the cover, and had wandered far away before the hunters knew it, and +were seen of them no more. + +But Faco Tampico saw them. He was visiting his brother with the sheep, +and hunting in the foot-hills to the eastward, in hopes of getting a +deer, his small black eyes fell on a pair of Bears, still love-bound, +roaming in the woods. They were far below him. He was safe, and he +sent a ball that laid the she-Bear low; her back was broken. She fell +with a cry of pain and vainly tried to rise. Then Gringo rushed +around, sniffed the wind for the foe, and Faco fired again. The sound +and the smoke-puff told Gringo where the man lay hid. He raged up the +cliff, but Faco climbed a tree, and Gringo went back to his mate. Faco +fired again; Gringo made still another effort to reach him, but could +not find him now, so returned to his "Silver-brown." + +Whether it was chance or choice can never be known, but when Faco +fired once more, Gringo Jack was between, and the ball struck him. It +was the last in Faco's pouch, and the Grizzly, charging as before, +found not a trace of the foe. He was gone--had swung across a place no +Bear could cross and soon was a mile away. The big Bear limped back to +his mate, but she no longer responded to his touch. He watched about +for a time, but no one came. The silvery hide was never touched by +man, and when the semblance of his mate was gone, Gringo quit the +place. + +The world was full of hunters, traps, and guns. He turned toward the +lower hills where the sheep grazed, where once he had raided Pedro's +flocks, limping along, for now he had another flesh-wound. He found +the scent of the foe that killed his "Silver-brown," and would have +followed, but it ceased at a place where a horse-track joined. Yet he +found it again that night, mixed with the sheep smell so familiar +once. He followed this, sore and savage. It led him to a settler's +flimsy shack, the house of Tampico's parents, and as the big Bear +reached it two human beings scrambled out of the rear door. + +"My husband," shrieked the woman, "pray! Let us pray to the saints for +help!" + +"Where is my pistol?" cried the husband. + +"Trust in the saints," said the frightened woman. + +"Yes, if I had a cannon, or if this was a cat; but with only a +pepper-box pistol to meet a Bear mountain it is better to trust to a +tree," and old Tampico scrambled up a pine. + +The Grizzly looked into the shack, then passed to the pig-pen, killed +the largest there, for this was a new kind of meat, and carrying it +off, he made his evening meal. + +He came again and again to that pig-pen. He found his food there till +his wound was healed. Once he met with a spring-gun, but it was set +too high. Six feet up, the sheep-folk judged, would be just about +right for such a Bear; the charge went over his head, and so he passed +unharmed--a clear proof that he was a devil. He was learning this: the +human smell in any form is a smell of danger. He quit the little +valley of the shack, wandering downward toward the plains. He passed a +house one night, and walking up, he discovered a hollow thing with a +delicious smell. It was a ten-gallon keg that had been used for sugar, +some of which was still in the bottom, and thrusting in his huge head, +the keg-rim, bristling with nails, stuck to him. He raged about, +clawing at it wildly and roaring in it until a charge of shot from the +upper windows stirred him to such effort that the keg was smashed to +bits and his blinders removed. + +Thus the idea was slowly borne in on him: going near a man-den is sure +to bring trouble. Thenceforth he sought his prey in the woods or on +the plains. He one day found the man scent that enraged him the day he +lost his "Silver-brown." He took the trail, and passing in silence +incredible for such a bulk, he threaded chaparral and manzanita on and +down through tule-beds till the level plain was reached. The scent led +on, was fresher now. Far out were white specks--moving things. They +meant nothing to Gringo, for he had never smelt wild geese, had +scarcely seen them, but the trail he was hunting went on. He swiftly +followed till the tule ahead rustled gently, and the scent was _body +scent_. A ponderous rush, a single blow--and the goose-hunt was +ended ere well begun, and Faco's sheep became the brother's heritage. + + + +XIV. THE CATARACT + + +Just as fads will for a time sway human life, so crazes may run +through all animals of a given kind. This was the year when a +beef-eating craze seemed to possess every able-bodied Grizzly of the +Sierras. They had long been known as a root-eating, berry-picking, +inoffensive race when let alone, but now they seemed to descend on the +cattle-range in a body and make their diet wholly of flesh. + +One cattle outfit after another was attacked, and the whole country +seemed divided up among Bears of incredible size, cunning, and +destructiveness. The cattlemen offered bounties--good bounties, +growing bounties, very large bounties at last--but still the Bears +kept on. Very few were killed, and it became a kind of rude jest to +call each section of the range, not by the cattle brand, but by the +Grizzly that was quartered on its stock. + +Wonderful tales were told of these various Bears of the new breed. The +swiftest was Reelfoot, the Placerville cattle-killer that could charge +from a thicket thirty yards away and certainly catch a steer before it +could turn and run, and that could even catch ponies in the open when +they were poor. The most cunning of all was Brin, the Mokelumne +Grizzly that killed by preference blooded stock, would pick out a +Merino ram or a white-faced Hereford from among fifty grades; that +killed a new beef every night; that never again returned to it, or +gave the chance for traps or poisoning. + +The Pegtrack Grizzly of Feather River was rarely seen by any. He was +enveloped in mysterious terror. He moved and killed by night. Pigs +were his favorite food, and he had also killed a number of men. + +But Pedro's Grizzly was the most marvelous. "Hassayampa," as the +sheep-herder was dubbed, came one night to Kellyan's hut. + +"I tell you he's still dere. He has keel me a t'ousand sheep. You +telled me you keel heem; you haff not. He is beegare as dat tree. He +eat only sheep--much sheep. I tell you he ees Gringo devil--he ees +devil Bear. I haff three cows, two fat, one theen. He catch and keel +de fat; de lean run off. He roll een dust--make great dust. Cow come +for see what make dust; he catch her an' keel. My fader got bees. De +devil Bear chaw pine; I know he by hees broke toof. He gum hees face +and nose wit' pine gum so bees no sting, then eat all bees. He devil +all time. He get much rotten manzanita and eat till drunk--locoed--then +go crazy and keel sheep just for fun. He get beeg bull by nose and +drag like rat for fun. He keel cow, sheep, and keel Face, too, for +fun. He devil. You promise me you keel heem; you nevaire keel." + +This is a condensation of Pedro's excited account. + +And there was yet one more--the big Bear that owned the range from the +Stanislaus to the Merced, the "Monarch of the Range" he had been +styled. He was believed--yes, known to be--the biggest Bear alive, a +creature of supernatural intelligence. He killed cows for food, and +scattered sheep or conquered bulls for pleasure. It was even said that +the appearance of an unusually big bull anywhere was a guaranty that +Monarch would be there for the joy of combat with a worthy foe. A +destroyer of cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses, and yet a creature known +only by his track. He was never seen, and his nightly raids seemed +planned with consummate skill to avoid all kinds of snares. + +The cattlemen clubbed together and offered an enormous bounty for +every Grizzly killed in the range. Bear-trappers came and caught some +Bears, Brown and Cinnamon, but the cattle-killing went on. They set +out better traps of massive steel and iron bars, and at length they +caught a killer, the Mokelumne Grizzly; yes, and read in the dust how +he had come at last and made the fateful step; but steel will break +and iron will bend. The great Bear-trail was there to tell the tale: +for a while he had raged and chafed at the hard black reptile biting +into his paw; then, seeking a boulder, he had released the paw by +smashing the trap to pieces on it. Thenceforth each year he grew more +cunning, huge, and destructive. + +Kellyan and Bonamy came down from the mountains now, tempted by the +offered rewards. They saw the huge tracks; they learned that cattle +were not killed in all places at once. They studied and hunted. They +got at length in the dust the full impressions of the feet of the +various monsters in regions wide apart, and they saw that all the +cattle were killed in the same way--their muzzles torn, their necks +broken; and last, the marks on the trees where the Bears had reared +and rubbed, then scored them with a broken tusk, the same all through +the wide range; and Kellyan told them with calm certainty: "Pedro's +Gringo, Old Pegtrack, the Placerville Grizzly, and the Monarch of the +Range _are one and the same Bear."_ + +The little man from the mountains and the big man from the hills set +about the task of hunting him down with an intensity of purpose which, +like the river that is dammed, grew more fierce from being balked. + +All manner of traps had failed for him. Steel traps he could smash, no +log trap was strong enough to hold this furry elephant; he would not +come to a bait; he never fed twice from the same kill. + +Two reckless boys once trailed him to a rocky glen. The horses would +not enter; the boys went in afoot, and were never seen again. The +Mexicans held him in superstitious terror, believing that he could not +be killed; and he passed another year in the cattle-land, known and +feared now as the "Monarch of the Range," killing in the open by +night, and retiring by day to his fastness in the near hills, where +horsemen could not follow. + +Bonamy had been called away; but all that summer, and winter, +too,--for the Grizzly no longer "denned up,"--Kellyan rode and rode, +each time too late or too soon to meet the Monarch. He was almost +giving up, not in despair, but for lack of means, when a message came +from a rich man, a city journalist, offering to multiply the reward by +ten if, instead of killing the Monarch, he would bring him in alive. + +Kellyan sent for his old partner, and when word came that the previous +night three cows were killed in the familiar way near the Bell-Dash +pasture, they spared neither horse nor man to reach the spot. A +ten-hour ride by night meant worn-out horses, but the men were iron, +and new horses with scarcely a minute's delay were brought them. Here +were the newly killed beeves, there the mighty footprints with the +scars that spelled his name. No hound could have tracked him better +than Kellyan did. Five miles away from the foot of the hills was an +impenetrable thicket of chaparral. The great tracks went in, did not +come out, so Bonamy sat sentinel while Kellyan rode back with the +news. "Saddle up the best we got!" was the order. Rifles were taken +down and cartridge-belts being swung when Kellyan called a halt. + +"Say, boys, we've got him safe enough. He won't try to leave the +chaparral till night. If we shoot him we get the cattlemen's bounty; +if we take him alive--an' it's easy in the open--we get the newspaper +bounty, ten times as big. Let's leave all guns behind; lariats are +enough." + +"Why not have the guns along to be handy?" + +"'Cause I know the crowd too well; they couldn't resist the chance to +let him have it; so no guns at all. It's ten to one on the riata." + +Nevertheless three of them brought their heavy revolvers. Seven +gallant riders on seven fine horses, they rode out that day to meet +the Monarch of the Range. He was still in the thicket, for it was yet +morning. They threw stones in and shouted to drive him out, without +effect, till the noon breeze of the plains arose--the down-current of +air from the hills. Then they fired the grass in several places, and +it sent a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into the thicket. There was +a crackling louder than the fire, a smashing of brush, and from the +farther side out hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, Grizzly Jack. +Horsemen were all about him now, armed not with guns but with the +rawhide snakes whose loops in air spell bonds or death. The men were +calm, but the horses were snorting and plunging in fear. This way and +that the Grizzly looked up at the horsemen--a little bit; scarcely up +at the horses; then turning without haste, he strode toward the +friendly hills. + +"Look out, now, Bill! Manuel! It's up to you." + +Oh, noble horses, nervy men! oh, grand old Grizzly, how I see you now! +Cattle-keepers and cattle-killer face to face! + +Three riders of the range that horse had never thrown were sailing, +swooping, like falcons; their lariats swung, sang--sang higher--and +Monarch, much perplexed, but scarcely angered yet, rose to his hind +legs, then from his towering height looked down on horse and man. If, +as they say, the vanquished prowess goes into the victor, then surely +in that mighty chest, those arms like necks of bulls, was the power of +the thousand cattle he had downed in fight. + +"Caramba! what a Bear! Pedro was not so far astray." + +"Sing--sing--sing!" the lariats flew. "Swish--pat!" one, two, three, +they fell. These were not men to miss. Three ropes, three horses, +leaping away to bear on the great beast's neck. But swifter than +thought the supple paws went up. The ropes were slipped, and the +spurred cow-ponies, ready for the shock, went, shockless, +bounding--loose ropes trailing afar. + +"Hi--Hal! Ho--Lan! Head him!" as the Grizzly, liking not the unequal +fight, made for the hills. But a deft Mexican in silver gear sent his +hide riata whistling, then haunched his horse as the certain coil sank +in the Grizzly's hock, and checked the Monarch with a heavy jar. +Uttering one great snort of rage, he turned; his huge jaws crossed the +rope, back nearly to his ears it went, and he ground it as a dog might +grind a twig, so the straining pony bounded free. + +Round and round him now the riders swooped, waiting their chance. More +than once his neck was caught, but he slipped the noose as though it +were all play. Again he was caught by a foot and wrenched, almost +thrown, by the weight of two strong steeds, and now he foamed in rage. +Memories of olden days, or more likely the habit of olden days, came +on him--days when he learned to strike the yelping pack that dodged +his blows. He was far from the burnt thicket, but a single bush was +near, and setting his broad back to that, he waited for the circling +foe. Nearer and nearer they urged the frightened steeds, and Monarch +watched--waited, as of old, for the dogs, till they were almost +touching each other, then he sprang like an avalanche of rock. What +can elude a Grizzly's dash? The earth shivered as he launched himself, +and trembled when he struck. Three men, three horses, in each other's +way. The dust was thick; they only knew he struck--struck--struck! The +horses never rose. + +"Santa Maria!" came a cry of death, and hovering riders dashed to draw +the Bear away. Three horses dead, one man dead, one nearly so, and +only one escaped. + +"Crack! crack! crack!" went the pistols now as the Bear went rocking +his huge form in rapid charge for the friendly hills; and the four +riders, urged by Kellyan, followed fast. They passed him, wheeled, +faced him. The pistols had wounded him in many places. + +"Don't shoot--don't shoot, but tire him out," the hunter urged. + +"Tire him out? Look at Carlos and Manuel back there. How many minutes +will it be before the rest are down with them?" So the infuriating +pistols popped till all their shots were gone, and Monarch foamed with +slobbering jaws of rage. + +"Keep on! keep cool," cried Kellyan. + +His lariat flew as the cattle-killing paw was lifted for an instant. +The lasso bound his wrist. "Sing! Sing!" went two, and caught him by +the neck. A bull with his great club-foot in a noose is surely caught, +but the Grizzly raised his supple, hand-like, tapering paw and gave +one jerk that freed it. Now the two on his neck were tight; he could +not slip them. The horses at the ends--they were dragging, choking +him; men were shouting, hovering, watching for a new chance, when +Monarch, firmly planting both paws, braced, bent those mighty +shoulders, and, spite of shortening breath, leaned back on those two +ropes as Samson did on pillars of the house of Baal, and straining +horses with their riders were dragged forward more and more, long +grooves being plowed behind; dragging them, he backed faster and +faster still. His eyes were starting, his tongue lolling out. + +"Keep on! hold tight!" was the cry, till the ropers swung together, +the better to resist; and Monarch, big and strong with frenzied hate, +seeing now his turn, sprang forward like a shot. The horses leaped and +escaped--almost; the last was one small inch too slow. The awful paw +with jags of steel just grazed his flank. How slight it sounds! But +what it really means is better not writ down. + +The riders had slipped their ropes in fear, and the Monarch, rumbling, +snorting, bounding, trailed them to the hills, there to bite them off +in peace, while the remnant of the gallant crew went, sadly muttering, +back. + +Bitter words went round. Kellyan was cursed. + +"His fault. Why didn't we have the guns?" + +"We were all in it," was the answer, and more hard words, till Kellyan +flushed, forgot his calm, and drew a pistol hitherto concealed, and +the other "took it back." + +[Illustration: "RUMBLING AND SNORTING, HE MADE FOR THE FRIENDLY +HILLS"] + + + +XV. THE FOAMING FLOOD + + +"What is next, Lan?" said Lou, as they sat dispirited by the fire that +night. + +Kellyan was silent for a time, then said slowly and earnestly, with a +gleam in his eye: "Lou, that's the greatest Bear alive. When I seen +him set up there like a butte and swat horses like they was flies, I +jest loved him. He's the greatest thing God has turned loose in these +yer hills. Before to-day, I sure wanted to get him; now, Lou, I'm +a-going to get him, an' get him alive, if it takes all my natural +days. I think I kin do it alone, but I know I kin do it with you," and +deep in Kellyan's eyes there glowed a little spark of something not +yet rightly named. + +They were camped in the hills, being no longer welcome at the ranch; +the ranchers thought their price too high. Some even decided that the +Monarch, being a terror to sheep, was not an undesirable neighbor. The +cattle bounty was withdrawn, but the newspaper bounty was not. + +"I want you to bring in that Bear," was the brief but pregnant message +from the rich newsman when he heard of the fight with the riders. + +"How are you going about it, Lan?" + +Every bridge has its rotten plank, every fence its flimsy rail, every +great one his weakness, and Kellyan, as he pondered, knew how mad it +was to meet this one of brawn with mere brute force. + +"Steel traps are no good; he smashes them. Lariats won't do, and he +knows all about log traps. But I have a scheme. First, we must follow +him up and learn his range. I reckon that'll take three months." + +So the two kept on. They took up that Bear-trail next day; they found +the lariats chewed off. They followed day after day. They learned what +they could from rancher and sheepherder, and much more was told them +than they could believe. + +Three months, Lan said, but it took six months to carry out his plan; +meanwhile Monarch killed and killed. + +In each section of his range they made one or two cage- or pen-traps +of bolted logs. At the back end of each they put a small grating of +heavy steel bars. The door was carefully made and fitted into grooves. +It was of double plank, with tar-paper between to make it surely +light-tight. It was sheeted with iron on the inside, and when it +dropped it went into an iron-bound groove in the floor. + +They left these traps open and unset till they were grayed with age +and smelt no more of man. Then the two hunters prepared for the final +play. They baited all without setting them--baited them with honey, +the lure that Monarch never had refused--and when at length they found +the honey baits were gone, they came where he now was taking toll and +laid the long-planned snare. Every trap was set, and baited as before +with a mass of honey--but _honey now mixed with a potent sleeping +draft_. + + + +XVI. LANDLOCKED + + +That night the great Bear left his lair, one of his many lairs, and, +cured of all his wounds, rejoicing in the fullness of his mighty +strength, he strode toward the plains. His nose, ever alert, +reported--sheep, a deer, a grouse; men--more sheep, some cows, and +some calves; a bull--a fighting bull--and Monarch wheeled in big, +rude, Bearish joy at the coming battle brunt; but as he hugely hulked +from hill to hill a different message came, so soft and low, so +different from the smell of beefish brutes, one might well wonder he +could sense it, but like a tiny ringing bell when thunder booms it +came, and Monarch wheeled at once. Oh, it cast a potent spell! It +stood for something very near to ecstasy with him, and down the hill +and through the pines he went, on and on faster yet, abandoned to its +sorcery. Here to its home he traced it, a long, low cavern. He had +seen such many times before, had been held in them more than once, but +had learned to spurn them. For weeks he had been robbing them of their +treasures, and its odor, like a calling voice, was still his guide. +Into the cavern he passed and it reeked with the smell of joy. There +was the luscious mass, and Monarch, with all caution lulled now, +licked and licked, then seized to tear the bag for more, when down +went the door with a low "bang!" The Monarch started, but all was +still and there was no smell of danger. He had forced such doors +before. His palate craved the honey still, and he licked and licked, +greedily at first, then calmly, then slowly, then drowsily--then at +last stopped. His eyes were closing, and he sank slowly down on the +earth and slept a heavy sleep. + +Calm, but white-faced, were they--the men--when in the dawn they came. +There were the huge scarred tracks in-leading; there was the door +down; there dimly they could see a mass of fur that filled the pen, +that heaved in deepest sleep. + +Strong ropes, strong chains and bands of steel were at hand, with +chloroform, lest he should revive too soon. Through holes in the roof +with infinite toil they chained him, bound him--his paws to his neck, +his neck and breast and hind legs to a bolted beam. Then raising the +door, they dragged him out, not with horses--none would go near--but +with a windlass to a tree; and fearing the sleep of death, they let +him now revive. + +Chained and double chained, frenzied, foaming, and impotent, what +words can tell the state of the fallen Monarch? They put him on a +sled, and six horses with a long chain drew it by stages to the plain, +to the railway. They fed him enough to save his life. A great +steam-derrick lifted Bear and beam and chain on to a flat-car, a +tarpaulin was spread above his helpless form; the engine puffed, +pulled out; and the Grizzly King was gone from his ancient hills. + +So they brought him to the great city, the Monarch born, in chains. +They put him in a cage not merely strong enough for a lion, but thrice +as strong, and once a rope gave way as the huge one strained his +bonds. "He is loose," went the cry, and an army of onlookers and +keepers fled; only the small man with the calm eye and the big man of +the hills were stanch, so the Monarch was still held. + +Free in the cage, he swung round, looked this way and that, then +heaved his powers against the triple angling steel and wrenched the +cage so not a part of it was square. In time he clearly would break +out. They dragged the prisoner to another that an elephant could not +break down, but it stood on the ground, and in an hour the great beast +had a cavern into the earth and was sinking out of sight, till a +stream of water sent after him filled the hole and forced him again to +view. They moved him to a new cage made for him since he came--a hard +rock floor, great bars of nearly two-inch steel that reached up nine +feet and then projected in for five. The Monarch wheeled once around, +then, rearing, raised his ponderous bulk, wrenched those bars, +unbreakable, and bent and turned them in their sockets with one heave +till the five-foot spears were pointed out, and then sprang to climb. +Nothing but pikes and blazing brands in a dozen ruthless hands could +hold him back. The keepers watched him night and day till a stronger +cage was made, impregnable with steel above and rocks below. + +The Untamed One passed swiftly around, tried every bar, examined every +corner, sought for a crack in the rocky floor, and found at last the +place where was a six-inch timber beam--the only piece of wood in its +frame. It was sheathed in iron, but exposed for an inch its whole +length. One claw could reach the wood, and here he lay on his side and +raked--raked all day till a great pile of shavings was lying by it and +the beam sawn in two; but the cross-bolts remained, and when Monarch +put his vast shoulder to the place it yielded not a whit. That was his +last hope; now it was gone; and the huge Bear sank down in the cage +with his nose in his paws and sobbed--long, heavy sobs, animal sounds +indeed, but telling just as truly as in man of the broken spirit--the +hope and the life gone out. The keepers came with food at the +appointed time, but the Bear moved not. They set it down, but in the +morning it was still untouched. The Bear was lying as before, his +ponderous form in the pose he had first taken. The sobbing was +replaced by a low moan at intervals. + +Two days went by. The food, untouched, was corrupting in the sun. The +third day, and Monarch still lay on his breast, his huge muzzle under +his huger paw. His eyes were hidden; only a slight heaving of his +broad chest was now seen. + +"He is dying," said one keeper. "He can't live overnight." + +"Send for Kellyan," said another. + +So Kellyan came, slight and thin. There was the beast that he had +chained, pining, dying. He had sobbed his life out in his last hope's +death, and a thrill of pity came over the hunter, for men of grit and +power love grit and power. He put his arm through the cage bars and +stroked him, but Monarch made no sign. His body was cold. At length a +little moan was sign of life, and Kellyan said, "Here, let me go in +to him." + +"You are mad," said the keepers, and they would not open the cage. But +Kellyan persisted till they put in a cross-grating in front of the +Bear. Then, with this between, he approached. His hand was on the +shaggy head, but Monarch lay as before. The hunter stroked his victim +and spoke to him. His hand went to the big round ears, small above the +head. They were rough to his touch. He looked again, then started. +What! is it true? Yes, the stranger's tale was true, for both ears +were pierced with a round hole--one torn large--and Kellyan knew that +once again he had met his little Jack. + +"Why, Jacky, I didn't know it was you. I never would have done it if I +had known it was you. Jacky, old pard, don't you know me?" + +But Jack stirred not, and Kellyan got up quickly. Back to the hotel he +flew; there he put on his hunter's suit, smoky and smelling of pine +gum and grease, and returned with a mass of honeycomb to reenter the +cage. + +"Jacky, Jacky!" he cried, "honey, honey!" and he held the tempting +comb before him. But Monarch lay as one dead now. + +"Jacky, Jacky! don't you know me?" He dropped the honey and laid his +hands on the great muzzle. + +The voice was forgotten. The old-time invitation, "Honey, +Jacky--honey," had lost its power, but the _smell_ of the honey, +the coat, the hands that he had fondled, had together a hidden +potency. + +There is a time when the dying of our race forget their life, but +clearly remember the scenes of childhood; these only are real and +return with master power. And why not with a Bear? The power of scent +was there to call them back again, and Jacky, the Grizzly Monarch, +raised his head a little--just a little; the eyes were nearly closed, +but the big brown nose was jerked up feebly two or three times--the +sign of interest that Jacky used to give in days of old. Now it was +Kellyan that broke down even as the Bear had done. + +"I didn't know it was you, Jacky, or I never would have done it. Oh, +Jacky, forgive me!" He rose and fled from the cage. + +The keepers were there. They scarcely understood the scene, but one of +them, acting on the hint, pushed the honeycomb nearer and cried, +"Honey, Jacky--honey!" + +Filled by despair, he had lain down to die, but here was a new-born +hope, not clear, not exact as words might put it, but his conqueror +had shown himself a friend; this seemed a new hope, and the keeper, +taking up the old call, "Honey, Jacky--honey!" pushed the comb till it +touched his muzzle. The smell was wafted to his sense, its message +reached his brain; hope honored, it must awake response. The great +tongue licked the comb, appetite revived, and thus in newborn Hope +began the chapter of his gloom. + +Skilful keepers were there with plans to meet the Monarch's every +want. Delicate foods were offered and every shift was tried to tempt +him back to strength and prison life. + +He ate and--lived. + +And still he lives, but pacing--pacing--pacing--you may see him, +scanning not the crowds, but something beyond the crowds, breaking +down at times into petulant rages, but recovering anon his ponderous +dignity, looking--waiting--watching--held ever by that Hope, that +unknown Hope, that came. Kellyan has been to him since, but Monarch +knows him not. Over his head, beyond him, was the great Bear's gaze, +far away toward Tallac or far away on the sea, we knowing not which or +why, but pacing--pacing--pacing--held like the storied Wandering One +to a life of ceaseless journey--a journey aimless, endless, and sad. + +The wound-spots long ago have left his shaggy coat, but the earmarks +still are there, the ponderous strength, the elephantine dignity. His +eyes are dull,--never were bright,--but they seem not vacant, and most +often fixed on the Golden Gate where the river seeks the sea. + +The river, born in high Sierra's flank, that lived and rolled and +grew, through mountain pines, o'erleaping man-made barriers, then to +reach with growing power the plains and bring its mighty flood at last +to the Bay of Bays, a prisoner there to lie, the prisoner of the +Golden Gate, seeking forever Freedom's Blue, seeking and +raging--raging and seeking--back and forth, forever--in vain. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MONARCH, THE BIG BEAR OF TALLAC*** + + +******* This file should be named 11135.txt or 11135.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/1/3/11135 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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