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^ft^^ MONARCH ^^-a
/I The BIG BEAR of TaUac

^l^3^@«<B

>Vlth 100 Draiwlnq|j

byErnestThomiiJon iSeton »^

Author of

Wild Anim^U I hive knowa

TVwl of the -SMxdhill ^Uq

Biogr^L^hy of ^.firliziy

Liv€5 Of the Hunted.

Two LittU'sTavage*. Xic^

Publlrtitd by CKwrlcy •ycribnerj Joiu 'NewYorK'1919

Copyright, 1902, 1903, by

Ladies^ Home Journal

Copyright, 1904, by

Ernest Thompson Seton

THE SCRI6NER PRESS

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, mean-

13]

ingless without the puckered lip, the
interhiss, the brutal semi-snarl re-
strained 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 head-
line. 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

[4]

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 won-
derful 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 in-
domitable spirit of the mountaineer,
worshiping the mighty Beast that na-
ture built a monument of power, and
loving and worshiping the clash, the
awful strife heroic, at the close, when
these two met.

[51

In this Book the designs for
cover, title-page, and gen-
eral make-up were done by
Grace Gallatin Seton.

9

List of
Full-Pa^e Drawings

"The pony bounded in terror while the

Grizzly ran almost alongside" ... 21
"Jack ate till his paunch looked like a rub-
ber balloon" 31

"'Honey— J acky— honey'" 37

"Jack . . . held up his sticky, greasy arms" 53

The Thirty-foot Bear 93

"*Now, B'ar, I don't want no scrap with

you'" 14?

"Rumbling and snorting, he made for the

friendly hills" 191

Monarch ••• 215

List of
The Chapters

I. The Two Springs • 15

II. The Springs and the Miner^s Dam . 27

III. The Trout Pool 41

IV. The Stream that Sank in the San(^ . 49
V. The River Held in the Foothills . 63

VU The Broken Dam 79

VII. The Freshet 87

VIII. Roaring in the Canon 99

IX. Fire and Water Ill

X. The Eddy 121

XI. The Ford 137

XII. Swirl and Pool and Growing Flood . 145

XIII. The Deepening Channel .... 159

XIV. The Cataract. 171

XV. The Foaming Flood 193

XVI. Landlocked 199

F0'RBW01^<D

The story of Monarch is founded on
material gathered from many sources
as well as from personal experience,
and the ^ear is of necessity a compos-
ite. The great Grizzly Monarch, still
pacing his prison floor at the Golden
Gate T^arkf is the central fact of the
tale.

In telling it I have taken two lib-
erties that I conceive to be proper in a
story of this sort.

First, I have selected for my hero an
unusual individual,

[13]

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 ^ear personality. The
intention is to convey the known truth,
^ut the fact that liberties have been
taken excludes the story from the cata-
logue of pure science. It must be con-
sidered rather an historical novel of
^ear life.

Many different^earswere concerned
in the early adventures here related, but
the last two chapters, the captivity and
the despair of the ^ig ^ear, are told as
they were told to me by several wit-
nesses, including my friends the two
mountaineers^

[14]

THE TWO S<P^INGS

I

IGH above Sierra's peaks
stands grim Mount Tal-
lac. 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 north-
west, 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

[17]

^M^''^^^^^

would have held holy. But Lan Kell-
yan^s keen ^ray eyes were turned to
other things. The childish delight in
life and li^ht for their own sakes had
faded, as they must in one whose train-
ing had been to make him hold them
verycheap. 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 liv-
ing came from taking life? His senses
were alert, not for the rainbow hills and
the gem-bright lakes, but for the liv-
ing 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

[181

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

[19] AS

"^^i

at what seemed to be the shoulden
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 fif-
teen, 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 theoldGrizzly
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.

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

[20]

Lan from this remembered her after-
ward 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 de-
termined to destroy that hunter. She

[23]

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
werethecubs. 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 increas-
ing as he came nearer.

He took out a stout cord, and noos-
ing them in turn, dragged them to the
ground. One rushed at him and, though
'^^^'^O J little bigger than a cat, would certainly
^\ ' * ^/x" } have done him serious injury had he
»« >^' ^(^ not held it off with a forked stick.

After tyin^ them to a strong but sway-
ing branch he went to his horse, ^ot a
grain-bag, dropped them into that, and
rode with them to his shanty. He fas-
tened each with a collar and chain to
a post, up which they climbed, and sit-
ting on the top they whined andgrowled,
according to their humor. For thefirst
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 recon-
ciled 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 moun-
tain now, deeper and wider, keeping
near each other; leaping bars, rejoic-

[25]

ing 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*

^^^f^'J^y .^

[26]

//

THB S<P<J^INGS JJN<D THE
MINB'R'S <D/1M

11

ACK and Jill, the hunter
named the cubs; and Jill,
the little fury, did nothing
to change his early im-
pression of her bad tem-
per. 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

[29]

ji

I

^■»%

many odd ways of his own, and be was
a lasting rebuke to tbose wbo say an
animal bas no sense of bumon In a
montb be bad grown so tame tbat be
was allowed to run free. He followed
bis master like a dog, and bis tricks
and funny doings were a continual de-
ligbt to Kellyan and tbe few friends
be bad in tbe mountains.

On tbe creek-bottom below tbe
sback was a meadow wbere Lan cut
enougb bay eacb year to feed bis two
ponies through the winter. This year
when bay-time came Jack was bis daily
companion, either following him about
in dangerous nearness to tbe 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 in-
teresting variation of the day came
about whenever the mower found a

[30]

JACK ATE TILL HIS PAUNCH LOOKFD LIKE A RUBBER BALLOON

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 plea-
sure, he would approach cautiously,
for he knew that bees have stings.
Watching his chance, he would dexter-
ously 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 care-
fully 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

[33]

tongue was ever busy lashing the strag-
glers into his greedy maw»

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. Bon-
amy 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 ^11 have some
fun.*^ He led theway down the stream
into the woods. Kellyan followed him,
and J acky 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 T'
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.

[34]

y

Certainly those things buzzing about
looked like bees, though he never be-
fore 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

[35]

angrily and J ack stepped back, in doubt.
The men ^i^led; then Bonamy called
softly and untruthfully : ** Honey —
Jacky — honey!*'

The little Bear, fortunately for him-
self, 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 thebranch heplunged
headlong into the pool below, taking
the whole thing with him. As soon as
he reachedthe 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

[36]

HONEY — JACKY — honey' "

ra^s 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 bal-
loon.

**How is that?*' chuckled Lan.

''The laugh is on us/' answered
Bonamy, with a grimace.

[391

Ill

THE T^OUT ^OOL

Ill

ACK 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,

[43]

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 com-
\ fortable. 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 im-
patiently removed them.

At Bonamy's he formed two new
acquaintances, a blustering, bullying
old ram that was *4n 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

[44]

where to stop, and Jack's first and sec-
ond 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 teas-
ing the little Bear. It proved so in-
teresting a pursuit that the dog learned
to come over on his own account when-
ever he felt like having some fun, until
at length Jack was kept in continual

[45]

^1./
^

terror of tb e yellow cur. But it all ended
very suddenly.

One hot day, while the two men
smoked in front of Kellyan^s house, the
do^ 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 do^ 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
knewnothingofthat. His one thought,
doubtless, was that he hated that cur

[46]

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 Bon-
amy^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.

[47]

w

THE ST^B/JM TH/iT S/INK
IN THE S/iNT>

IV

ACK 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

[51]

I.--

j^ii^ is* '* V — '*^

sorts ; and the common stuffs, like flour,
butter, and baking-powder, brought
fifty miles en 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 dy-
namite, 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. Theyseemed to know that they
were sinning, or at least in danger, and
Jill sneaked, sulky and snuffy, into a
dark corner, where she glared defi-
antly 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

\52]

JACK . . . HELD UP HIS STICKY, GREASY ARMS

and petted as though he were the best
little Bear in the world.

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/* rUbreakyourcussedneck^';
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 — suf-
fered 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 Kell-
yan. 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
[55]

called at his place that evening and
passed the ni^ht 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 leav-
ing, he said: **Say, pard, I Ul give you
twenty-five dollars for the pair/^ Lan
hesitated, thought of the wasted pro-
visions, 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 ; could n't

ex, 0 [56]

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 pro-
visions. After all, there was a good
deal left. He walked past the box
where Jack used to sleep. How silent
itwas ! 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

[57]

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 didnH
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
[58]

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 com-
pany an' we Ve 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."

*Mf 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 'U
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 re-
volver. The wail of little Jack smotQ
painfully on his ear, but he knew the

1591

f

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

[60]

the pannier, but when it came to get-
ting cranky little Jill out of the basket
and into a collar, there ensued a scene
so unpleasant th at 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.

[611

V

THE ^IVB'R HEL<D IN THE
FOOTHILLS

HERE was little of pleas-
ant interest in the next
eighteen monthsof Jack^s
careen 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 splen-
dors 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 bein^ forgotten as Jack
^rew 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. Na-
ture had showered on it every wonder-
ful gift in her lap. A foreground rich
with flowers, luxuriant in fruit, shade
and sun, dry pastures, rushing rivers,
y l^'^'Lj and murmuring rills, were here. Great
'.^ trees were variants of the view, and the

[661

hij^h 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,

Th ings 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
**risefromNatureuptoNature^sGod.''
No city slum has ever shown a more
ignoble crew, and Jack, if his mind
were capableof 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 amus-

[67]

ing trick he now did was helping him-
self 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 be-
tween his paws and drink to the last
drop*

The monotony of his life was occa-
sionally varied with a dog fight. His
. tormentors would brin^ their Bear
.^jT *'€-' 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

[68]

hogshead and quietly watch the noisy
do^s around him, with much show of
inattention, making no move, no mat-
ter how near they were, until they
** bunched,'* that is, fathered in one
place. Then he charged. It was inevi-
table 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 vol-
unteered to fight him. A harmless
but good-f or-noth ingsh eep-h erder wh o
loafed about the place got very drunk
one night and offended somefire-eaters.
They decided that, as he had no gun,

1691

It would be the proper thing to club
him to their hearts* content instead of
shooting him full of holes, in the man-
ner 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 morn-
ing the cook, beginning his day, heard

[70]

strange sounds in the yard. Theycame
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 crowdin*,
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 vin-
dictive fury at any who ventured near,
and when they gave up the attempt he
lay down at the door of the den on guard,

[71]

v^ ^'^ ^^ 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 In-
dependence Day with a grand fight be-
tween a ^^picked and fighting range bull
and a ferocious Californian Grizzly/*
The news was spread far and wide by
the **Grapevine Telegraph/* Thereof
of the stable was covered with seats at
^ fifty cents each. The hay-wagon was
IvM^ half loaded and drawn alongside the
f, • > - 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

[72]

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 fee, 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, store-
keepers from Placerville, strangers
from Sacramento^ town and county,

[73]

mountain and plain, were represented.
The hay- wagon went so well that
another was brought into market.
The barn roof was sold out. An omi-
nous 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 '11 bet he '11 never show up in the
second round."

So they wrangled and bet, while burly

[74]

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 1 "

Faco Tampico had managed to tie a
bundle of chaparral thorn to the bulFs
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,

[75]

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 ap-
proached slowly until he came within
ten feet of the Grizzly^s den ; then, giv-
ing 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 sur-
prise rushed from his den into the
arena. The bull was standing in a
magnificent attitude there in the mid-

die, but when be saw tbe Bear spring
toward him, he gave two mighty snorts
and retreated as far as he could, amid
cheers and hisses.

Perhaps the two main characteris-
tics of the Grizzly are the quickness
with which he makes a plan and the
vigor with which he follows it up. Be-
fore 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 mid-
dle. In three seconds he was there, in
two seconds he was over, and in one
second bedashed 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

[77]

from the scene of the fight, to spare

their nerves, but the Grizzly had three

hundredyards'start,fivehundred 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

'y'''\^^ youth, cut off by the river of his cub-

*^ ^^ f . '**'' ;. hood, the river grown from the rill born

< L^^^: ?^' in his birthplace awayinTallac'spines,

— — _^"-I"" That Fourth of July was a glorious

Fourth — itwas Independence Day for

Grizzly Jack.

78]

VI
THE ^^OKEN <D/1M

VI

WOUNDED deer usu-
ally 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 dimbed.

He had been alone for hours, trav-
eling 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

[81]

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,
|ry 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 train-
ing 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 man-
aged to live, and wild-life experiences
coming fast gave his mind the chance
to grow.

Jack's memory for faces and facts

[821

was not at all ^ood, 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 **01d 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 danger-
ous 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 hill-
side to an open rocky dale.

Long before he got there a curious

[83]

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.
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

[84]

lick up its swarms of wood-ants. So
Jack came closer, and at last so close
that even his dull eyes could see. The
^reat 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 re-
membered ! 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,

[85]

' struck down one^ seized it, and turn-
ing 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, shoot-
ing 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
f, (j^ I is believing in Bear life,

^-'^^ '

.-<r/ ?^V^ [86

VII
THE P^BSHBT

I!

VII

EDRO TAMPICO and
bis brother Faco were not
in tbe sbeep 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 fol-
lowers 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.

[89]

\

^

/

f

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 im-
possibility. But he has a simple de-
vice 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

[901

be black, and when Tampicc found
but twenty-nine of its kind remaining
he safely reasoned that he was losing
sheep — according to the index a hun-
dred were ^one.

** 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 coun-
try that was evidently the range of
a sheep-eater. At night he found a
walled-in caiion, 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

[91]

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
t^ X 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 awakenedhim. He
^ started up to behold the most appal-
'^ ling 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 bead; so never learned that

92

THE THIRTY-FOOT BEAR

be 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.

When he looked up the giant Bear
was gone. There was a rushing of
the sheep. A small body of them scur-
ried out of the caiion into the night,
and after them went an ordinary-sized
Bear, undoubtedly a cub of the mon-
ster.

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 be-
fore morning. At sunrise he left his
dog in charge of the flock and set out ^t^.
to seek the runaways, knowing, first, ,^^ 'y
that there was little danger in the day- -^*

[95]

u

(

^ A^

V

■^

•-^

,7

\

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

[96]

a Grizzly from one wall across to the
other. AH the sheep were now back
a^ain 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.

97

J^

vm

^OA<I^ING IN THE C/JfJON

VIII

EDRO knew tnat the bi^
Bear was coming ; for the
fifty sheep in the little
canon were not more th an
an appetizer for such a
creature. He loaded hisguncarefullyas
a matter of habit and went up-stairs to
bed. Whatever defects his dormitory
had the ventilation was ^ood, and
Pedro was soon a-shiver. He looked
down in envy at his do^ curled up by
the fire ; then he prayed that the saints
might intervene and direct the steps of

[101]

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. Thefearsome hour
of midnight passed, then the gray dawn,
the hour of dull despair, was near.
Tampico felt it, and a long groan vi-
brated 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 sicken-
ing 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

[102]

Bear to eat by shooting at him now.
So Pedro flattened himself face down-
ward on the platform, and, with his
mouth to a crack, he poured forth
prayers to his representative in the
sky, regretting his unconventional at-
titude 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 re-
ceived. There was a Bear-track, in-
deed, 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 per-

[103]

dition/' and a stone ^avc force to the
order, which the do^ 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, ^,

104

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,
did n'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 after-
ward tell the truth. Some scientists
who have looked into the matter aver

[105]

that this wonderful property is common
to the Rio Grande as well as the Has-
sayampa, 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 head-
waters. 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.

106]

Kellyan paused. ** I can*t coveryour
bet, Pedro, but I Ml 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 coun-t fer 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 Bax-
[107]

ter^s canon and found the sheep high-
perched upon the rocks. By the en-
trance 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 path-
way— 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 will-
ing 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 drag-
ging 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 turn-
ing the sheep out of the pen, he drove

[108]

tbcm by slow stages toward the rest
of the flock.

Only six or seven miles across coun-
try, 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 plat-
form 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

[109]

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 mut-
ton bones. He found the human trail,
but there was something about it that
rather attracted him. He strode along
on the dry boughs. **Crack!' Vent one;
**crack -crack F Ventanother ; andKell-
yan 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.

[110]

IX

FI^B AN<D WJJTE^

IX

JHAT 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 jour-
ney back toward Tallac, and there, in
a cave that was formed of tumbled
rocks, he lay down to rest. He was

[113]

^1

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 dis-
tant 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 watch-
ing 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,

[114]

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, gain-
ing and spreading, were flying now like
wild horses. Jack had no place in his
brain for such a thing; but his in-
stinct warned him to shun that com-
ing 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 hui-

[115]

r^iVf/

^^i^

^v

ricanc was gaining on him. His sense
of danger bad grown almost to terror,
terror of a kind that he had never
known before, for here there was no-
thing he could fight; nothing that he
could resist. The flames were all
around him now; birds without num-
ber, hares, and deer had gone down
before the red horror. He was plung-
ing 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 es-
cape 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

116]

as lon^ 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 be-
side 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
[117]

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 won-
dering, according to his intelligence,
what the other would do. In half a
minute both came up again, each re-
lieved to find the other no nearer. Each
tried to keep his nose and one eye
above the water. But the fire was rag-
ing 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 ed^ed 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 pro-
claimed a peace. Bobbing up and dodg-
ing 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

[119]

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.

^-^^s^-:

[no]

X

THE B9>Dy

LL the west slopes of
Tallac were swept by
the fire, aad Keilyan
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] ack. Hiswoundhealed
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

[123]

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
thatwhich 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 for-
ward 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 thanaflash — the Bear reared.
The man sprang backward, tripped
and fell, and the Grizzly was upon

[124]

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 con-
juring 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 hit-
[125]

^

I^JiVJ^i

'}k^'

ting high on the body and of losing
the trail in the forest fire — ^Mown by
the shack^ when he turned up sudden
and had me I thought my last day was
come. Why he did n^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 bind 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 *11 get him yet.**

So Kelly an 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.

'Q^t^^yf^^ [126]

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, to-
ward 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 popula-
tion : 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/'

[127]

**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.
[1281

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 for-
gotten 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
[129]

*f4«'

Bear behind. He wheeled — of course
you never follow trail smell when you
can find body smell — and came gallop-
ing 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 an-
swer; 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

[180]

yelp escaped the do^, 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 Ml get even with him/' muttered
Bonamy, for he loved that contempt-
ible 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

[1311

and peeped ahead for a minute. He

^|L^-. was about to ^o down when a move-

"s^S^^ ment caught his eye. There; on his

' "^^ ' haunches, sat a Grizzly, looking down

on the camp. The singed brown of

r\

ff 1 his head and neck, and the white spot

^ ^ on each side of his back, left no doubt

f * ,^J^ that Kellyan and Pedro's Gringo were

A _^f^\ again face to face. It was a long shot,

^ ^^^ but the rifle went up, and as he was

^ V y^N I about to fire, the Bear suddenly bent

\,l|k f ' / his head down, and lifting his hind

VMf^J ^5^ P^w, 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

[132]

thehunter. Kellyan climbed a tree and
^ot ready, but the camp lay just be-
tween 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

[133]

previous experience. But^ whatever it
was, it did not please the invader; he
spat and spilled it out, and f lun^ the bot-
tle 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 every-
thing 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 stam-
peded 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

[134]

Fallen Leaf Lake with a new store of
ammunition and provisions, their tent
repaired, and their camp outfit com-
plete. 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, '*// we get him,'' but,
''When we get him.''

*i

kVJ

[1351

XI

THE FOR^

XI

RINGO, 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 stin
But, driven forth by hunger on the

[139]

second day, he quit his couch and,
making for the nearest ridge, he fol-
lowed that and searched the wind with
his nose. The smell of a mountain
hunter reached him. Not knowing just
whattodohesat 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 cow-
boy held his horse in hand and, al-
though he had a gun, he made no at-
tempt 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 "mak-
ing medicine with his voice.*'

[140]

"See here now, B^ar/* he called
aloud, " I ain^t doin^ nothing to you.
I ain^t got no grudge ag^n* 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.

*M 'm honest about it, pard. You
let me alone, and I '11 let you alone;
all I want is right of way for five

minutes."

** G row-grow- wo w-oo-umph," was
the answer.

"Ye see, thar 's no way round an'
on'y one way through, an' you happen

[141]

to be settin* in it. I ^ot 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
sec in this nothing but a human mak-
ing 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,walV'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: ^^Tbis
surely is a new kind of man.**

142]

XII

SWI^L AN^ 'POOL AN<D
GROWING FLOO^

•1 •

XII

.RINGO wandered on
with nose alert, passing
countless odors of ber-
ries, 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 mea-
dow, 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

[147]

W)

hunter instinct came on him^ and the
hunter's audacity and love of achieve-
ment. He sneaked toward them up-
wind in order that he mi^ht still smell
them, and it also kept them from smell-
ing 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 floun-
dered 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 no-
thing of horns. Theyoung, sharp horn,
J|jL upcurling, hit his foot and was broken

1 [148]

i

off; the blow lost half its power. The ^i\

beef went down, but Gringo had to £^^f^

follow up the blow, then ra^ed and tore Igg^^^i^

in an^er 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.

[149]

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 in-
dividuality. Most Grizzlies mark their
length on the trees by rubbing their
backs, and some will turn on the tree

[150]

and claw it with their fore paws ; others

hu^ the tree with fore paws and rake it

with their hind claws. Gringo^s pecu- ^^^^

liarity of marking was to rub first, then a^JS^

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 1^^

learned that the rifle-wound was a toe- lf\/^

shot in the hind foot, but his fore foot 2^^

of the same side had a large round 0

wound, the one really made by the y-

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.

[151]

They failed to ^et 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 re-
moved 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 ex-
cited, for they had crossed the Griz-
zly'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 '11 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

[153]

;$?^*

^^V

lon^ *^ 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 gladi-
ators ot 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

[154]

some sugar, of which they made syrup.
They caught bees at three or four
different places, tagged them with cot-
ton, 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, untir-
ing 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 fol-
lowed 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

[155]

sniffed the bait, licked it, mumbled it,
slobbered it, reveled in it, tu^ed 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
bold, but he battered with his paws
and tore with his teeth till plank after

[1561

plank gave way. With a final crash he
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 ^11 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 knewa man who had
trapped Bears, and the sheep-herder
remembered that it is necessary to

1157]

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.

[US]

,»>■

N

XIII

THE ^BB^BNING CH/iNNBL

XIII

^

PRIL was bidding high
Sierra snows go back
to Mother Sea/ The
California woodwales
screamed in clamorous
joy. They thought it was about a few
aoDrns 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 rush-

[161]

^

ing — all things were full of noisy glad-
ness*

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/'

[162]

and be 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. ^r^

[163] '/^

V

M:^ I

X

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 beautiful-
est 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,
ancf 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 east-
ward, in hopes of getting a deer, his

[1641

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 re-
turned to his ^* Silver-brown.**

Whether it was chance or choice
can never be known, but when Faco
fired once more, Gringo Jack was be-
tween, and the ball struck him. It was
the last in Face's pouch, and the
Grizzly, charging as before, found not

[165]

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 sem-
blance 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

.[1661

led him to a settlcr^s flimsy shack, the
house of Tampico*s parents, and as
the bi^ Bear reached it two human
beings scrambled out of the rear door.

**My husband/' shrieked the wo-
man, ** pray 1 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 oldTam-
pico 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

[167]

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, wan-
dering 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
f/^ of shot from the upper windows stirred

[168]

him to such effort that the ke^ was
smashed to bits and his blinders re-
moved.

Thus the idea was slowly borne in
onhim: goin^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 pass-
ing in silence incredible for such a
bulk, he threaded chaparral and man-
zanita 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 fol-
lowed till the tule ahead rustled gently,
and the scent was body scent A pon-

[169]

dcrous rush, a single blow — and the
goose-hunt was ended ere well begun,
and Faco^s sheep became thebrother^s
heritage.

[170

XIV
THE CATARACT

XIV

UST 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.

[173]

One cattle outfit after another was
attackecl,and the whole country seemed
divided up among Bears of incred-
ible 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

[174]

►\v

preference blooded stock, would pick

out a Merino ram or a white-faced

Hereford from amon^ fifty grades;

that killed a new beef every night;

that never adain returned to it, or ^Jave ^ ^^,.

the chance for traps or poisoning. c*.^^^/ \^

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 thousand 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

[175]

Bear. I haff three cows, two fat, one
theen. He catch and keel de fat; de
lean run off. He roll een dust — make
^reat 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 Faco, 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

[170]

the Stanislaus to the Merced, the
** Monarch of the Range** he had
been styled. He was believed — yes,
known to be — the bi^est Bear alive,
a creature of supernatural intelligence.
He killed cows for food, and scat-
tered sheep or conquered bulls for
pleasure. It was even said that the
appearance of an unusually big bull
anywhere was a guaranty that Mon-
arch would be there for the joy of com-
bat 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 consum-
mate 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-
[177] ^^

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 impres-

[178]

sions of the feet of the various mon-
sters 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: ^^ Pe-
dro^sGringo,01d Pegtrack,the Placer-
ville Grizzly, and the Monarch of the
Range are one and the same ^ean^*

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

[179]

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 Mexi-
cans 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

\ I 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.
H e was almost giving up, not in despair,
but for lack of means, when a message

[180]

'*^

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 pas-
ture, 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 foot-
prints 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 cha-
parral. The great tracks went in, did
not come out, so Bonamy sat sentinel

fl811

while Kcllyan rode back with the
news. ** Saddle up the best we ^ot!*'
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 wonH 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 could n't resist the chance to let
him have it; so no guns at all. It 's
ten to one on the data.''

Nevertheless three of them brought
their heavy revolvers. Seven gallant ri-
ders on seven fine horses, they rode out

[182]

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 turn-

SN

»v

in^ without haste, he strode toward
the friendly hills*

** Look out, now, Bill 1 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 scarce-
ly 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
,%t^ of bulls, was the power of the thou-
'^A ^^^^ cattle he had downed in fight.
.^^<A <*Caramba! what a Bear! Pedro
was not so far astray. ''

^. [1841

"Sing — sing — singl'* 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 data 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, be 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.

[185]

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

[1861

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 aery 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

[187]

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 Kell-
yan.

His lariat flew as the cattle-killing
paw was lifted for an instant. The
lassobound 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, hov-
ering, watching for a new chance,
when Monarch, firmly planting both
[188

^^^

^•-u^:^'^

paws, braced, bent those mighty shoul-
ders, 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 loll-
ing 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.

[189]

The riders had slipped their ropes in
fear, and the Monarch, rumbling, snort-
ing, 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. WhydidnHwehavethe
guns?^'

'*We were all in it,*' was the an-
swer, and more hard words, till Kell-
yan flushed, forgot his calm, and drew
a pistol hitherto concealed, and the
other **took it back/'

[190

RUMBLING AND SNORTING, HE MADE FOR THE FRIENDLY HILLS

THE FO/iMING PLOO<D

XV

and

HAT is next, Lan?'' said
Lou, as they sat dispir-
ited by the fire that ni^ht.
Kellyan was silent for
a time, then said slowly
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

[195]

a-^oing to ^et 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

^Tiitc^rH^^ something not yet rightly named.
iSi Z'^if^h>^i. Thev were camped in the hills,
I bk»n4 IK rtfAi being no longer welcome at the ranch ;
^i^iAn 'NaM^'*n' the ranchers thought their price too
\^^^"\^^/\^ [ high. Some even decided that the
I Co5"f. " ' - Monarch, being a terror to sheep, was
j *'*J^/vy ^^/ not an undesirable neighbor. The cattle
I f,p>^t\ I bounty was withdrawn, but the news-

- - - paper 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

[196]

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 Ul
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 sheep-herder,
and much more was told them than
they could believe.

Three months, Lan said, but it took
six months to carry out his plan ; mean-
while 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

fl971

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 un-
set 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.

[198]

XVI
IAN<DL0CKE<D

XVI

HAT night the great
Bear left his lair, one of
his many lairs, and, cured
of all his wounds, rejoic-
ing 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. Bear-
ish joy at the coming battle brunt;
but as he hugely hulked from hill to

[201]

hill a different message came, so soft
and low, so different from the smell
of beefish brutes, one might well won-
der 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
"\^A^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,

[202]

then seized to tear the ba^ 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 be-
fore. 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

[2031

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 le^s to a bolted
beam. Then raising the door, they
draped him out, not with horses —
none would go near — but with a wind-
lass to a tree; and fearing the sleep of
death, they let him now revive.

Chained and double chained, fren-
zied, 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.

[204] ^

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 ele-
phant could not break down, but it
stood on the ground, and in an hour
the great beast had a cavern into the

[205]

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

[206]

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 be lay on his side and raked —
raked all day till a great pile of shav-
ings was lying by it and the beam
sawn in two; but the cross-bolts re-
mained, 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 tell-
ing 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

[207]

moved not. They set it down, but in
the morning it was still untouched.
The Bear was lyin^ as before, his
ponderous form in the pose he had
first taken. The sobbing was re-
placed by a low moan at intervals.

Two days went by. The food, un-
touched, 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 an-
other.

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

^ [208]

-^■^

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 ap-
proached. Hishandwasonthe 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

[2091

Kellyan knew that once again he had
met his little Jack.

*^ Why, Jacky, I did n*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

[210]

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 child-
hood; 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,
thefGrizzly 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 did n\ know it was you, Jacky,
or I never would have done it. Oh,
Jacky, forgive meT' He rose and
fled from the cage.

[211]

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 mi^ht
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 new-
born Hope began the chapter of his
gloom.

Skilful keepers were there with
plans to meet the Monarches every

[212]

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 — pac-
ing— pacing — you may see him,
scanning not the crowds, but some-
thing beyond the crowds, breaking
down at times into petulant rages, but
recovering anon his ponderous dig-
nity, 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 Beards gaze, far away toward
Tallac or far away on the sea, we
knowing not which or why, but pac-
ing— 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, overleaping
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, seek-
ing forever Freedom^s Blue, seeking
and raging — raging and seeking —
back and forth, forever — in vain.

I

V-* T)AMiei.SAHO

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