The grizzly king : $b a romance of the wildCurwood, James Oliver
General
The grizzly king : $b a romance of the wild
Curwood, James Oliver
Grizzly bear -- Fiction; Wilderness areas -- Fiction
"He ain't very far," he whispered. "Shouldn't wonder if he spent the night
pretty close an' he's mooshing on just ahead of us."
He wet a finger and held it above his head to get the wind. He nodded
significantly.
"We'd better get up on the slopes," he said.
They made their way around the end of the boulders, holding their guns in
readiness, and headed for a small coulee that promised an easy ascent of
the first slope. At the mouth of this both paused again. Its bottom was
covered with sand, and in this sand were the tracks of another bear. Bruce
dropped on his knees.
"It's another grizzly," said Langdon.
"No, it ain't; it's a black," said Bruce. "Jimmy, can't I ever knock into
yo'r head the difference between a black an' a grizzly track? This is the
hind foot, an' the heel is round. If it was a grizzly it would be pointed.
An' it's too broad an' clubby f'r a grizzly, an' the claws are too long f'r
the length of the foot. It's a black as plain as the nose on yo'r face!"
"And going our way," said Langdon. "Come on!" Two hundred yards up the
coulee the bear had climbed out on the slope. Langdon and Bruce followed.
In the thick grass and hard shale of the first crest of the slope the
tracks were quickly lost, but the hunters were not much interested in these
tracks now. From the height at which they were travelling they had a
splendid view below them.
Not once did Bruce take his eyes from the creek bottom. He knew that it was
down there they would find the grizzly, and he was interested in nothing
else just at present. Langdon, on the other hand, was interested in
everything that might be living or moving about them; every mass of rock
and thicket of thorn held possibilities for him, and his eyes were questing
the higher ridges and the peaks as well as their immediate trail. It was
because of this that he saw something which made him suddenly grip his
companion's arm and pull him down beside him on the ground.
"Look!" he whispered, stretching out an arm.
From his kneeling posture Bruce stared. His eyes fairly popped in
amazement. Not more than thirty feet above them was a big rock shaped like
a dry-goods box, and protruding from behind the farther side of this rock
was the rear half of a bear. It was a black bear, its glossy coat shining
in the sunlight. For a full half minute Bruce continued to stare. Then he
grinned.
"Asleep--dead asleep! Jimmy--you want to see some fun?"
He put down his gun and drew out his long hunting knife. He chuckled softly
as he felt of its keen point.
"If you never saw a bear run yo'r goin' to see one run now, Jimmy! You stay
here!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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