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
Thor was now hidden among the boulders and broken masses of sandstone,
following her trail. Within two minutes after the grizzly disappeared Bruce
and Metoosin scrambled up over the edge of the coulee. From where they
stood even the sky-line was within fairly good shooting distance, and
Langdon suddenly began shouting excitedly, waving his arms, and pointing
downward.
Bruce and Metoosin were caught by his ruse, in spite of the fact that the
dogs were again giving fierce tongue close to the rocks among which Thor
had gone. They believed that from where he stood Langdon could see the
progress of the bear, and that it was running toward the valley. Not until
they were another hundred yards down the slope did they stop and look back
at Langdon to get further directions. From his rock Langdon was pointing to
the sky-line.
Thor was just going over. He paused for a moment, as Iskwao had stopped,
and took one last look at man.
And Langdon, as he saw the last of him, waved his hat and shouted, "Good
luck to you, old man--good luck!"
CHAPTER NINETEEN
That night Langdon and Bruce made their new plans, while Metoosin sat
aloof, smoking in stolid silence, and gazing now and then at Langdon as if
he could not yet bring himself to the point of believing what had happened
that afternoon. Thereafter through many moons Metoosin would never forget
to relate to his children and his grandchildren and his friends of the
tepee tribes how he had once hunted with a white man who had shot his own
dogs to save the life of a grizzly bear. Langdon was no longer the same old
Langdon to him, and after this hunt Metoosin knew that he would never hunt
with him again. For Langdon was _keskwao_ now. Something had gone wrong in
his head. The Great Spirit had taken away his heart and had given it to a
grizzly bear, and over his pipe Metoosin watched him cautiously. This
suspicion was confirmed when he saw Bruce and Langdon making a cage out of
a cowhide pannier and realized that the cub was to accompany them on their
long journey. There was no doubt in his mind now. Langdon was "queer," and
to an Indian that sort of queerness boded no good to man.
The next morning at sunrise the outfit was ready for its long trail into
the northland. Bruce and Langdon led the way up the slope and over the
divide into the valley where they had first encountered Thor, the train
filing picturesquely behind them, with Metoosin bringing up the rear. In
his cowhide pannier rode Muskwa.
Langdon was satisfied and happy.
"It was the best hunt of my life," he said to Bruce. "I'll never be sorry
we let him live."
"You're the doctor," said Bruce rather irreverently. "If I had my way about
it his hide would be back there on Dishpan. Almost any tourist down on the
line of rail would jump for it at a hundred dollars."
"He's worth several thousand to me alive," replied Langdon, with which
enigmatic retort he dropped behind to see how Muskwa was riding.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account