Monarch, the Big Bear of Tallac by Ernest Thompson Seton
page 40 of 73 (54%)
page 40 of 73 (54%)
|
Why he didn't swat me, I don't know. But I tell you this, Pedro: the
B'ar what killed your sheep on the upper pasture and in the sheep canon is the same. No two B'ars has hind feet alike when you get a clear-cut track, and this holds out even right along." "What about the fifty-foot B'ar I saw wit' mine own eyes, caramba?" "That must have been the night you were working a kill-care with your sheep-herder's delight. But don't worry; I'll get him yet." So Kellyan set out on a long hunt, and put in practice every trick he knew for the circumventing of a Bear. Lou Bonamy was invited to join with him, for his yellow cur was a trailer. They packed four horses with stuff and led them over the ridge to the east side of Tallac, and down away from Jack's Peak, that Kellyan had named in honor of his Bear cub, toward Fallen Leaf Lake. The hunter believed that here he would meet not, only the Gringo Bear that he was after, but would also stand a chance of finding others, for the place had escaped the fire. They quickly camped, setting up their canvas sheet for shade more than against rain, and after picketing their horses in a meadow, went out to hunt. By circling around Leaf Lake they got a good idea of the wild population: plenty of deer, some Black Bear, and one or two Cinnamon and Grizzly, and one track along the shore that Kellyan pointed to, briefly saying: "That's him." "Ye mean old Pedro's Gringo?" "Yep. That's the fifty-foot Grizzly. I suppose he stands maybe seven foot high in daylight, but, 'course, B'ars pulls out long at night." |
|