They left these traps open and unset till they were grayed with age
and smelt no more of man. Then the two hunters prepared for the final
play. They baited all without setting them--baited them with honey,
the lure that Monarch never had refused--and when at length they found
the honey baits were gone, they came where he now was taking toll and
laid the long-planned snare. Every trap was set, and baited as before
with a mass of honey--but _honey now mixed with a potent sleeping
draft_.



XVI. LANDLOCKED


That night the great Bear left his lair, one of his many lairs, and,
cured of all his wounds, rejoicing in the fullness of his mighty
strength, he strode toward the plains. His nose, ever alert,
reported--sheep, a deer, a grouse; men--more sheep, some cows, and
some calves; a bull--a fighting bull--and Monarch wheeled in big,
rude, Bearish joy at the coming battle brunt; but as he hugely hulked
from hill to hill a different message came, so soft and low, so
different from the smell of beefish brutes, one might well wonder he
could sense it, but like a tiny ringing bell when thunder booms it
came, and Monarch wheeled at once. Oh, it cast a potent spell! It
stood for something very near to ecstasy with him, and down the hill
and through the pines he went, on and on faster yet, abandoned to its
sorcery. Here to its home he traced it, a long, low cavern. He had
seen such many times before, had been held in them more than once, but
had learned to spurn them. For weeks he had been robbing them of their