[Illustration]

He went up the wind, and there, sure enough, was the great delicious
carcass, already torn open at the very best place. True, there was that
terrible man-and-iron taint, but it was so slight and the feast so
tempting that after circling around and inspecting the carcass from his
eight feet of stature, as he stood erect, he went cautiously forward,
and at once was caught by his left paw in an enormous Bear-trap.
He roared with pain and slashed about in a fury. But this was no
Beaver-trap; it was a big forty-pound Bear-catcher, and he was surely
caught.

Wahb fairly foamed with rage, and madly grit his teeth upon the trap.
Then he remembered his former experiences. He placed the trap between
his hind legs, with a hind paw on each spring, and pressed down with all
his weight. But it was not enough. He dragged off the trap and its clog,
and went clanking up the mountain. Again and again he tried to free his
foot, but in vain, till he came where a great trunk crossed the trail a
few feet from the ground. By chance, or happy thought, he reared again
under this and made a new attempt. With a hind foot on each spring and
his mighty shoulders underneath the tree, he bore down with his titanic
strength: the great steel springs gave way, the jaws relaxed, and he
tore out his foot. So Wahb was free again, though he left behind a great
toe which had been nearly severed by the first snap of the steel.

Again Wahb had a painful wound to nurse, and as he was a left-handed
Bear,--that is, when he wished to turn a rock over he stood on the right
paw and turned with the left,--one result of this disablement was to rob
him for a time of all those dainty foods that are found under rocks or