Iron County register., 1898-11-24

fore you reach the lean-to."
with that heavy sl1in?" demanded
the lieutenant.
ST reckon. It'll have to snow pretty
hard to beat me-"
But 1t did snow hard-harder and
faster than he had often seen it. Be-
fore he had the grizzly half fiayed the
snow was heaping around him faster
than he could tramp it down. His COM
panions would be at the river ere this
and all they had to do was to follow
the stream down to the lean-to. He
could trust Capt. Langdon, who had
been hunting with him before, to get
to camp all right with his brother off,
GER; so he had no anxiety on their ac-
count.
1t grew colder with the suddenness
common only to the blizzard" The
snow cut like sleet and the wind
whipped the trees spitefully. Hank
hung doggedly to his job. When he un-
dertook to turn the huge body of the
bear over, howeve-. he found 1T too
great for even his giant strength. He
had his camp hatchet in his belt, and
fighting his way across the gully, In the
very teeth of the wind, managed to lop
off a sapling that had been borne
down by the accumulation OF snow.
With this he struggled back to the
bear and pried it over. He had began
to see now how foolhardy he had been
to remain to skin the bear. The bliz-
zard in all it's fury was upon him and
he was at bad pass. He could not
see three yards before him.
But though he could not see, hia
scute ear caught a sound rising above
the shrek of the gale. It was long
drawn, human-like howl-the clan cry
of the gray timber wolf of the Rockies.
Cold or tempest could not quench their
savage appetites and they were gath
ering to the feast like storm-demens.
A less experienced man than the old
WAGNER might have underrated his
danger. Many a man has judged the
timber VOLTS temper by that of his
cousin, the kiote, and bitterly has he
paid for his mistake. The kiote is a
coward; the timber wolf knows not
what fear is. Had he the strength COM
mensurate with his savageness. the
mountain ion-even the grizzly itself
would scarcely be his master.
Hank realized that he had but little
time to live. II he should start for
camp now the wolves might remain to
sup upon his dead grizzly; but they
might follow him! There was consid-
cradle doubt, besides, whether he would
ever reach camp. The cold was in
tense, and his body was fast growing
benumbed. He could not long hesitate.
Selling his hatchet again, he split
open the bears carcass from neck to
chin. Removing the entrails and
larger organs, he crawled into the
smoking body and drew the upper side
over him. The animal heat of the
grizzly warmed him through, and, the
snow drifting over him, he was soon
quite comfortable. Snow does not pack
hard enough to exclude all air and he
breathed well enough. Fortunately the
storm continued for some hours, SO that
the wolves did not Immediately assail
him.
As Hank did not come in that night
the captain and lieutenant started out
to find him as soon as it was light the
next morning. They went back over
the route they had followed the day be-
fore, found the remainder of the deer,
dug out of the snow and eaten by the
wolves. and, pressing on into the gully.
say pack of gaunt, gray beasts fight
ing around the carcass of the bear.
They began to shoot into the pack.
when, to their unbounded amazement,
they heard Hank yelling to them seem
ingly from the very center of the melee.
They charged forward, the wolves scat
tered, and up arose the old wagner,
smiling, but covered with blood.
Fortunately, however, it was the
grizzly's and not his own. The wolves
had attacked the carcass, damaging the
pelt badly and had torn the flesh away
from the bones, and when his friends
arrived Hank was fighting them off
with his bowie through the ribs of the
grizzlyi
1.-THE first time Old Ephr'am ever did
me good turn" he said, calmly; but
he did not quarrel with fate over the
loss of the bears pelt. The call had been
too close.
sit is said that in the disastrous
Russian campaign Napoleon's soldiers
killed their horses and crept into their
bodies in like manner, and thus with
stood the terrible cold which assailed
them.