The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-06-18
Shot One That Was Up . Tres
and Routed the Other.
HAD ONLY ONE CARTRIDGE
h Man Whom she Saved From the
Bear Was Afraid to Take the
Chance With Only One Shot.
but the Girl Had Nerve.

Key Handle Ranch, Mont. The mild
ness of the weather is the cause of their
leaving their places Of Information in
the Snowy and Bull mountains. They
are fat and saucy, and as the mercury
has seldom been as low as zero I'm this
locality. they are not sluggish. 1t Is
possible. and sometimes painful. to learn
a little more about bears. even after
n Is certain one knows all about
them. This story illustrates that fact:
Having been to the postoffice," said
the man who told it. Il stopped at the
Flying W ranch to give them their
letters. There the daughter Of the
family proudly exhibited a young cub
weighing about 20 pounds. which she
herself had caught carried home
the day before. She was proud of her
conquest, and naively suggested h
the cubs might be somewhere
close. 1t was almost a foregone con-
clusion that she was. Having had
some experience In trampling on the
feelings OF an angry mother of a miss
ing cub. ! directed the conversation
to an entirely different subject. Short
~ after luncheon / caught my cayuse
and set out for home.
4 mad just reached the top of the
hill when my horse started to bolt,
but, throwing the bride rein over his
head, which Is the signal to a cayuse
to stop, ] swung out of the saddl and
found myself between the frightened
horse and a little ball-faced grizzly.
whose hostile intentions could have
been interpreted by the most casual
observer. Suspense is worse thar bat
tie. SO ] picked up a stone and threw
1t at the bear. The action precipitated
a riot. The bear and the horse danced
around me in bewildering confusion.
Having kept hold of the bride reins /
soon got back i'm the saddle. n was
soon a hundred yards away. This ac-
.tion seemed to puzzle the bear, who
had probably seen horses and men
apart. but had never seen a man on a
horse. When one has killed the real
grizzly one hates to be imposed upon
by a bad-tempered liliputian edition,
so turned my cayuse and charged the
bear.
When my cayuse stampeded he had
rim past the cabins at the Flying W
ranch. My yells and the riderless
horse Informed them that something
was wrong. and when the daughter of
the family, a girl of Is, came close
enough to hear 1 told her 1 had a bear !
up a tree and asked her to get a gun
quick. Thereupon she ran back to the
house, and when she ~reappeared she
was followed by the Queerest process
sion i have ever seen come out to
Kill a bear. First came the girl with
a Marlin 44-40 repeater. Then came
her mother carrying i'm her arms a 3
months'-old baby. A boy of Z pulling
the unwilling captive cub near with a
u dog barking at his heels COM
pleted the force.
There is only one cartridge In the
gum said the girl. as she handed ii
to me. |
The remark was made in a matter
of-fact way that appalled, me. If the
young woman expected me to attempt
to shoot a ball-faced grizzly whose
temper i had tested, I would much
rather she and her mother and all ex-
cept the fat pug dog would go back
to the house. There was only six
square inches Of bear visible. but 1
knew there was several undred
pounds of bear up that tree. The fam
lily refused TO accept my advice to re-
tire while j massacred the bear, and.
therefore,. I declined to shoot. The
last time / had seen that ball-faced
countenance IL had the ex-
OF a fend hat was perfectly
capable of d%evouring the entire fam
lily. pug dog and all.
Il handed the gun back to the girl
o'o of' ht W ~ ~ the house ana
MI the magazine with cartridges. She
contemptuously and then. be-
fore 1 could prevent IL, raised the rifle
and fired. The bear fell with a thud
and was dead before he reached the
ground. but coming directly toward us
with open jaws and red tongue. I saw
another bear. that even in hat excit-
i had no difficulty in lden-
trying as the mother of tie captive
cub.
The family ran, that is. all except
the girl. the pug and The cub. I
thought the girl was too much scared
to run. i wanted to, but could not
very well stampede and leave her. The
pug did not have sense enough to run,
and the cub had 10 reason 10. Open
a big claspknife, l waited for the
Bruin Is always a boxer.
and IL behooves an antagonist TO guard
well the solar plexus and other vulner-
able points. l saw a huge form rise
before me, and while Intellectually try
TO sink the knife i'm her body. I felt
my arms pinioned To my side with q
grip so terrible tha: IL seemed to par
alyze the action of my muscles. Her
breath almost suffocated me. There
was no room for hope. A quick death
was the only boon i could consistently
crave. Time is merely a measure of
events. and i now know hat the Grim
inal who Is hanged. from the time the
falls until he reaches the end of
the rope. lives longer than any man
who is now alive. l spent a short
eternity in the arms OF that bear.
voluntarily old Bruin let me go.
fancied / had almost scented the mol
zephrys of the Styx and had
caught a glimpse of Old Charon's face.
and j am yet considerably Inundated
because i can recoliect nothing re-
sembling a chinook breeze from Para
disc. i am yet surprised the bear let
but a girl of Is had had sufficient
presence of mind to speculate on the
chances OF establishing the Identity of
the true heir-at-law OF my tormentor.
she had gathered up the little u
bear. despite his squeals. scratches
other protestations. and taken him
TO his mamma"