The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-10-04

morning. He had planned
fishing trip along the foamy brown
stream under the alders; but no sooner
had he finished milking the cows than
his father had sent him to the barn loft
with instructions to shift some of the
hay from the untouched left NOW to
the depleted right.
A'silly piece of work it seemed to
Andy, mere pretext to keep him from
the brook but he knew better than 10
discuss the matter with his father.
A long. lank, red-haired man was
Ellis Macomber. There was no smoke
to his temper; just clear flame. And
nothing was surer to rouse II than to
grumble over ones work. The Ma
combers changed hired men frequently
The swallows rumbled in and out of
the loft door. The sunlight smote the
hay dust into golden life. Grip, Andy's
dock-tailed mongrel, whined and pant
ed MOSTLY near the head of the stairs.
The swallows and the whining and
thoughts of happy, rowing hired men
hifNu nhuy Win pul
he was a Macomber twig, after all,
although not fully inclined in the way
his father meant him to grow. So, al
though the dust redeemed his eyes and
blisters bit into the palms of his hands
and his arms ached with the eternal
jab, heave and toss, he stuck silently
TO his job.
Presently he saw his father come
rapidly round the corner of the chicken
yard. He looked up grimly at his son.
HAS the dog been with you all the
morning" he asked.
"Yes, since g." said Andy.
! "That's well-for him. Come along
with me if you want TO see a sore piece
of work. Maybe it'll bring home to you
the mischief Of harboring rascal
cur"
They. picked up Mert, the new hired
man, on the way.
Ellis, Mert, Andy and Grip the dog
alert, snufling the wind, yet keeping
shrewdly in the background, crossed
in Indian file the shaggy orchard, the
wet meadow, where the bObolinks
were singing, and ascended the sudden
shoulder of the sheep hill pasture.
AT the summit of the rise Macomber
stopped and pointed toward a clump
OF feathery fingered little pines.
The two white bodies made a tragic
patch on the bright bare hillside. Their
long, silky fibrOus hair was blown
about as if by the breath of fear, and
dabbled with the stain so grimly vivid.
Come back here, You brutew said
Macomber, sternly, rs Grip crept for.
ward, the wiry hackles rising on hi,
neck. you'd like to worrit 'em, too,
I've no doubt
mot he" said Andy, splritedly. "IPs
the scent of something besides blood
that makes him act that way"
He went forward and bent over the
dead sheep.
mo dog did it," he said. "Come and
see for yourself" Under the long coats
OF the MerinOs the flesh was slashed
in deep, true furrows. The head of one
was bent back at a sickening angle
that showed the neck had been broken;
but the throat, the invariable point of
sheep-kllling dogs attack, was un-
touched
Bear" announced the hired man,
with excitement.
That a bear had done the mischief
Macomber was at last compelled to be-
lieve. No dog of any breed known to
him could have so mauled his victims.
The village soon learned that this
was no chance raid. Four days later
Judson Appleyard's flock was attacked
and fire eve dragged into the woods,
where they found a crow perched on
her moist bones. 1t was at the Merton
homestead that the murderer next ap-
peared, and here he was seen in the
high-handed assault AS old Grandad
Merton described him, no bear had
ever been quite so black or so huge be-
fore, and to cap the climax there was a
slash of spectral white on his broad
breast.
when you see a bar marked that
way" old Merton quavered, convinc-
1ngly, you can make certain he's a
killer"
Science does not support old Merton's
Theory. Experience Las taught us that
most bears are timid and clownish
creatures, who seek a living along the
line of least resistance; but through
some hereditary taint or some unfor.
tunate twist given his nature when
young, the pariah of Greyhorn proved
a most cunning and determined sheep
killer in spite of traps and armed
guards.
1t was after the killing at Merton's
that they tracked him to the rugged
slopes of Greyhorn. The chase stopped
where the scrubby timber died down tC
q few muscular-rooted first that sparse
h dotted the lower buttresses of the
4eak. Above was a chaos of long
Jeined rock, broken and bent at every
conceivable angle, but still rearing up
gard mighty mass, broad-based
aaked pyramid, whose sharp ape,
Deemed to offer foothold to nothing
5ess agile than a goat.