The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-08-03

| by the encroachments of settlers, Da-
vid Hanlon still derives a good in
come from his beloved mountains.
During the summer tourist season
he acts as guide in the Yellowstone
National Park. Every autumn, when
the game season opens, he earns from
I'VE to ten dollars day as guide for
the wealthy sportsmen who come from
the East to hunt big game in the
Teton range and in the Jackson Hole
country which lies Just south of the
great park.
David Hanlon has lived and loved
his mountain life as true sports
man. Your true sportsman has a
triune nature-a poets appreciation
of beauty, a philosophers content
with simple living, and the primitive
mans passionate love of the chase.
The tang of sage on the far, high
mesas, the incense and murmur of
pines on the slopes, the CLEAN of
the eternal silver seams fourteen thous-
and feet up yonder on the peaks
| these are things incomparably pre-
cioIs to the lover Of the free, wild out
doors.
Marta Hanlon had her rifle, too, for
under her brothers tutelage she had
become an excellent shot. She was
a good horsewoman and an adept
snow-shoer as we'll
When her brother took his stand
on the farther side of the sheep
corral, Marta stood her rife con-
veniently near the kitchen door. AS
listened for any unusual sounds from
the corrals.
About nine o'clock her quick ear
caught wild bleating and rush OF
small, stampeding feet. The bear
was among the sheep! She listened
intently, waiting for David's rifle to
speak. There was no report, only
wilder uproar. Marta snatched up
her rifle and ran out cautiously to-
ward the corral.
Meanwhile David had been sitting
on a log on the farther side of the
corral, near the break in the fence.
No unusual sounds broke the silence
of the forest night. The sheep were
bedded in open sheds along the front
of the corral. Now and then a little
bell tinkled drowsily. A half-broken
bronco, tied in the log stable not
| far beyond, tried every half-hour or
so to kick out, but his hoofs made
only brief, vicious bombardment on
the logs. David thought he had new
er heard the mountain stream before
the house gurgle and babble so
loudly over it's boulders. He buttoned
close his fur-lined fustian jacket, for
the autumn nights are bitter cold in
| those high attitudes.
The night was brightly. crisply star
lit. The moon. faint, milky bit
of jaggerdly broken pearl, added no
light to the cold white star brillancy.
The peaks stood sharply defined, like
sculptIred marble and ebony.
Once David fancied he heard faint,
padded footballs on the old path. He
waited, rifle ready, eyes on the break
in the fence. He could hear his
| blood pounding in his ears, but not
another approaching football on the
l
underground only denoted that some
wary night wanderer had gone off
into the pines. David settled down
On the log in sore disappointment.
Suddenly the sheep lying under the
sheds heaved up from their straw. 1t
was like the very ground heaving
and breaking into gray, rounded
| waVec PlaafiDU uyiIdIv Aao1y
stampeded toward his side of the cor
raj
David saw the waves-a thousand
sheep-surging madly toward him
Near the gate, on the ebbing edge OF
the rushing flock, large, dark ami
NAL was knocking sheep right and left
with powerful slaps of his paws. The
willy Big Bear of the Tetons had en-
tered the corral from the front, while
David was waiting to receive him at
the rear!
But David himself had little time
to realize how the Big Bear had
! frustrated his reception program,
for the frightened sheep surged close
about him, thrusting him back to-
ward the fence. On they ZANE, knock
ing each other down and trampling
on the fallen. The onslaught of the
thousand fear-maddened creatures
was so terrific and unexpected that
David was knocked down and
trampled.
The sharp little hoofs cut his hands,
/ t, 60 l. i a.
grease in the wool He was being
buried alive under the frantic flock.
He was suffocating!
Dimly he heard two rifle reports,
aad he wondered duly how his gun,
which had been knocked from his
hand. had contrived to go off-twice!
Then his whole body seemed burst
e.. a