The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-02-27
Outwitting a Grizzly.
BY w. THOM SON.

Some OF the balls hit it, I'm sure. but
it never stirred till l began to veil.
Then it picked up the colt just as easy
as a dog does rabbit, and numbered
off into the mouth of that black-look
ing gully among the rocks yonder."
Well, Jimmy, you're a tenderfoot
and no mistake!" said Dave Ingram.
our guide. why, boy, don't you know
that you might shoot revolver bullets
at thirty yards into an old grizzly's
body all day without hurting him
much? It's a mighty lucky thing he
didn't make a breakfast of you! I'm
awful sorry about the colt, though.
We ought to have corraled the stock
last night, as usual
Look here, men," said Tom Rae
burn, Il won't leave this camping
ground until see the skin of that
bear spread out on it! If you don't
like to stand by me, I'll stay here
alone till kill the brute or he kills
me-
"Oh, We'll stand by you,' replied In
gram. Il don't believe we'll lose much
time. The bear will be so full direct
ly that he won't 60 far, and maybe
We can come across him right Off Let
US have breakfast first, though"
Vengefully impatient as Tom was, he
could not object to breakfast, so we
returned to the wagons and had
hearty meal; then the guide selected
nine of us, including, of course, Rae
burn and Carroll to go with him on
the hunt.
AS we went slowly toward the ravine
into which the grizzly had borne his
prey, Tom said, Now, boys, all ask
is this: Let me have the first crack at
the bear, if it can be done without risk
ing your own lives"
All cheerfully agreed to this, and we
then stole along in perfect silence to
the mouth of the deile, which was
nearly blocked up by masses of fallen
rock and shut in on each side by YER
teal walls.
We saw that the great bear had
forced himself and the foal through a
three-foot space between two boulders.
portant, namely, that the ravine ex-
tended into the mountainside no more
than hundred yards; that its bottom
was Overgrown by thick scrub through
which ran a narrow, well-beaten trail,
and that its farther end was bounded
by confused tumble of detached rocks
lying at the base of perpendicular.
cliff fully a hundred feet high.
"Old Eph's Gagged hard and fast,
boys!" exclaimed Tom There's only
one way for him to get out of here,
and all we've got to do is to find him.
Yes, that's ALL" said Ingram dry
ly. But that sinple-looking jobs
pretty dangerous. Among these stones
and bushes we can't see the grizzly till
We run on top of him-and the man
who does that will never run again.
"All right, Dave. This is my funer-
al" replied Tom. Let me go ahead,
and you fellows follow in single file.
If you see me go down, why. you'll
have the satisfaction of finding the
bear anyhow"
go mighty slow, then, and keep
your eyes peeled" cautioned the guide.
ITS just possible you may catch sight
of the beast before he sees you. So
long as you see the marks of the colts
trailing carcass it's all right; but when
those end, don't you 60 one step farth-
er, unless you know to an inch where
the bear is, which l guess you won't
do. even if he's within five yards and
has his eye on you at the time. A
real old grizzly's as cunning as Satan
and quicker than lightning"
The path which we now entered up
on looked as If 1t had been trodden
by wild beasts for ages, and was SO
narrow, so tortuous and so hedged in
by thorny scrub and broken rock that
two men could hardly have walked on
it abreast Therefore, holding his
heavy rife as does sportsman his
gun while each moment expecting a
bird to rise at his feet, Raeburn went
first, the rest of us following in line,
and as close together as the effective
of our firearms would permit.
For perhaps eighty yards We thus
advanced, the track of the colts drag
ged body being all the way plainly Wis
ible. as were also, occasionally, the i'm
prints of the bears monstrous feet
Then our leader stopped, and, half
said:
This tangled brushwood is at the
foot of the precipice, boys. The bear
has gone into sort of black hole in its
face. and he's somewhat among the
rocks, but we've no more chance of
getting at him there tnan of seeing the
middle of last week, though l can !