Valdez daily prospector., 1917-10-12
BEAR SLAIN IN TINE
TO SAVE LABORER'S LIFE

Members of the crew laying steel
on the main line of the government
railroad near Mile 1876 were ter
ror-stricken yesterday by the sudden
appearance among them Of a vicious
brown bear and the life of one of
their number was saved by only a
narrow margin as the result of the
quick and accurate aim of fellow
worker. The huge animal was slain
Just as he was about to pounce on
a laborer.
As one of the workmen, Swede
was walking along the track a short
distance from the station camp, he
was attacked by the bear, which
emerged almost beside him from a
small clump of trees Immediately adj
Joining the railroad. The man at one
leap broke into full speed and ran be-
tween the rails toward camp. The
bear swung clumsily up a sight grade
emhankment and OH the right-Of-way
ana gave pursuit.
The animal didn't make a noise like
a racing machine, but he covered the
ties at a deceptively fast pace. The
speeding worker, try as he might,
could not Increase the thirty-foot lead
he had at the start. Indeed, with a
quick glance toward the rear, as he
approached the station camp, he re-
allied his pursuer, gathering momen-
tum at every bound, was rapidly over
taking him.
Steel ended at the camp, and when
the fugitive bounced off the ties he
had to step high for the unfinished
new grade was soft and bunny. These
conditions, so unfavorable to the man
seemed made to the bears order, for
on reaching this part of the course,
the animal began tn fairly annihilate
distance.
The racing laborer dashed through
camp yelling for help. His fellow
workers, filled with fright and con-
sternatiOn, had parted into groups
and were standing mute on either
side of the grade. They might have
DETECTED the animal from his pursuit
by throwing stones at him, but while
no doubt they were duly concerned
and alarmed at the dangerous plight
of their companion, they evidently
preferred that he, rather than they,
should try to cheat the hungry beast
of a human feast.
One of the workers, however, had
the presence of mind to hurry to a
nearby tent for rifle. With the
loaded weapon, he hastily returned to
the right-of-way and leaped to the
top of the grade, so, unobstructed by
brush and trees he could get fair
shot at the voracious bear.
He realized he needs must have a
mighty accurate aim. AS his glance
quickly travelled along the top Of the
rifle barrel, he saw perhaps seventy
feet in front of him the numbering
but swiftly moving animal, close
not more than five feet-tO the fee
ing laborer.
The finger pressed the trigger. An
impulse for an instant had been not
to shoot, for missing the bear would
make certain the hitting of the man
directly in line ahead. Yet not to fire
meant in a moment the tragic end of
a desperate race that with every step
was becoming more hopeless for the
human contestant.
At the flash of the report, the
marksman dropped to one knee to
peer under the smoke for the result
of his effort, and twenty pair Of anx-
ious eyes from the sides Of the right
of-way were trained on the animated
target.
The bullet carried home. The bear
dropped in his tracks, dead.
The speeding laborer turned his
head and realized his delivery. But
he continued twenty feet, his fellow
workers say, before he could come to
a stop, and in putting breaks on him
self, they affirm, his soft-soled shoe
packs struck sparks off gravel in the
loose roadbed.
An examination of the bear dis
closed that the bullet had ploughed
through the top of his shoulder into
his neck. His carcass weighed 500
pounds.-Exchange.