The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1921-07-28

trailed him with horses and afoot and
never did the spoor of other game
lure me aside. The desire to kill him
became passion in me. He outgener-
aied me. He beat all our games of
trickery. But 1 knew that we were
bound to win-that he was SLOWLY
weakening because of exhaustion and
the sickness of his wounds. We loos-
ed the dogs again and another was
killed.
And then at last came day when
Ihor, master of the mountain. show
Ell magnanimity that mada the
hunter feel contemptible, for all his
human shape and soul. He was climb
ing the mountain when he had a mis-
nap and the account runs:
came to q sheer wall or rock that
rose hundreds Of feet above me.
Along this ran narrow ledge and I
lCliowed IT. The passage became
cragSy and difficult and in climbing
over broken mass of rock 1 slipped
ana 1ell. l had brought light noun
tain gun with ME and in trying to re-
cover myself l swung it about with
such force that the stock struck n
sharp edge of rock and broke clean
OH. But had saved myself from pos
slole death and was in a frame rath-
er than to curse my luck. Fifty feet
farther on l came to pocket" in
the cliff, where the ledge widened un-
I'll at this particular place. it was like
flat table twenty feet square. Here
lssat down, with my back to the pre-
clpitous wall ahd began to examine
my broken rifle.
laid il haSida mo ,,eo1-e. O.. -.
UP at my back rose the sheer face of
,he mountain; in front of me, had 1
leaped from the ledge, my body would
have hurtled through empty air for n
thousand feet.
ana then, suddenly, there came a
sound to my ears that seemed to stop
.ne DeatlnS of my heart. 1 had not
ic"Iu 1t uhtll 1t was very near-ap-
preaching along the narrow ledeg. 1t
was the click-cllck-cli of claws
rafting on rock.
did not move. 1 hardly breathed.
And out from the ledge had follow
ed came monster bear,
With the swiftness of lightning
recognized him. 1t was Thor. And. in
the same instant, the great beast saw
me.
In thirty seconds lived a lifetime.
ana In those thirty seconds what
passed through my mind was a thou
SAND times swifter than spoken words.
a great fear rooted me and vet in
tnat fear l saw everything to the min
utest detail. Thor's massive head and
shoulders were fronting me. I saw
the long naked scar where my bullet
had plowed through his shoulder: 7
saw another wound in his foreleg.
still ragged and painful, where anoth-
er or my soft-nosed bullets had torn
IKE an explosion of dynamite. The
giant grizzly was no longer fat and
sleek as L had first Seen him ten days
ago. All that time he had been fight
ms Tor his life; he was thinner; his
eyes were red; his coat was dull and
uEkempt from lack of food and
strength. But at that distance. less
tiian ten feet from me, he seemed still
a mighty brother of the mountains
themselves. AS I sat stupidity. stunned
IL the immobility of a rock in nv
hour of doom, felt the overwhelm-
ing conviction of what had happened.
Thor had followed me along the
edge and In this hour of vengeance
and triumph, it was / and not the
SEeat beast, who was about to die.
1t seemed TO me that an eternity
passed in these moments. And Thor.
mighty in his strength. looked at me
ana dld not move. And this thing he
vas looking at@shrinking against
he rock-was the creature that had
hunted him; this was the creature