Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-07-28
SILVER TIP.
A Tale of the Far North.

some SAID ne mad strain OF RTlZZIy
blood in him, that that was where he
got his great size. But every hunter,
trapper, traveller or lumberjack in The
Marbleau country who had seen him
agreed tn, he was mostly cinnamon
and mean as his hair was brown; and
the dash CT super-meaness that put the
silver nose on him and gave him his
name was the worst kind of blood that
could have been mixed. In half-brceds
the bad qualities are usually FREEDOM
inant, and Silver Tip was no exception.
he was a stickler for justice and the
70 the Nipigon's headwa;ers, and he had
committed every crime on the bear cal
endar from purloinng bacon in un-
guarded cabins TO stealing sheep from
an embryo rancher az Gargammon.
His taste for mutton had sent the would
be sheep raiser back to the States in
disgust. and had whe,ted popular de-
sire for his hide. He was probably tho
most hated and at the same time the
most feared in the Canadian woods. He
came down to the Marbleu country in
the winter and in the summer he dis
appeared, where no one knew. Some
said he had got matters mixed in his
bear mind and hiberna:cd during the
wrong season of the year; at any and
all events it was strange that he should
persist in roaming abroad during the
bitter winter months when other bears
slept
The best bear hunters and trappers
in the whole Marbleau country had
traled, chased and still hunted and
been baffled in turn by the willy bear,
to say nothing of an army of sportsmen
from Ottawa to the Gulf who had come
equipped with high power 30 caliber
rifles fitted with telescope sights, and
returned still possessing them but no
bear hide:at least not the hide they
wanted. And not a few there had
been who had had narrow escapes
from the bear.
So when Pierre Baptiste swore to
trail Silver Tip down, he did so with
a full realization of what he was
swearing to do. But the fiery blood
that ran in Pierre's veins when arous
ed knew no cooling till justice was
done. For Pierre was not a bad man.
The bear was known from Windy Lake
trait had often seen him in tight
places. Once when he had decided
that when a certain proving cougar
had stolen into his camp and chewed
up quarter of moose justice demand
ed that he rush out in the darkness
and shoot the animal, and its screams
had dropped a mate from the tree onto
Pierre's shoulders. The work the big
cat had done with its teeth and claws
before Pierre's knife found its throat
was responsible for his peculiar twist
when shouldering a gun. There were
other things, which do not concern
our tale. Therefore we come to the
winter when Pierre was trapping in the
upper Marbleau county on the very
edge of the barren lands.
For several mornings Pierre had
found the catches in his traps mutt
lated and torn. Often there would be
only the leg of an animal left in a
trap where some marauder had Toasted
on marten or fox worth many dollars
to Pierre. The robber would follow
the line OF traps unerringly and as
its appetite became satisfied would be
content with mere killing and maui
ing the trapped animals. There had
been clustering wind for several
days that had kept the snow fields
moving in ever changing drifts. and
Pierre had found the robbers tracks
obliterated each morning. Then one
night the wind had died and Pierre set
forth in the early dawn to run his line.
1t was as before, the first traps wera
robbed of their catch for the ma
RAIDERS breakfast, the others held
mutilated remains. But what sens
the hot blood coursng through Perre's
veins were the tracks that followed
his line, plainly Jisihle in the lndrift
ed snow. Bear tracks, they were
huge numbering tracks srch as only
one bear in the Marbleau country
made,
SO it was that standing ~ 4 trap
which Haunted 4 mass Of torn fur that
had once been 4 silk marten ard al.
most brought tears 20 piecres eyes, the
outraged trapper swore to average all
the crimes of Silver Tip. he would
Ira II h. L.. 4