Bogalusa enterprise and American. (Bogalusa, La.) 1918-19??, 1921-11-03

the chamber of my rifle, / was out.
Hall shot the same kind of rifle /
did, and saw he had his belt on. l
ran over to him and while he was
shooting / pulled his belt off and
laid it beside US so we both could
reach it. Andy was in worse fix.
He had failed to keep any cartridges
out except the five in his gun, and
the entire bag of ammunition was in
a sack on one of the pack mules. He
ran down the trail to where the mule
had stopped, jerked out his knife and
ripped open the sack and dug into it
for cartridges. He was lucky to
know exactly where his were and he
soon came back 'loaded for bear.
After we had shot about three rounds
each flour of US at five shots round
makes sixty shots), the biggest bear
and one other went over the top of
the mountain. / really think the
big one was hit, from her actions,
and / know that we were showering
the shots all around them from the
dust that would fly from the rocks
when we would shoot. One of them
stopped in a small thicket near the
top of the mountain, and / happened
to see exactly where it went. The
rocks up there went nearly straight
up, and there was little growth. This
little thicket was of thorn bushes,
and other brush nearly twice as high
as a mans head. Of course, it
looked small from where we were,
but when l got up there it was about
as big in area as the ground your
house sits on. / forgot to mention
that I finally got my belt of car
tridges and A six-shooter from my
saddle and with that bucked on me l
got in the battle in good time. When
/ saw this one go in that thicket, /
told Hall and Andy to ''let's go get
'em." We lit out across the valley.
There were some small trees and
brush, but / could keep my eye on
the spot most of the time and knew
that he would not get out without
my seeing him. There were other
thickets near by, but open spaces be-
tween them. Before we got half way
up we were pretty we'll exhausted and
we saw we would have to tame
down, or we would not be able to
shoot one if he ran right over us.
We took it more slowly as we got
nearer, Bob and going straight to
where the thickets were, and ndy 60
ing off little to the left. said
to Bob: "Now, Bob, / know where
that bear is, and if you will stand
here I'll get on top Of the cliff and
roll a big rock into that thicket and
run him out. He never said any
thing, but kinder eased off to the
left around another thicket near by,
and / said to myself, that I'd just go
get him myself. So / climbed up
toward my clump of bushes as noise
lessly as possible, considering the
rough rocks, and when / got in about
twenty or thirty steps of it, just about
on a level with the thicket, saw a
bush snake. l stopped and pretty
soon / saw anOher one shake a lit
tie closer to me. The thicket was
just a mat of thorn bushes and little
oaks and it was impossible to see
into it five feet. / stood right still
and happened to notice a big rock
about the size of a piano, resting
against another much larger right on
my side of the thicket. AS / sized
up the situation I figured that the
bear would certainly come into that
little avn shaped spot to look around
to see how the coast looked. could
see from the bushes that it was COM
ing closer so l raised my gun right
at that spot. I could then hear him
coming through the bushes slowly.
and it was only a moment when /
saw a pretty brown nose poke slow
ly over the rock. It was followed
by a very black head that looked to
me then as big as a barrel. / only
waited till / could see his eyes and
pulled my sight right between them
and pulled the trigger as quickly as
could, because / knew as soon as he
saw me, he would be gone. He
dropped out Of sight, and heard him
in the dead leaves and saw the bushes
shaking down the hill a little more
and more. / thought must have
missed him, and he was getting away.
/ ran downhill little to get him as
he went out, but it was not long be-
fore everything was still. / didn't
know but what he went into a cave
or something. After waited a rea-
sonable length of time, Andy and Hall
shouting advice to do this and that,
laid my rifle down and pulled my
pistol. The bushes were so thick it
would be useless to try to use a rifle
in them. With my pistol cooked
and ready to shoot, / cautiously
parted the bushes and crept into the
thicket. / had only to go a little
way till I saw him lying dead. I
dragged him out and down the noun
tain to a place where the Mexican
could come on his horse.
I neglected to mention that while