o could twirl a rope were sent around on this divide,
to rope him in case he came out. The others left their horses and made
a half-circle drive through the grove, beating the brush and burning
powder as though it didn't cost anything. We ropers up on the divide
scattered out, hiding ourselves as much as we could in the broken
places. We wanted to get him out in the clear in case he played nice.
He must have been a sullen old fellow, for we were beginning to think
they had missed him or he had holed, when he suddenly lumbered out
directly opposite me and ambled away towards the big thicket.

"I was riding a cream-colored horse, and he was as good a one as ever
was built on four pegs, except that he was nervous. He had never seen
a bear, and when I gave him the rowel, he went after that bear like a
cat after a mouse. The first sniff he caught of the bear, he whirled
quicker than lightning, but I had made my cast, and the loop settled
over Mr. Bear's shoulders, with one of his fore feet through it. I
had tied the rope in a hard knot to the pommel, and the way my horse
checked that bear was a caution. It must have made bruin mad. My horse
snorted and spun round like a top, and in less time than it takes to
tell it, there was a bear, a cream-colored horse, and a man sandwiched
into a pile on the ground, and securely tied with a three-eighths-inch
rope. The horse had lashed me into the saddle by winding the rope, and
at the same time windlassed the bear in on top of us. The horse
cried with fear as though he was being burnt to death, while the bear
grinned and blew his breath in my face. The running noose in the rope
had cut his wind so badly, he could hardly offer much resistance. It
was a good thing he had his wind cut, or he would have made me sorry I
enlisted. I didn't know it at the time, but my six-shooter had fallen
out of the holster, while the horse was lying on my carbine.

"The other three rode up and looked at me, and they all needed
killing. Horse, bear, and man were so badly mixed up, they dared not
shoot. One laughed till he cried, another one was so near limp
he looked like a ghost, while one finally found his senses and,
dismounting, cut the rope in half a dozen places and untied the
bundle. My horse floundered to his feet and ran off, but before the
bear could free the noose, the boys got enough lead into him at close
quarters to hold him down. The entire detachment came out of the
thicket, and their hilar