ar. I told him I would
show him all the bears he wanted to see the next day, and give him a
chance to try his own nerves.

"The next day five of us went out to look for bears, and we struck them
thick before we got to the place where we had found so much sign.
Willis and I took the upper side of a patch of brush, and Green and the
other two skirted the lower edge. An old Grizzly and two cubs,
startled by some noise made by the other fellows, jumped out of the
brush on our side, and we fired at them. My bullet struck one near the
shoulder, and Willis hit the dam in the belly. They all turned and ran
down through the brush toward the rest of the crowd, and got out of our
range.

"The noise made by them in running through the brush stirred up another
squad, and when the shooting began down below five bears came tearing
out on our side to get out of the way. Willis raised his rifle and
pulled the trigger, but luckily the cap failed to explode. The five
turned as soon as they saw us and ran in another direction. I was
going to shoot one in the rump, but Willis stopped me, saying that we
had our hands full without inviting any more bears to join the
scrimmage. Before those five bears, got out of sight three more broke
cover and joined them, and for a moment there were eleven Grizzly
bears, young and old, in sight from where I stood. Eight of them ran
away and the original three kept us all busy for the best part of the
afternoon.

"For some time the other three men had all the fun, while Willis and I
stood guard on our side of the thicket and watched the performance.
The old bear would stand up and look over a patch of brush to locate
her enemy, and somebody would give her a shot. She would drop to all
fours and gallop around to where she saw the man last, and he would run
around the other side and reload. The cubs were half grown--big enough
to be dangerous--and the boys had to watch for them while dodging about.

"I got even on Green that afternoon. He had forgotten to bring any
caps, and after his first shot he could do nothing but dodge around the
brush and keep out of the way. One of the bears was after him, and he
had to step lively. While he was waiting to see which way the bear was
coming next, he made motions with his hand, pointing to the nipple of
his rifle, to indicate that he wanted caps. I saw what he meant, but
instead of going to him to supply him with caps I stood still and
laughed at him