aste to catch his foe.

Miller dropped his gun and swung lightly into a tree, the only large one
near. Wahb raged in vain against the trunk. He tore off the bark with his
teeth and claws; but Miller was safe beyond his reach. For fully four hours
the Grizzly watched, then gave it up, and slowly went off into the bushes
till lost to view. Miller watched him from the tree, and afterward waited
nearly an hour to be sure that the Bear was gone. He then slipped to the
ground, got his gun, and set out for camp. But Wahb was cunning; he had
only _seemed_ to go away, and then had sneaked back quietly to watch. As
soon as the man was away from the tree, too far to return, Wahb dashed
after him. In spite of his wounds the Bear could move the faster. Within a
quarter of a mile--well, Wahb did just what the man had sworn to do to
him.

Long afterward his friends found the gun and enough to tell the tale.

The claim-shanty on the Meteetsee fell to pieces. It never again was used,
for no man cared to enter a country that had but few allurements to offset
its evident curse of ill luck, and where such a terrible Grizzly was always
on the war-path.

[Illustration]

IV

[Illustration]

Then they found good gold on the Upper Meteetsee. Miners came in pairs and
wandered through the peaks, rooting up the ground and spoiling the little
streams--grizzly old men mostly, that had lived their lives in the mountain
and were themselves slowly turning into Grizzly Bears; digging and grubbing
everywhere, not for good, wholesome roots, but for that shiny yellow
sand that they could not eat; living the lives of Grizzlies, asking nothing
but to be let alone to dig.

[Illustration: "'AIN'T HE AN AWFUL SIZE, THOUGH?'"]

They seemed to understand Grizzly Wahb. The first time they met, Wahb
reared up on his hind legs, and the wicked green lightnings began to
twinkle in his small eyes. The elder man said to his mate:

"Let him alone, and he won't bother you."

"Ain't he an awful size, though?" replied the other, nervously.

Wahb was about to charge, but something held him back--a something that had
no reference to his senses, that was felt only when they were still; a
something that in Bear and Man is wiser than his wisdom, and that points
the way at every doubtful fork in the dim and winding trail.

[Illustration]

Of course Wahb did not understand what the men said, but he did feel that
there was something diff