jist about ready to
slope when you appeared."

Ned now explained to them the cause of their alarms, and on search being
made, a hole was found, as he had anticipated, close at hand among the
bushes, which communicated with the cavern below, and formed a channel
for the conveyance of the so-called mysterious sounds.

"And now," said Ned, "may I ask permission to pass the night with you?"

"You're welcome, stranger," replied he who seemed to be the chief of the
band--a tall, bearded American, named Croft, who seemed more like a
bandit than an honest man. His comrades, too, six in number, appeared a
wild and reckless set of fellows, with whom one would naturally desire
to hold as little intercourse as possible; but most men at the
Californian diggings had more or less the aspect of brigands, so Ned
Sinton and his companion felt little concern as to their characters,
although they did feel a little curious as to what had brought them to
such a wild region.

"If it is not taking too great a liberty," said Ned, after answering the
thousand questions put to him in rapid succession by his Yankee host,
"may I ask what has brought you to this out-of-the-way valley?"

"Bear-catchin'," answered the man, shortly, as he addressed himself to a
large venison steak, which a comrade had just cooked for him.

"Bear-catching?" ejaculated Ned.

"Ay, an' screamin' hard work it is too, I guess; but it pays well."

"What do you do with them when caught?" inquired Tom Collins, in a
somewhat sceptical tone.

"Take 'em down to the cities, an' sells 'em to fight with wild bulls."

At this answer our travellers stared at the man incredulously.

"You're strangers here, I see," he resumed, "else you'd know that we
have bull and bear fights. The grizzlies are chained by one leg and the
bulls let loose at 'em. The bulls charge like all possessed, but they
find it hard to do much damage to Caleb, whose hide is like a
double-extra rhinoceros. The grizzlies ginerally git the best of it;
an' if they was let loose, they'd chaw up the bulls in no time, they
would. There's a great demand for 'em jist now, an' my trade is
catchin' 'em alive here in the mountains."

The big Yankee stretched out his long limbs and smoked his pipe with the
complacent aspect of a man who felt proud of his profession.

"Do you mean that you seven men catch fall-grown grizzly-bears alive and
take them down to the settlements?" inquired Ned in amazement.

"Sartin