confident, despite his poor luck so
far, that he should find big game soon, and his hunting fever
increased. He had never shot anything bigger than a rabbit, but
Albert was an impressionable boy, and his imagination at once
leaped over the gulf from a rabbit to a grizzly bear.

He had the lake, an immense and beautiful blue mirror, on his
right and the mountains on his left, but the space between was
now nearly two miles in width, sown thickly in spots with pine
and cedar, ash and aspen, and in other places quite open. In the
latter the grass was green despite the lateness of the season,
and Albert surmised that good grazing could be found there all
through the winter, even under the snow. Game must be plentiful
there, too.

The way dropped down a little into a sheltered depression, and
Albert heard a grunt and a great puffing breath. A huge dark
animal that had been lying among some dwarf pines shuffled to its
feet and Albert's heart slipped right up into his throat. Here
was his grizzly, and he certainly was a monster! Every nerve in
Albert was tingling, and instinct bade him run. Will had a hard
time of it for a few moments, struggling with instinct, but will
conquered, and, standing his ground, Albert fired a bullet from
his repeater at the great dark mass.

The animal emitted his puffing roar again and rushed, head down,
but blindly. Then Albert saw that he had roused not a grizzly
bear but an enormous bull buffalo, a shaggy, fierce old fellow
who would not eat him, but who might gore or trample him to
death. His aspect was so terrible that will again came near
going down before instinct, but Albert did not run. Instead, he
leaped aside, and, as the buffalo rushed past, he fired another
bullet from his repeater into his body just back of the fore
legs.

The animal staggered, and Albert staggered, too, from excitement
and nervousness, but he remembered to take aim and fire again and
again with his heavy repeater. In his heat and haste he did not
hear a shout behind him, but he did see the great bull stagger,
then reel and fall on his side, after which he lay quite still.

Albert stood, rifle in hand, trembling and incredulous. Could it
be he who had slain the mightiest buffalo that ever trod the
earth? The bull seemed to his distended eyes and flushed brain
to weigh ten tons at least, and to dwarf the biggest elephant.
He raised his hand to his forehead and then sat down beside his
trophy, over