Bears, Chapters I-III [pp. 33-50]

48 Bears. [July
new health and inspiration from the gushing dred yards thus, when I caught sight of
springs amid the tall-columned pines and severM deer, feeding beneath some oaks that
sturdy-shafted oaks. My associates, I knew, skirted the foot of the ledge, I drew back
looked on my long rambles and indifference from view, and, quietly gaining a conveto hunting as something of immoral tendency, nient spot for a shot, I was stealthily watchwith feelings akin to Prince Henry's when ing them, when I saw the lion with a
he exclaimed, "0, monstrous! but one half mighty bound bear down a doe that was of
penny worth of bread to this intolerable deal the band.
of sack!" Charley explained to the others With great effort, I controlled my excitethat it was all owing to the "eccentricities ment, slid the muzzle of my rifle over the
of genius," at the same time significantly edge of rock, took deliberate aim-making
touching his forehead; but I was in the first allowance for shooting downward —at the
rebound of full returning health, and I only lion's shoulder, and fi~d.
laughed at the slur and continued the ec- As if the catch that held bent a strong
centricities. spring beneath him had been loosed, the
A few miles away, in a very broken dis- lion rose high in air, and alighting on his
trict, was a rugged elevation they called feet, quickly drew himself under the cliff
"Ajax's Butte," and I set out early one out of sight. Almost overpowered now with
morning to scale it. There had been a light excitement, I hurried a long way around to
fall of snow on the tops of the ridges the where the deer still lay dying. From there
night before; and awhile after I entered the the lion's tracks, marked with blood, led
confines of this snow, I came across the into a cavern, bedded with ~~ind-swept
fresh footprints of a very large California leaves, on which, cowering in an attitude of
lion. I had heard the others tell of wrathful fear, lay the magnificent cat-dead.
the local depredations of such a beast, I gave it a shot in the forehead, but it rewhich they called "Old Nubia," and which turned no quiver of response.
from all accounts, joined the wisdom of a A long time I gloated on my prize.
serpent to the native ferocity of his species; Then I dragged the deer into the cave, and
and I at once conjectured that the tracks feasted my eyes again on both. I finally
were made by him. They were about as made very careful measurements of them,
large as saucers, and were over three feet so as to have their skins "set up," and
apart; and as animals of the cat kind, in I then proceeded carefully to remove them.
walking, put the hind foot exactly in the All this occupied much time, and it was
track of the fore one, I knew the beast was late when I started to return home. All the
over six feet between the hip and shoulder. way there I was mentally busy with an ad As they led in the direction I wished to dress to deliver on arriving. Charley was
go, I followed them. Near the summit of very fond of directing some grandiloquently
the butte, they entered a break or fissure, worded harangue at his comrades and then
which slanted downward from above to near chuckling at their bewilderment, and I
the base of a high precipice. From the cherished an ambition to retort the practice
lower part of this crevice, the tracks showed upon him.
that the lion had sprung off over twenty It was dark when I reached the cabin,
feet perpendicularly. As I could not ther~ and, approaching cautiously, I placed my
follow him, I retraced my steps and kept valued trophies softly beside the door, and
along the upper edge of the cliff, looking then stepped back and entered a little noisicautiously over. ly. As I set my gun aside and gave my
I had not advanced much over a hun- hand for the dogs to lick welcome, Charley