34 The Black Bear 



of Ben and realized that his pupil had learned a new 

 trick and had incidentally evened things up with his 

 master. 



The acuteness of Ben's senses was almost beyond 

 belief. Nothing ever succeeded in approaching our 

 camp without his knowing it ; and this not only before 

 we could hear a sound ourselves, but before w^e could 

 have expected even his sharp ears or sensitive nostrils 

 to detect anything. He would stand on his hind feet 

 and listen, or get behind a tree and peer out with one 

 eye, and at such times nothing would distract his 

 attention from the approaching object. Moreover 

 w^henever he had one of these spells of suspicion some- 

 thing invariably appeared. It might prove to be a 

 moose or a deer or an elk, but something would always 

 finally walk out into view. He w^as far and away the 

 best look-out that I ever saw. We used to amuse 

 ourselves by trying to surprise him on our return to 

 camp; but, come in as quietly as we might, and up 

 the wind at that, we would always find him standing 

 behind a tree, peering around its trunk with just one 

 eye exposed, ready to climb in case the danger proved 

 sufficient to warrant it. One day after we had crossed 

 the divide of the Bitter Root range into Montana, 

 where we had gone to replenish our food supply before 

 starting on our return trip, w^e camped in a canyon 

 through which flow^ed an excellent trout stream. We 

 were still miles from any settlement and had no idea 



