TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 157 



his arm was steady and the old reliable belched forth its 

 compliments to the lion. A cloud of dust arose, just where 

 the lion lay. He sprang to the ground, thirty feet below, 

 and, giving a howl, started toward us with a foreleg broken. 

 In an instant we both fired, but he came on faster, passing 

 us to the right, when I gave him a broadsider which pros- 

 trated him. But he jumped up and bounded off again. 

 Steward then gave him another ball which broke his back, 

 and he dragged his hinder parts slowly down the hill, but 

 soon died, as he had received several fatal shots. We left 

 him lying there and went to camp, hung up our meat, skins 

 and tongues, and then our camp was complete. 



Hiram Steward told me much of his career in the Rocky 

 Mountains, and I will record one incident which showed his 

 fiery spirit. In the year 1878, late in the fall, many trappers 

 and hunters had come,, as usual, to the store of Hoskins 

 and McGirl, for that firm was always ready to outfit a man, 

 and to lend a helping hand to anyone who was deserving. 

 Steward sat at one end of a card table and a man of Southern 

 blood, named Jackson, at the other. 



Gambling had taken a lull, and Steward took up a deck, 

 and shuffled off the cards, saying "There's the red, there's 

 the white and there's the blue." Jackson took this as an in- 

 sult, sprang to his feet, saying he would not be insulted by 

 any Yankee, drew his six-shooter, and called upon Steward 

 to defend himself. Steward pulled open his old buckskin 

 coat, set his slouched hat back on his head and his large, 

 gray eyes flashed. Every one thought Jackson had run a 

 successful bluff, when Steward stood up, and, without saying 

 a word, walked behind the counter,, grasped his old Sharp's 

 and threw in a cartridge, saying: 



"Jackson, I have not long to live and I know it. I am 

 no shot with a six, but just come on and we will go over the 

 river. I will shoot it out with you now. Come on." 



