Five in Five Shots 65 



Yet, almost every morning, examination showed fresh 

 bear tracks on the old trail, and I felt it safe to assume 

 that something was making them. So for a whole week 

 I lay in that clump of firs. Then I began to think about 

 giving up; but, knowing that the animal must show him- 

 self in time, I kept taking on fresh stocks of patience and 

 dragging myself again and again up to the little clump of 

 firs. 



At last there came a rain. It began in the night and 

 kept up until about one o'clock in the afternoon of the 

 following day, and rained so hard that I did not go out in 

 the morning. In the afternoon it was so wet that I hesi- 

 tated about going, but finally, thinking that this might be 

 just the time the old bear would select to go berrying, 

 I decided to risk it. And, as luck would have it, when 

 I reached the firs and took a look at the hillside, there sat 

 an old grizzly about a hundred yards above the brink of 

 the canon, and some three hundred yards from me, 

 busily engaged in pulling down branches and eating ber- 

 ries. 



I immediately began the sneak of my life. I did not, 

 even at first, think of walking. I simply got down on the 

 ground and snaked it. I worked below the bear, so that 

 if he ran he would have to come my way or go up the 

 open hillside and thus afford me additional shots if I 

 failed with the first. But I had no intention of failing. 

 I worked along slowly, so that the bear had moved quite 

 a distance up the hill before I finally got within reasonable 

 range, and even then I kept on until I was within sixty 

 yards before finally making up my mind to risk a shot. 

 I then crawled behind a bunch of bushes and, without 



