RUSTLINGS IN THE ROCKIES. 15 



he would go in. Allen told him he had better not, but he 

 would not listen to caution and crawled in. He had not 

 gone far when he met the old leviathan coming out, and 

 raising his rifle, took a hasty aim and fired. This ball entered 

 the bear's breast and knocked him down, but Hi. saw at once 

 that he was not dead, and attempted to throw the shell out of 

 his rifle. But an accident to a gun almost invariably happens 

 just at the most critical moment. Or, if a fellow ever pulls 

 the wrong trigger, it is sure to be when the fine shot are 

 in that barrel, and the buckshot in the other, and the deer 

 gets away again. Joe's shell stuck in the chamber of his 

 rifle, and refused to budge. He knew he had no time to fool 

 away in swearing at his bad luck, so he slid out just as fast as 

 the nature of the ground would permit, but before he got out 

 the bear had recovered from the effects of .the shot sufficiently 







to get up and start after him. Hi. wore an old buckskin suit 

 that had been in the service for years, and that was so stiff 

 from having been daubed with blood, grease, molasses and 

 other animal and vegetable matter that he could take it off 

 and lean it up against a tree, and it would stand there until 

 he wanted it again, just the same as if he were in it. He was 

 sadly handicapped in this race by a game leg that was about 

 two inches shorter than the other, and when he got out of the 

 thicket there was not a tree in reach large enough to climb, 

 so he started up the hill side with the bear at his heels, 

 growling and roaring at every jump, and Hi. yelling 

 " Murder, save me, shoot him, kill him quick." 



Allen said the spectacle was so ridiculous that had it been 

 his own funeral instead of Hi's, that was coming off so soon, 

 he must have laughed all the same. Notwithstanding Hi's 

 old coat was as stiff as a shingle, it stood out behind until 

 you could have played billards on it, if the bear hadn't been 

 in your way. At every jump Hi. made he would careen over 



