that day to meet the Monarch of the 

 Range. He was still in the thicket, 

 for it was yet morning. They threw 

 stones in and shouted to drive him out, 

 without effect, till the noon breeze of 

 the plains arose the down-current 

 of air from the hills. Then they fired 

 the grass in several places, and it sent 

 a rolling sheet of flame and smoke into 

 the thicket. There was a crackling 

 louder than the fire, a smashing of 

 brush, and from the farther side out 

 hurled the Monarch Bear, the Gringo, 

 Grizzly Jack. Horsemen were all 

 about him now, armed not with guns 

 but with the rawhide snakes whose 

 loops in air spell bonds or death. 

 The men were calm, but the horses 

 were snorting and plunging in fear. 

 This way and that the Grizzly looked 

 up at the horsemen a little bit; 

 scarcely up at the horses; then turn- 



