IN COWBOY LAND. 



243 



that bear has been walking on two legs." 

 Bauman laughed at this, but his partner in- 

 sisted that he was right, and upon again ex- 

 amining the tracks with a torch, they certainly 

 did seem to be made by but two paws, or feet. 

 However, it was too dark to make sure. After 

 discussing whether the footprints could pos- 

 sibly be those of a human being, and coming 

 to the conclusion that they could not be, the 

 two men rolled up in their blankets, and went 

 to sleep under the lean-to. 



At midnight Bauman was awakened by some 

 noise, and sat up in his blankets. As he did 

 so his nostrils were struck by a strong, wild- 

 beast odor, and he caught the loom of a great 

 body in the darkness at the mouth of the 

 lean-to. Grasping his rifle, he fired at the 

 vague, threatening shadow, but must have 

 missed, for immediately afterwards he heard 

 the smashing of the underwood as the thing, 

 whatever it was, rushed off into the impenetra- 

 ble blackness of the forest and the night. 



After this the two men slept but little, sit- 

 ting up by the rekindled fire, but they heard 

 nothing more. In the morning they started 

 out to look at the few traps they had set the 

 previous evening and to put out new ones. 

 By an unspoken agreement they kept together 

 all day, and returned to camp towards evening. 



On nearing it they saw, hardly to their as- 

 tonishment, that the lean-to had been again 

 torn down. The visitor of the preceding day 

 had returned, and in wanton malice had tossed 

 about their camp kit and bedding, and des- 



