CHAPTER XV 

 BERT SEES THINGS 



IN East Canyon we camped near Tom O'Brien's 

 sawmill, one of the small portable outfits, with a ca- 

 pacity for cutting five or ten thousand feet of saw 

 timber per day, tbat are to be discovered here and 

 there in the Black Range. 



The proprietor we found a genial soul whose in- 

 terests seemed to centre more in the shooting and 

 trapping of "varmints " than in the lumber industry. 

 He showed us several good bear skins that he wanted 

 outrageous prices for and also, which was more in- 

 teresting, a tame grizzly, half grown, with which he 

 was on alarmingly intimate terms. He boxed and 

 wrestled with his huge pet for our benefit but warned 

 us at the same time that he was the only person for 

 whom these pastimes were safe. None of us tested 

 the accuracy of the statement but it was very prob- 

 ably true, for whenever any one came near the 

 boards which fenced in the bear his reception was 

 somewhat terrifying. " Teddy " had escaped from 

 his pen, 'Brien told us, more than once, but always 

 turned up later after absences of varying length. 



The sawmill was not an imposing affair, but we 

 were able to study local methods and costs of logging 



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