AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 429 



"Shall we follow the trail?" I inquired of my 

 mentor. 



"No good, go forty mile. Kill elk for bait, 

 then maybe he come back. We get elk there," 

 and he pointed out two elk which I had not seen 

 that were 250 yards distant. 



"I can get one of them from here," said I, and 

 as he shook his head in doubt I slipped to the 

 ground and a few seconds later one of the elk was 

 dead. As the other did not run away I fired 

 again and killed the cow elk, for which I was 

 doubly ashamed when the half-breed said: 



"One was enough." 



I did not sleep much that night and the next 

 day I rode through a driving snowstorm with 

 the half-breed to inspect the carcasses and found 

 that two bears had been there, one of them being 

 the big grizzly I wanted. The half-breed said he 

 was sure to come back that night and offered to 

 cut some sticks and make a seat in the branches 

 of a tree nearby where I could stay all night and 

 get a shot at the bear when he returned. As it 



