B£AE SHOOTIisG IN CALIFOENIA. 63 



"What?" (very savage). ^^Pve a bet on Sal kills as 

 many as Ben ; like to have twenty dollars on too ?" 



How much longer he might have gone on I don't 

 know^ but just at that moment we came in sight of a 

 shanty on the side of a mountain. " There's the ranch.-" 

 " Thank heaven for that/' said I : I had not done yet, 

 though. On seeing us one of the farm hands approached : 

 " Here's a Britisher come to shoot Ben and Sally ; think 

 he'll fix em ?" " Oh ! gwoin' to shute Ben and Sal, is 

 te ? oh !" and he walked round and examined me as if I 

 were some infernal machine, designed expressly to " fix 

 the bars." "You bet he is/' said Zack; "say! fancy 

 old Ben fixed by a Britisher !" There was something so 

 wonderfully droll in Ben being in this predicament, that 

 they simultaneously went into fits of laughter. 



I began to get my steam up too a little bit now ; so I 

 said, " I tell you what it is; I'll bet you fifty dollars I kill 

 one of those bears in three days. " Hold hard, stranger," 

 said Zack, sobered in a moment by the mention of dol- 

 lars j " you'll bet me fifty dollars you'll fix Ben in three 

 days ? Dang me, I don't believe the Britisher is born 

 that can do it. Look'ee here now — give Ben a fair show, 

 fair and square, and I'll bet yer." "All right! done 

 along with you," said I. The hundred dollars were 

 deposited with the farm hand, and this little circum- 

 stance served to divert Zack's attention from the bars 

 for a time. All dinner time it was, " Mind, now, a fair 

 show — no playmg ofi" on Ben ; (sotto voce) I don't think 

 the Britisher's born who can fix Ben — four men he's 

 killed; yes, I guess that hundred dollars is as good 

 as mine." 



In the evening, about five, a man came in to tell us 

 that a steer had been killed by bears, about one mile off. 



