THE GRIZZLY'S GHOST. 



STANLEY MAYALL. 



No reasonable man could doubt its ex- 

 istence. It had been seen by half a dozen 

 different sober, reliable men; mostly pros- 

 pectors, whose knowledge of the country 

 was only exceeded b~ their faith in its 

 mineral resources. It pleased the job 

 printer in the valley, who called himself a 

 newspaper editor, to make fun of that 

 bear and couple its name with the effects 

 of bad whiskey and mountain mist. 



"What's it to me, what the darned paper 

 says?" remarked Charlie Goss ; "I seen 

 it, Ned Hamlyn, Big Harry and Texas 

 Jim seen it. Hank Graham seen it, too, 

 and so has Hank Graham's dog, and is now 

 dead in consequence. Dogs don't drink, 

 and bears that aren't there can't kill. All 

 these people say the bear's snow-white, 

 they allow he's the biggest they ever seen, 

 and they all come across him within a few 

 miles of the same spot — Peterson's old 

 camp on Silver mountain. That's where 

 Klondyke Jim and Cnltus Jack killed each 

 other and a big grizzly as well, a few 

 weeks ago. This bear's that bear's ghost. 

 Shot at it ? No ! I'm looking for gold; 

 not grizzlies, nor ghosts, nor yet glory. 

 The other boys has though, 3 or 4 times, 

 and hit him, too. Every time he sees a 

 man he comes for him slicker'n hell. He 

 aint afeared o' nothin', an' b- e and bye 

 he will make some valuable citizens miss 

 their regular appointments with the bar- 

 keep." 



Next week it fell to the lot of the Fire 

 Gulch Sentinel to print a grim comment- 

 ary on its previous sarcastic allusions to 

 the grizzly. "We regret to report the 

 death, on Silver mountain, of Hank Gra- 

 ham, a prospector of this city. He was out 

 with Dave Flip, hunting for a bear that 

 has caused considerable trouble lately. It 

 is known locally as the 'grizzly's ghost/ 

 probably because it is quite white and is 

 seen only near the place where a large griz- 

 zly was recently killed. 



"Without any warning the white bear 

 broke cover and Charged the men, smash- 

 ing Dave Flip's arm and breaking his gun. 

 When he recovered consciousness he 

 found at his side Hank Graham's body, 

 torn and mangled past recognition. A 

 party of hunters will scour the mountain 

 in search of the bear ; we wish its members 

 all possible success." 



The party set out heavily armed, and 

 accompanied by pack horses bearing out- 

 fit and provisions for a fortnight.. It re- 

 turned empty handed, without having 

 seen the grizzly. 



About that time there arrived in Fire 



276 



Gulch a young Englishman, Algernon Hu- 

 bert Farquhar, a pretty boy with a pink 

 and white complexion, honest eyes and a 

 clear tongue; quite ready to be gulled by 

 any one who tried it and just as ready 

 to resent it on discovery. He was the 

 completest tenderfoot who ever went West. 

 Why he had come no one ever found out; 

 but come he certainly had, and 6 gun cases 

 with him. Also, as was demonstrated on 

 various occasions, 2 Norfolk jackets, vari- 

 ous cloth caps and 3 pairs of riding 

 breeches set off with the latest of old 

 country leggings. 



At first, with typical Western intoler- 

 ance of things not understood by their 

 cramped minds, the denizens of Fire Gulch 

 resented this intrusion. Later, finding 

 the new chum was a remittance man 

 and had, vulgarly speaking, money to 

 burn, they made a change of front, and 

 presently Algernon Farquhar, who could 

 not tell galena from a gallon can, was 

 spoken of by a local paper as a mining 

 expert, the forerunner of a powerful syn- 

 dicate that was soon to develop local 

 properties. 



Now Algie was, in theory, a keen 

 sportsman. In the old country he had 

 made many a big bag of pheasants and 

 moorfowl, and had a notion that bag- 

 ging bear or caribou was similar busi- 

 ness. The pride of his arsenal was an 

 antiquated double gun, one barrel rifled, the 

 other smooth, which the London gunsmith 

 had described as "just the thing for a tour 

 in the Rockies, and identical with the one 

 he had sold Colonel B , who had per- 

 formed with it, in India, the unique feat 

 of bagging an elephant with one barrel and 

 a snipe with the other." That settled it; 

 Algie, also, would go and do stunts; per- 

 haps a grizzly and a humming bird would 

 compose his bag. 



Then in Fire Gulch Algie heard that un- 

 canny bear yarn and thirsted for gore and 

 glory; he cleaned his gun every 4 hours 

 and awaited opportunities. One morning 

 he received unexpected encouragement 

 from a most influential quarter. Algie was 

 fortunate in having an English sweetheart, 

 and perhaps doubly fortunate in having 

 only one. Feeling lonely in the wild and 

 wicked West he had written this young 

 lady offering her his whole heart and a 

 fair share of his income. 



And the lady, Gladys Garmoyle, aged 18, 

 replied thusly : She had received his let- 

 ter and thanked him for it. She deeply 

 and sincerely appreciated his offer of mar- 

 riage, but was he not too young to think 



