"Wall, wall," he chuckled, "I never knowed it to fail. Thar's whar
most B'ars is alike."
If Gringo had been able to think clearly, he might have said: "This
surely is a new kind of man."
[Illustration: "NOW, B'AR, I DON'T WANT NO SCRAP WITH YOU"]
XII. SWIRL AND POOL AND GROWING FLOOD
Gringo wandered on with nose alert, passing countless odors of
berries, roots, grouse, deer, till a new and pleasing smell came with
especial force. It was not sheep, or game, or a dead thing. It was a
smell of living meat. He followed the guide to a little meadow, and
there he found it. There were five of them, red, or red and
white--great things as big as himself; but he had no fear of them. The
hunter instinct came on him, and the hunter's audacity and love of
achievement. He sneaked toward them upwind in order that he might
still smell them, and it also kept them from smelling him. He reached
the edge of the wood. Here he must stop or be seen. There was a
watering-place close by. He silently drank, then lay down in a thicket
where he could watch. An hour passed thus. The sun went down and the
cattle arose to graze. One of them, a small one, wandered nearer,
then, acting suddenly with purpose, walked to the water-hole. Gringo
watched his chance, and as she floundered in the mud and stooped he
reared and struck with all his force. Square at her skull he aimed,
and the blow went straight.
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