The world was full of hunters, traps, and guns. He turned toward the
lower hills where the sheep grazed, where once he had raided Pedro's
flocks, limping along, for now he had another flesh-wound. He found
the scent of the foe that killed his "Silver-brown," and would have
followed, but it ceased at a place where a horse-track joined. Yet he
found it again that night, mixed with the sheep smell so familiar
once. He followed this, sore and savage. It led him to a settler's
flimsy shack, the house of Tampico's parents, and as the big Bear
reached it two human beings scrambled out of the rear door.
"My husband," shrieked the woman, "pray! Let us pray to the saints for
help!"
"Where is my pistol?" cried the husband.
"Trust in the saints," said the frightened woman.
"Yes, if I had a cannon, or if this was a cat; but with only a
pepper-box pistol to meet a Bear mountain it is better to trust to a
tree," and old Tampico scrambled up a pine.
The Grizzly looked into the shack, then passed to the pig-pen, killed
the largest there, for this was a new kind of meat, and carrying it
off, he made his evening meal.
He came again and again to that pig-pen. He found his food there till
his wound was healed. Once he met with a spring-gun, but it was set
too high. Six feet up, the sheep-folk judged, would be just about
right for such a Bear; the charge went over his head, and so he passed
unharmed--a clear proof that he was a devil.
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