ich the corral was built, and
made their way out along a big limb that hung over the corral. There
was no hesitation in their movements; clearly, they had been there
before. One of them, the lighter and more active, went well out toward
the end of the limb, and the other advanced slowly until their combined
weight bent the limb down over the top of the stockade, when the first
swung himself off by his forepaws and dropped into the corral.

"That's a very smart trick," muttered Don Mariano. "You are in, no
doubt of that, but how the devil you are going to get back is another
story."

The bear seized a pig in no time, and having broken its neck and
stopped its squealing with a dexterous right-hander on the ear, he
shuffled back to a position under the limb and stood upright, holding
the pig in his arms. Then the other and heavier bear moved out toward
the end of the limb until it bent beneath his weight so that he could
reach the pig as the lighter one held it up. The big bear took the
pig, and the other bear seized the limb and drew it down until he got a
firm hold with all four feet. Then the big bear backed away toward the
trunk and the other followed, and the limb slowly sprang up to its
natural level. The two bears backed down to the ground and waddled
across the clearing, the big one walking upright and carrying the pig
in his arms.

Don Mariano did not shoot. "The Good Father," he said, "has given
brains like that only to such of his children as have souls. I would
not commit murder for the value of a pig. Besides, I casually noticed
that I had miraculously forgotten to put caps on the gun. Nevertheless
I cut away all the limbs from the tree on the side toward the corral,
and I still have the old sow and one pig."

CHAPTER XVII.

WHEN MONARCH WAS FREE.

For several years a large Grizzly roamed through the rugged mountain's
in the northern part of Los Angeles county, raiding cattle ranges and
bee ranches and occasionally falling afoul of a settler or prospector.
He was at home on Mt. Gleason, but his forays took in Big Tejunga and
extended for twenty or thirty miles along the range. Every settler
knew the bear and had a name for him, and he went by as many aliases as
a burglar in active practice. As his depredations ceased after the
capture of Monarch in 1889, those who assert that Monarch was the
wanderer of the Sierra Madre and Big Tejunga may be right, and some of
the stories told about