o the chain of the trap was a
heavy pine chunk, and Old Clubfoot dragged the clog for many miles,
leaving through the brush a trail easily followed, and lay down to rest
in a thicket growing among a huddle of rocks.

Hot upon the trail came two hunters, Wesley Wood and a Sclavonian whose
name was something like Sakarovitch, and had been simplified to Joe
Screech. Wood was certain that the bear had stopped in the thicket,
which was almost on the verge of one of the walls of Hetch-Hetchy
Valley, a replica of Yosemite on half scale, and he was too old a hand
at the game to follow the trail in. One experience with a bear in the
brush is enough to teach the greatest fool in the world, if he
survives, that wild animals do not lie down to rest without taking
precautions against surprise by possible pursuers. They do not stop
short in their tracks and go to sleep where any chance comer may walk
over them, but make a half circle loop or letter U in the trail and lie
where they can watch the route by which they came.

Joe Screech had not learned this, and he jeered at Wood for halting at
the thicket. Wood admitted that he was afraid to follow the trail
another foot and tried to hold Joe back, but Joe had killed black bears
and knew nothing of Grizzlies, and he had a contemptuous opinion of the
courage of bears and a correspondingly exalted belief in his own. At
least he was afraid somebody might suspect him of being afraid, and he
confounded caution with cowardice in others.

So Joe Screech laughed offensively at Wood as he strode into the
thicket. "If you're afraid," he said, "you stay there and I'll run the
bear out. Maybe you'd better climb a tree."

"That's just what we both would do if we had any sense. Joe Screech,
you are the damnedest fool in Tuolumne. That bear'll teach you
something if he don't kill you."

"Oh, climb a tree and watch my smoke," and Joe passed out of sight.

Presently Joe's head appeared again as he climbed upon a boulder close
to the edge of the cliff and peered around him. A sudden rattling of
iron upon stone, a deep growl and a castanet clashing of teeth, and the
Grizzly arose behind Joe Screech, towering far above him and swinging
the trap from his paw. Joe Screech had time for but one glance of
terror, and as he jumped the bear swung trap, chain and clog in the air
and reached for him with a mighty blow. It was the fifty-pound steel
trap that landed upon Joe's head and sent him pl