upon the
sponge. Taking one last look at the stars and the distant mountain
peaks, he plunged his muzzle into the sponge, jammed his head tightly
into the bucket and took one long, deep breath.

In the morning "Doc." Chismore found a gigantic dead bear behind the
barn, with the stable bucket firmly fixed upon his head and covering
his nose and mouth. Scattered about were the fragments of a chloroform
jar, and between the claws of the bear's maimed foot was a crumpled
Sunday supplement of a yellow journal, containing an account of the
slaying of Old Brin, the Club-footed Grizzly, by Jerky Johnson. Being
a past master of woodcraft, Doctor Chismore read the signs like a
printed page, and applying the method of Zadig he reconstructed the
whole story of the dolorous passing of the greatest bear in the world.

CHAPTER IV.

MOUNTAIN CHARLEY.

Charles McKiernan was a well-known lumber merchant of San Jose, Cal.
To old timers he was "Mountain Charlie," having spent most of his life
in the Santa Cruz mountains, where he owned timber land and saw mills.
McKiernan's face was strangely disfigured. His left eye was missing
and his forehead was so badly scarred that he wore his hair in a bang
falling to his eyebrows to conceal the marks. From his own lips I
heard the story of those scars.

This was also in the days of the muzzle-loading rifle. McKiernan and a
partner were holding down timber claims in the mountains and living in
a cabin overlooking a wide canyon. One morning they saw a Grizzly
turning over rocks at the foot of a spur jutting from the main ridge
into the canyon, and taking their rifles they followed the ridge around
to the spur to get a shot at him from that point. It so happened that
the bear also fancied that he had business on the top of the spur, and
began climbing soon after the men lost sight of him.

The bear and the men met unexpectedly at the top, and the bear halted
hesitatingly with his head and breast just showing above the rocks at
the brink of the steep slope. McKiernan did not want to begin the
fight at such close quarters, and he was confident that the bear would
back down and attempt to return to the brush at the foot of the spur if
given time. Then he would have the advantage of the up-hill position
and plenty of time to reload if the bear should attempt to return after
the first shot.

But McKiernan's partner lost his nerve, turned tail and ran away, and
that encouraged the b