r followed, and when Wahb got out on
the smallest and highest twig that would carry him, the Blackbear cruelly
shook him off, so that he was thrown to the ground, bruised and shaken and
half-stunned. He limped away moaning, and the only thing that kept the
Blackbear from following him up and perhaps killing him was the fear that
the old Grizzly might be about. So Wahb was driven away down the creek from
all the good pinon woods.

There was not much food on the Graybull now. The berries were nearly all
gone; there were no fish or ants to get, and Wahb, hurt, lonely, and
miserable, wandered on and on, till he was away down toward the Meteetsee.

[Illustration]

A Coyote came bounding and barking through the sage-brush after him. Wahb
tried to run, but it was no use; the Coyote was soon up with him. Then with
a sudden rush of desperate courage Wahb turned and charged his foe. The
astonished Coyote gave a scared yowl or two, and fled with his tail between
his legs. Thus Wahb learned that war is the price of peace.

But the forage was poor here; there were too many cattle; and Wahb was
making for a far-away pinon woods in the Meteetsee Canyon when he saw a man,
just like the one he had seen on that day of sorrow. At the same moment he
heard a _bang_, and some sage-brush rattled and fell just over his back.
All the dreadful smells and dangers of that day came back to his memory,
and Wahb ran as he never had run before.

He soon got into a gully and followed it into the canyon. An opening between
two cliffs seemed to offer shelter, but as he ran toward it a Range-cow
came trotting between, shaking her head at him and snorting threats against
his life.

He leaped aside upon a long log that led up a bank, but at once a savage
Bobcat appeared on the other end and warned him to go back. It was no time
to quarrel. Bitterly Wahb felt that the world was full of enemies. But he
turned and scrambled up a rocky bank into the pinon woods that border the
benches of the Meteetsee.

[Illustration: "A SAVAGE BOBCAT ... WARNED HIM TO GO BACK."]

The Pine Squirrels seemed to resent his coming, and barked furiously. They
were thinking about their pinon-nuts. They knew that this Bear was coming
to steal their provisions, and they followed him overhead to scold and
abuse him, with such an outcry that an enemy might have followed him by
their noise, which was exactly what they intended.

There was no one following, but it made Wah