hed. His skin got very itchy, and he
found pleasure in rolling in the mud and scraping his back against some
convenient tree. He never climbed now: his claws were too long, and his
arms, though growing big and strong, were losing that suppleness of wrist
that makes cub Grizzlies and all Blackbears great climbers. He now dropped
naturally into the Bear habit of seeing how high he could reach with his
nose on the rubbing-post, whenever he was near one.

He may not have noticed it, yet each time he came to a post, after a week
or two away, he could reach higher, for Wahb was growing fast and coming
into his strength.

[Illustration]

Sometimes he was at one end of the country that he felt was his, and
sometimes at another, but he had frequent use for the rubbing-tree, and
thus it was that his range was mapped out by posts with his own mark on
them.

One day late in summer he sighted a stranger on his land, a glossy
Blackbear, and he felt furious against the interloper. As the Blackbear
came nearer Wahb noticed the tan-red face, the white spot on his breast,
and then the bit out of his ear, and last of all the wind brought a whiff.
There could be no further doubt it was the very smell: this was the black
coward that had chased him down the Piney long ago. But how he had
shrunken! Before, he had looked like a giant; now Wahb felt he could crush
him with one paw. Revenge is sweet, Wahb felt, though he did not exactly
say it, and he went for that red-nosed Bear. But the Black one went up a
small tree like a Squirrel. Wahb tried to follow as the other once followed
him, but somehow he could not. He did not seem to know how to take hold
now, and after a while he gave it up and went away, although the Blackbear
brought him back more than once by coughing in derision. Later on that day,
when the Grizzly passed again, the red-nosed one had gone.

[Illustration]

As the summer waned, the upper forage-grounds began to give out, and Wahb
ventured down to the Lower Meteetsee one night to explore. There was a
pleasant odor on the breeze, and following it up, Wahb came to the carcass
of a Steer. A good distance away from it were some tiny Coyotes, mere
dwarfs compared with those he remembered. Right by the carcass was another
that jumped about in the moonlight in a foolish way. For some strange
reason it seemed unable to get away. Wahb's old hatred broke out. He rushed
up. In a flash the Coyote bit him several times before,