his first camp--and there were porterhouse steaks
for supper, which he had brought packed in a kettle of ice. When they sat
down to the meal, Joanne was facing a distant snow-capped ridge that cut
the skyline, and the last of the sun, reflected from the face of the
mountain on the east, had set brown-and-gold fires aglow in her hair. They
were partly through when her eyes rested on the distant snow-ridge. Aldous
saw her looking steadily. Suddenly she pointed beyond him.

"I see something moving over the snow on that mountain!" she cried a little
excitedly. "It is hurrying toward the summit--just under the skyline! What
is it?"

Aldous and MacDonald looked toward the ridge. Fully a mile away, almost
even with the skyline now, a small dark object was moving over the white
surface of the snow.

"It ain't a goat," said MacDonald, "because a goat is white, and we
couldn't see it on the snow. It ain't a sheep, 'cause it's too dark, an'
movin' too slow. It must be a bear, but why in the name o' sin a bear would
be that high, I don't know!"

He jumped up and ran for his telescope.

"A grizzly," whispered Joanne tensely. "Would it be a grizzly, John?"

"Possibly," he answered. "Indeed, it's very likely. This is a grizzly
country. If we hurry you can get a look at him through the telescope."

MacDonald was already studying the object through his long glass when they
joined him.

"It's a bear," he said.

"Please--please let me look at him," begged Joanne.

The dark object was now almost on the skyline. Half A minute more and it
would pass over and out of sight. MacDonald still held his eye to the
telescope, as though he had not heard Joanne. Not until the moving object
had crossed the skyline, and had disappeared, did he reply to her.

"The light's bad, an' you couldn't have made him out very well," he said.
"We'll show you plenty o' grizzlies, an' so near you won't want a
telescope. Eh, Johnny?"

As he looked at Aldous there was a strange look in his eyes, and during the
remainder of the supper he was restless, and ate hurriedly. When he had
finished he rose and picked up his long rifle.

"There's sheep somewhere near this basin, Johnny," he explained. "An' I
reckon Joanne'll scold us if we don't keep her in fresh meat. I'm goin' to
bring in some mutton if there's any to be got, an' I probably won't be back
until after dark."

Aldous knew that he had more to say, and he went with him a few steps
beyond the camp.