young beef whenever the
spirit moved.

"How about that bear den, Reddy?" asked Jerry, as they lounged about the
camp in the early afternoon.

"Any time you say the word. I was only waitin' till Frank felt himself
again," was the other's reply.

"Oh, don't let my condition keep you from that little entertainment.
Besides, I feel much better now. Perhaps a little excitement might put
me in just the right kind of trim," declared that individual promptly.

"Hear! hear!" exclaimed Bluff, making a pretense of clapping his hands.

"Talk to me about your dyed-in-the-wool sportsman! Frank, here, could
give any fellow points," declared Jerry.

"I understand the principle he works on. It's the same as what they call
homoepathy, that 'like cures like.' I've seen a man, when struck by a
rattler, chase the reptile, kill him, and apply his crushed body to the
wound, in the belief that one poison would counteract the other," said
the stockman.

"Did it succeed?" asked Jerry, eager for information along these lines.

"Well," said Mr. Mabie, "the poor chap died, I'm sorry to say. In
another case, the fellow insisted on filling himself up with whiskey. He
lived through it, too, which proved the rule, though I believe there are
better things to save a man than liquor. But Frank has the right idea.
The excitement of the chase will cause him to forget, and take some of
the stiffness out of his joints."

"Then we go this afternoon?" queried Reddy anxiously.

"Whenever you're ready," answered Frank.

They set out within half an hour. Of course, the whole four chums
insisted on being in the party. Besides, there were the guide, Mr. Mabie
and Billy. Each of the cowboys carried his rope, for of late it had
seemed as though a lariat might be a very necessary accompaniment to
these side hunts.

They headed in a quarter where, as yet, none of the boys had been. This
led them directly into the thickets that lay at the base of the mountain
barrier, stretching away up against the blue heavens.

None of the chums had forgotten the fierce appearance of the grizzly
that had fallen before the rifle which Jerry wielded so cleverly.

"Remember, lads," said Mr. Mabie, as they trailed along through rocky
gulches, "every Mountain Charlie isn't going to keel over as easily as
the one Jerry got. He was lucky to send his lead to a vital point. I've
seen veteran hunters shoot a bear a dozen times, and then have to finish
him with a knife."

"I've