t parks in the midst of the wilderness.

The hunters pitched their camp at last in a green valley beside a
boisterous mountain brook. The weather was clear, with thin ice
coursing the dark waters of the mountain tarns, and now and again
slight snowfalls that made the forest gleam and glisten in the
moonlight like fairyland. Through the frosty air they could hear the
vibrant, musical notes of the bull elk far off, calling to the cows or
challenging one another.

No country could have been better adapted to still hunting than the
great, pine-clad mountains, studded with open glades. Roosevelt loved
the thrill of the chase, but he loved no less the companionship of the
majestic trees and the shy wild creatures which sprang across his path
or ran with incredible swiftness along the overhanging boughs. Moving
on noiseless moccasins he caught alluring glimpses of the inner life
of the mountains.

The days passed very pleasantly in the crystal air and vibrant
solitude of their mountain hunting grounds. The fare that old Lebo
provided was excellent, and to the three men, who had for weeks been
accustomed to make small fires from dried brush or from sagebrush
roots laboriously dug out of the ground, it was a treat to sit at
night before the roaring pine-logs.

"We've come to a land at last," remarked the quaint old teamster with
satisfaction, "where the wood grows on trees."

They shot several elk promptly, but the grizzlies they were after
eluded them. At last, after a week Merrifield, riding into camp one
dusk, with a shout announced that he had come upon grizzly-bear signs
some ten miles away. They shifted camp at once.

That afternoon, on a crag overlooking a wild ravine, Roosevelt shot
another great bull elk. To Merrifield it seemed as though the elk
might constitute a day's satisfactory achievement. But Roosevelt was
indefatigable. "Now," he said with gusto, contemplating the
magnificent antlers, "we'll go out to-night and get a bear."

But that night they found nothing. Returning next day with Merrifield
for the carcass of the elk however, they found that a grizzly had been
feeding on it. They crouched in hiding for the bear's return. Night
fell, owls began to hoot dismally from the tops of the tall trees, and
a lynx wailed from the depths of the woods, but the bear did not come.

Early next morning they were again at the elk carcass. The bear had
evidently eaten his fill during the night. His tracks were clear,