nstant use, should the bear conclude to charge
them. "We ain't lost any Mountain Charleys to-day, as I knows on. Big
horns is what we kim out after. Let him take hisself off, if he will,
and a good riddance too, I says."

Which the enormous beast finally concluded to do. Perhaps he had had
his dinner, and was not feeling in a particularly aggressive mood. No
matter what the cause, all of the boys heaved sighs of positive relief
when he shuffled away, looking back over his shoulder several times.

"Just like he wanted half an excuse for getting his mad up," explained
Step Hen. "He had a chip on his shoulder, all right. And I guess I'm
glad you didn't let me start in on him, Toby. I might a missed
knockin' him over for keeps; and then what a nice pickle we'd all been
in. Excuse me from tacklin' a moving mountain like that, when trees
are as scarce as hens' teeth."

"And I'm real glad, too, you didn't fire," admitted Smithy, who had
turned somewhat white during the minute of dreadful suspense, while he
stared at that monster squatted in their path. "I was ready to back
you up; but then what could you expect from a greenhorn? I never
wished so much that I'd taken to this sort of thing before, as I did
when that fearful beast was looking at me, just as if to say, 'you're
the tenderest of the lot, Smithy, and I think I'll choose you, if I
have room for any more inside me.'"

The other boys laughed at his words; but on the whole they thought
Smithy had carried himself rather creditably, all things considered.
And each knew, deep down in his secret soul, that his own heart had
seemed to stand still; while his blood ran cold, as he stood there,
awaiting the decision of the bear.

They glanced around rather fearfully for some little time after that;
but as nothing was seen again of the mountain terror, they finally
concluded that the incident was closed.

Again their thoughts went out toward the singular game they had come
after. Many an ambitious hunter had sought to shoot a big-horn sheep in
the Rockies, day after day, and was compelled to give it up in the end
as useless, so Toby had informed them. The conditions were generally
very difficult, and the game so shy. Besides, their sense of impending
danger seemed to be abnormally developed; and on account of the rocky
formation of the slopes where they found bunches of grass in the
crevices, it was often next to impossible to stalk them from leeward.

This being the case