The Cave of Gold | Page 3

struck the spurs
into his horse and galloped along by his side.
At the top of the hill both boys pulled up their horses and looked down
into the valley. The valley was small, not more than half a mile across,
and through its center ran a little stream of water, fringed with bushes
and small trees. On the near side of this fringe of trees and bushes and
only a short distance from where our two young friends sat on the
backs of their horses, crouched a huge grizzly bear over the body of a
horse that was still quivering in the death agony.
"The brute!" exclaimed Thure angrily, the moment his eyes had taken
in this scene of violence. "So that was the death scream of a horse we
heard! Well, I never want to hear another! But, we've got you now, you
old villain!" and his eyes swept over the little valley, free, except for
the fringe of trees and bushes, of all obstructions, exultingly. "If we let
you get away from this, we'll both deserve to be shot. Now," and he
turned to Bud, "you ride to the right and I'll go to the left and we will
have the brute between us, so that if he charges either of us, the other
can take after him and shoot or rope him."
"Good!" agreed Bud. "But, say, let's rope him first. Just shooting is too
good for El Feroz. Remember Manuel and Old Pedro, whom he killed,
and Jim Bevins, whom he tore nearly to pieces and crippled for life, to
say nothing of the cattle and the horses he has killed. And now that we
have him where he can't get away, I am for showing him that man is his
master, strong and ferocious as he is, before killing him. We could not
have picked out a better place for roping him, if we had been doing the
picking," and his eyes glanced over the smooth level of the little valley.
"We'll let him chase us until we get him away from the trees and

bushes along the creek, and then we'll have some fun with the big brute
with our ropes, before sending him to Kingdom Come with our bullets.
What do you say, Thure?"
"Well," grinned Thure reminiscently, "if it don't turn out better than did
our attempt to rope a grizzly when I was with Fremont, I say shoot the
grizzly first and rope him afterward. Now, it won't be no joke roping El
Feroz, even if everything is in our favor," and his face sobered. "Still, I
reckon, our horses can keep us at a safe distance from his ugly claws
and teeth; and it will be all right to have a try with the ropes before we
use bullets, but we've got to be careful. El Feroz is the largest and
ugliest grizzly ever seen anywhere around here, and could kill one of
our horses with one blow of his huge paw. Mexican Juan says that an
Indian devil has taken possession of the big brute and that only a silver
bullet blessed by a priest can kill him; and, in proof of his belief, he
told me that he himself had shot five lead bullets at El Feroz and that
he had heard the devil laugh when the bullets struck and fell hot and
flattened to the ground. Now he always carries a silver bullet with him
that he had a priest bless when he was down to San Francisco last fall;
and the next time he meets El Feroz he expects to kill him with the
holy bullet. He showed me the silver bullet," and Thure laughed. "But
I'm willing to put my trust in lead, if it hits the right spot, Indian devil
or no devil. Now, look at El Feroz. He doesn't seem to be worrying
none over our presence. Appears to think the filling of his greedy belly
too important an operation to be interrupted by us," and Thure's eyes
turned to where the huge grizzly was tearing with teeth and claws the
carcass of the horse, his wicked little eyes turned in their direction, but
otherwise giving them not the slightest attention. Evidently El Feroz
had only contempt for the puny prowess of man.
"Well, we'll soon teach him better manners, the ugly brute! Come on,"
and Bud Randolph and Thure Conroyal both started slowly toward the
grizzly, loosening the strong ropes that hung from the pommels of their
saddles as they rode.
There was no need of haste. El Feroz would not run away--not from a
good dinner like that he was now eating--for all the men in California.

For four years he had terrorized this part of California, had never once
turned his