The Cave of Gold | Page 5

was happening, Bud's lasso broke and
about a ton of angry bear was hurling itself toward Thure.
The unforeseen mischance had happened with a vengeance!
Bud uttered a yell of warning and horror and caught at his rifle; but,
almost before his hands could touch the gun, El Feroz was upon Thure
and only a tremendous jump sideways of his brave little horse saved
him from the sweep of one of those saber-armed paws.
The grizzly bear, for an animal of his huge bulk, is astonishingly agile
and speedy, when once his fighting blood is aroused; and, if ever a
grizzly was fighting mad, that grizzly was now El Feroz. The instant he
saw that he had missed the horse and man, he whirled about and was
after them again; and, so swift was his turn and so sudden his charge,
that, once again, only the superior horsemanship of Thure and the
agility of the horse saved them from a sweeping blow of one of the
great paws that came so close that Thure could feel the rush of its wind
against his face.
"Out run him! Out run him!" yelled Bud excitedly. "Try to throw him
with your rope; and I'll see if I can get a bullet in him," and he suddenly
jerked up Gray Cloud, so that he could make his aim more sure, threw
his rifle to his shoulder, and fired.
The ball struck the grizzly, but did not disable him. Indeed, the wound
seemed rather to increase the terrible energy and rage with which he
was striving to reach Thure and his horse with one of those powerful
paws; and, for a dreadful moment, it appeared to Bud as if the huge
beast might even overtake the speedy horse. Then he saw that Thure
was slowly gaining, that the rope, which still clutched the hind leg of
the grizzly, was slowly tightening; and, with breathless haste, he began
reloading his rifle. He had had all the roping of El Feroz he wanted;

and now his only desire was to get a bullet into the huge body, where it
would kill quickly, as speedily as possible. Suddenly, just as he was
driving the bullet down into the barrel of his rifle, he heard a wild yell
of exultation from Thure, and looked up just in time to see the hind part
of the grizzly shoot upward into the air; and the next moment his
astonished eyes saw the huge body dangling from a strong limb of an
old oak tree, that thrust itself out from the sturdy trunk some fifteen feet
above the ground, and held there by the grip of Thure's rope around one
of the hind legs.
It needed but a glance for Bud to understand how this seemingly
marvelous feat had been accomplished. The quick eyes of Thure had
seen the tree, with its sturdy limb thrust out some fifteen feet above the
ground, almost directly in the line of his flight; and, swerving a little to
one side, so as to pass close to it, and slowing up his horse a bit, he had
gathered up the slack of the rope in his hand, and, as he passed the tree,
he had thrown it so that the middle of the rope had fallen over the top
of the limb not far from the trunk; and then, of course, the rope had
jerked the bear up into the air, and Thure had whirled his horse about,
and now the well-trained animal stood, his fore legs braced, holding the
struggling grizzly up to the limb.
"Shoot, shoot him quick, before the limb or the rope breaks!" yelled
Bud, the moment his eyes had taken in the situation, and, ramming the
bullet swiftly home, he spurred Gray Cloud toward the dangling bear.
Thure at once seized his rifle; but so furious were the struggles of the
grizzly--he hung just so that his fore paws touched the ground--as he
twisted and turned and frantically pawed up the dirt, insane with rage,
that it was impossible to get accurate aim from where he sat on his
horse; and Thure jumped from his saddle and ran quickly close up to
the swinging grizzly, now struggling more furiously than ever at the
near approach of his hated enemy.
"Don't! Look out! Can't you see how the limb is bending and shaking?"
yelled Bud excitedly. "The limb or the rope might break at any
moment!" and Bud shuddered at the horror of the thought of what then
might happen and urged his horse more desperately than ever toward

the scene.
And, indeed, the huge body of the grizzly, twisting and swinging at the
end of the rope, the blood flowing from the wound made by Bud's
bullet, his little red eyes glowing