Until they came within at least half a mile of the grizzly there was no
danger of him seeing them. The wind had shifted, and was almost in their
faces. Their swift walk changed to a dog-trot, and they swung in nearer to
the slope, so that for fifteen minutes a huge knoll concealed the grizzly.
In another ten minutes they came to the ravine, a narrow, rock-littered and
precipitous gully worn in the mountainside by centuries of spring floods
gushing down from the snow-peaks above. Here they made cautious
observation.

The big grizzly was perhaps six hundred yards up the slope, and pretty
close to three hundred yards from the nearest point reached by the gully.

Bruce spoke in a whisper now.

"You go up an' do the stalkin', Jimmy," he said. "That bear's goin' to do
one of two things if you miss or only wound 'im--one o' three, mebbe: he's
going to investigate _you_, or he's going up over the break, or he's comin'
down in the valley--this way. We can't keep 'im from goin' over the break,
an' if he tackles you--just summerset it down the gully. You can beat 'im
out. He's most apt to come this way if you don't get 'im, so I'll wait
here. Good luck to you, Jimmy!"

With this he went out and crouched behind a rock, where he could keep an
eye on the grizzly, and Langdon began to climb quietly up the
boulder-strewn gully.




CHAPTER THREE