Grizzly King

Chapter 5

After dinner, Langdon and Otto smoked their pipes by the balsam and spruce bushes, the embers of the campfire still burning at their feet.At higher altitudes in the mountains, the night air gets colder.Otto straightened up and threw a large bundle of dry spruce branches onto the fire.Then, stretching his long body again, resting his head and neck comfortably against the bottom of the tree, he giggled, this is his No. 15 laugh.

"Laugh, damn it!" Langdon yelled. "Otto, I tell you, it shot me twice, twice! And I was in a bad situation!"

"Especially when the grizzly bear is leaning over and grinning in your face?" Otto, overjoyed at his companion's bad luck, teased, "Langdon, at that distance, you'd be almost as far away with a rock." It can kill it."

"At that time, the gun was still under my body." Langdon has explained this twenty times.

"That's not a place to shoot a grizzly," Otto reminded.

"The valley is so steep that I have to use my fingers and feet to cling to crevices in the rocks. If the valley is steeper, I will have to use my teeth."

As Langdon sat upright, he tapped the ashes out of the pipe and filled it with fresh tobacco.

"Otto, he must be the biggest grizzly in the Rockies!"

"Langdon, if your gun doesn't happen to be underneath you, its pelt would make a nice rug for the basement of your house."

"I'm going to bring him home," Langdon declared. "I've made up my mind. Let's set up camp here. If it takes all summer, I'm going to get that grizzly. Rather than get ten." Brazier mountain bear, you might as well get this one. He's nine feet tall, his head is the size of a basket, and the hair on his shoulders is four feet long. I don't know why he wasn't killed. What a pity. He's wounded, Sure it can still fight, right? Well, it must be a lot of fun catching it."

"Certainly," Otto agreed, "especially if you encounter him again sometime next week, with his gunshot wound still hurting. Until then, Langdon, keep your gun out of your way." down."

"Set up camp here, what's your opinion?"

"Of course it couldn't be better. There is a lot of fresh meat, green grass, and clear water here." After a while, Otto added, "It must have been seriously injured. It bled a lot on the top of the mountain."

Langdon began polishing his rifle by the firelight.

"It's going to run off, out of this place, isn't it?"

Otto grunted angrily.

"Run? Leave? If it was a black bear, it might. But it's a grizzly bear, the king of this place. It might avoid the valley for a while, but it's sure Does not migrate elsewhere. The harder you beat a grizzly, the crazier it will become; A bear, then, we're sure to catch it."

"I've decided," Langdon repeated, emphatically, "if I guess correctly, it will break my bear hunting record. Otto, I want to catch it, I must catch it. Shall we track it down tomorrow morning?"

Otto shook his head.

"It has nothing to do with tracking. It's a simple hunt. When a grizzly bear is hit, it moves around, but it doesn't step out of its territory or expose itself on open slopes. We My guide, Indian Mituson, with a pack of hounds? It would be more fun if we took the pack of Airedales with us."

Langdon glanced at the fire through the polished rifle barrel, and said with some doubts:

"I've been worrying about Mitusun not being able to find us a week ago. We've been through some pretty rough terrain."

Otto was full of confidence. He said: "If we walk in the rocky place, the old Indian will definitely find our whereabouts. If his hounds don't faint and chase the porcupine, within three days, he will find us. Arrived here. Once the hounds are here," said Otto, straightening up and stretching his thin body, "we shall have the best time of our lives. I guess there must be many bears in these mountains, and the ten The hounds will catch them all within a week. Want a bet?"

With a snap, Langdon closed the butt of the gun.

Langdon didn't care about other challenges. He said, "I just want to catch the King Grizzly, and I have a feeling I'll catch him tomorrow. Otto, you're a good bear hunter. I don't think he's going very far with his injuries. "

Langdon and Otto made two beds of soft fir boughs near the fire.Langdon followed his companion's lead and spread out the blanket on the bed.He stretched his waist, he was so tired today that he fell asleep in less than 5 minutes.

At dawn, Langdon was still asleep when Otto woke up.Without waking Langdon up, he quietly put on his boots, stepped through the dew, and walked more than 400 meters away.He was going to drive the herd together.When he returned he brought Disban and the other horses and saddles.By this time, Langdon was up and building a fire.

Mornings like these often brought Langdon back to the past.When he first came to the northern mountains in June eight years ago, his lungs were not good. "Young man, if you insist on going, you can go," the doctor told him, "but that would be like going to your own funeral." Today, not only is he five inches taller, but he's also strong.The sun is shining for the first time, slowly climbing up the hill; everything is growing, and the air is full of flowers and dew.Langdon breathed deeply, the oxygen in the air tinged with nourishing, fragrant balsam.

Compared with his companions, Langdon wanted to show his love of wild life.Life in the wild made him want to shout, to sing, to whistle.This morning, he restrained himself.

The passion for the hunt ran in his blood.

Otto saddled the horse and Langdon made the pancakes.He has become an expert at baking bread in the wild, twice as efficiently in a method that saves material and time.

Langdon opened a heavy sack of flour, pounded a small pit in the mound of flour with his fists, poured a pint of water, half a cup of reindeer fat, a tablespoon of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and Then stir it up.In less than 5 minutes, he spread the dough out onto the foil.Half an hour later, the lamb chops were cooked, the potatoes were cooked, and the crepes were golden brown.

The sun just broke its face in the east as Langdon and Otto set out from the tent.They rode across the valley and up the slope on foot, the horses following meekly behind.

In fact, it is not difficult to find Thor's trace.Once it stopped, turned and scorned and roared at its opponent.It was there that there was a large pool of its blood on the ground; from this pool, Langdon and Otto traced the dark red trail to the top of the hill.They went into another valley, and there they found Thor's presence again, and each time there was a pool of blood—either soaked in the earth or dripping on the rocks.

Langdon and Otto walked through the woods to the creek.Here, in a long line of hard black sand, Thor's footprint stopped them both.

Otto froze, and Langdon was even more stunned.Before the two spoke a word, Langdon took out a pocket measuring tape and knelt in front of a footprint.

"Fifteen point two!" he gasped.

"Measure the other one," said Otto.

"Fifteen and a half inches."

Otto looked up the canyon.

He said, "The biggest footprint I've ever seen, [-] inches long." His voice sounded a little awed. Largest grizzly bear ever killed. Langdon, this bear is bigger than that!"

They both continued on.At the first pool where Thor washed his wounds, they measured the bear's footprints.All measurements are about the same.Occasionally, the pair found bloodstains nearby.At ten o'clock they reached the clay-pit, and there they saw the bed Thor had made for himself.

"It's badly hurt," Otto whispered, "and it's been here almost all night."

They both raised their heads in unison, looking ahead.Half a mile further up the mountain, you will enter the forested canyon that blocks the sky and the sun.

"He's badly wounded," repeated Otto. "We'd better tie up the horse here and go on foot. There's a good chance he'll be there."

The two of them tied the horses to the stunted cedars and unloaded Disban's load.

Then, with rifles in hand and alert eyes and ears, they stepped cautiously into the silent and dark canyon.

(End of this chapter)