第33章

"At this moment a slight noise attracted my at-tention,and I saw that the porcupine had arrived.

He had climbed up to the piece of meat nearest me,and was helping himself without any cere-mony.I thought it was fortunate that he came,for he would make a good watch dog for me.

Very soon,in fact,he interrupted his meal,and caused all his quills to stand out in defiance.Iglanced about me and saw the two coyotes slyly approaching my open camp from two different di-rections.

"I took the part of the porcupine!I rose in a sitting posture,and sent a swift arrow to each of my unwelcome visitors.They both ran away with howls of surprise and pain.

"The porcupine saw the whole from his perch,but his meal was not at all disturbed,for he began eating again with apparent relish.Indeed,I was soon furnished with another of these unconscious protectors.This one came from the opposite di-rection to a point where I had hung a splendid ham of venison.He cared to go no further,but seated himself at once on a convenient branch and began his supper.

"The canon above me was full of rocks and trees.

From this direction came a startling noise,which caused me more concern than anything I had thus far heard.It sounded much like a huge animal stretching himself,and giving a great yawn which ended in a scream.I knew this for the voice of a mountain lion,and it decided me to perch upon a limb for the rest of the night.

"I got up and climbed into the nearest large tree,taking my weapons with me;but first I rolled a short log of wood in my blanket and laid it in my place by the fire.

"As I got up,the two porcupines began to de-scend,but I paid no attention to them,and they soon returned to their former positions.Very soon I heard a hissing sound from one of them,and knew that an intruder was near.Two grey wolves appeared.

"I had hung the hams by the ham strings,and they were fully eight feet from the ground.At first the wolves came boldly forward,but the warn-ing of the porcupines caused them to stop,and hesitate to jump for the meat.However,they were hungry,and began to leap savagely for the hams,although evidently they proved good targets for the quills of the prickly ones,for occasionally one of them would squeal and rub his nose des-perately against the tree.

"At last one of the wolves buried his teeth too deeply in a tough portion of the flesh,and having jumped to reach it,his own weight made it im-possible for him to loosen his upper jaw.There the grey wolf dangled,kicking and yelping,until the tendon of the ham gave way,and both fell heavily to the ground.From my hiding-place Isent two arrows into his body,which ended his life.The other one ran away to a little distance and remained there a long time,as if waiting for her mate.

"I was now very weary,but I had seen many grizzly bears'tracks in the vicinity,and besides,Ihad not forgotten the dreadful scream of the mountain lion.I determined to continue my watch.

"As I had half expected,there came presently a sudden heavy fall,and at the same time the burn-ing embers were scattered about and the fire almost extinguished.My blanket with the log in it was rolled over several times,amid snarls and growls.

Then the assailant of my camp--a panther--leaped back into the thick underbrush,but not before my arrow had penetrated his side.He snarled and tried to bite off the shaft,but after a time be-came exhausted and lay still.

"I could now distinguish the grey dawn in the east.I was exceedingly drowsy,so I fastened myself by a rope of raw-hide to the trunk of the tree against which I leaned.I was seated on a large limb,and soon fell asleep.

"I was rudely awakened by the report of a gun directly under me.At the same time,I thought some one was trying to shake me off the tree,Instantly I reached for my gun.Alas!it was gone !At the first shake of the tree by my visi-tor,a grizzly bear,the gun had fallen,and as it was cocked,it went off.

"The bear picked up the weapon and threw it violently away;then he again shook the tree with all his strength.I shouted:

"'I have still a bow and a quiver full of arrows;you had better let me alone.'

"He replied to this with a rough growl.I sent an arrow into his side,and he groaned like a man as he tried hard to pull it out.I had to give him several more before he went a short distance away,and died.It was now daylight,so I came down from my perch.I was stiff,and scarcely able to walk.I found that the bear had killed both of my little friends,the porcupines,and eaten most of the meat.

"Perhaps you wonder,Ohiyesa,why I did not use my gun in the beginning;but I had learned that if I once missed my aim with it,I had no second chance.I have told of this particular ad-venture,because it was an unusual experience to see so many different animals in one night.Ihave often been in similar places,and killed one or two.Once a common black bear stole a whole deer from me without waking me.But all this life is fast disappearing,and the world is becoming different."