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blow of one paw, the grizzly struck him to the ground.

      Frank rushed in, seeing the monster settle on all fours over Old Rocks.

      "I'll fix him!" grated the boy, as he thrust the muzzle of his rifle almost against bruin's head and pulled the trigger.

      For the first time on record the weapon missed fire.

      With a fierce growl, the bear whirled and knocked the rifle out of Frank's grasp.

      In a dazed manner, Old Rocks saw everything.

      "Ther kid's a goner!" thought the guide. "We're both done fer!"

      Out Frank snapped a revolver, and then, taking a step toward the bear, he fired five bullets into the creature in marvelously rapid succession.

      A roar came from the bear's throat, and the beast reared on its hind feet, its jaws dripping blood and foam, and rushed upon the dauntless boy.

      Frank flung aside the revolver, just as Rocks struggled to a sitting posture, thickly crying:

      "Run, kid! run fer yer life!"

      "Not much!" came through Frank's set teeth. "Think I'd run and leave you to the bear! I guess not!"

      "Dog my cats!" murmured the guide, weakly.

      The bear, dripping blood from its many wounds, still fierce as a raging tiger, came at Frank. The boy dodged, managed to avoid the rush, and gave the beast a wicked stab with the knife.

      "Dog my cats!" murmured the dazed guide once more.

      Frank Merriwell's face bore a look of fearless determination, and he was ready for the bear to charge again.

      It came.

      Frank tried to repeat the trick, slipped a bit, saw he could not escape, and then met the formidable beast.

      "Now he is a goner!" gurgled Old Rocks, faintly.

      With outstretched paws the bear closed in.

      Frank saw he was not going to be able to escape the hug, and he placed the haft of the knife against his own breast, with the point directed toward the bear.

      The grizzly folded Frank in his embrace, crushing the lad against his shaggy breast, and, in this way, the creature drove the knife home to its own heart.

      Uttering a great groan, it relaxed its hold, dropped on all fours, hung its head, and then sunk in a heap upon the ground, dying.

      Frank felt as if his ribs had been crushed, and he was covered with blood, but he had conquered.

      Old Rocks was so dazed that he sat on the ground, staring at the "tenderfoot kid," and faintly gasping:

      "Dog my cats!"

      Frank flung the knife to the ground, and then sat down, panting, in a desperate endeavor to get a full breath.

      Old Rocks got up very slowly, stood looking at the dead bear some moments, and then looked at the boy.

      "This beats me!" he grunted. "Whoever heard o' a tenderfut doin' sech a thing! An' he didn't seem ter be scart a tall!"

      Then he came nearer Frank, at whom he still stared.

      "It ain't a mistake, none whatever. This yar kid done it, and he done it in great shape! Say, youngster."

      "What?"

      "I wants ter 'polergize."

      "What for?"

      "Fer sayin' tenderfeet never has sand. I'll take it all back. You've got sand enough fer anything, you hev! Do you know whut you done? Wa-al, a grizzly is harder ter kill then a hull tribe o' Injuns! I wuz dead lucky ter kill t'other one by a chance shot, an' I'd never done it ef I hedn't been so nigh ther muzzle o' my rifle wuz right up ag'in' ther varmint. You worked an old hunter's trick on him. Thet fust jab you gave ther whelp kinder spruced him up, an' he wuz ready ter crush ther stuffin' outer yer. By holdin' ther knife ez yer did, yer made him kill hisself. Guv us yer hand! I'll swar by you through thick and thin!"

      So they shook hands again.

      CHAPTER XXXII.

       TRAILED DOWN.

       Table of Contents

      "Ther trail's gittin' derned hot, boy!" said Old Rocks, near sunset. "Ther p'izen varmints can't be fur ahead."

      They were passing through one of the wildest sections of the park. Mountains, capped with eternal snow, were on every hand. Their sides were seamed with mighty chasms and strewn with huge bowlders, many of which, it seemed, the weight of a hand would send crashing and thundering into the dark depths below.

      Some of the mountains bore traces of vegetation, pine and cedar showing darkly on many a jagged cliff. Some were bleak and barren, but none the less grand, impressive, and awe-inspiring.

      Amid these mountains were desolate canyons, which seemed to hold some dreadful secret locked fast in their silent bosoms.

      Since the encounter with the grizzlies Old Rocks and Frank had paused to eat a square meal of bear-steak, and it had braced them for the tramp, so they were able to cover ground swiftly without fatigue or discomfort.

      They had passed through a region of boiling geysers, where the water shot more than a hundred feet into the air, and came down in a rain, across which a beautiful rainbow formed, the roaring sound which accompanied this exhibition being as loud as the exhaust of a thousand locomotives.

      In one marshy valley they had passed pools of water, sulphur yellow, bright green, pink, crimson, and nearly all colors of the rainbow, the pools being from twenty to fifty feet apart.

      They had seen other things which were not given a second glance by Old Rocks, but which Frank longed to stop and examine.

      But it was no time for sight-seeing, as the boy well knew, and he held close to the heels of the unwearying guide.

      And now, near nightfall, Old Rocks declared that the trail was getting hot.

      "Shall we be able to overtake them before dark?" asked Frank, with the greatest anxiety.

      "I dunno," was the answer. "But it's derned certun thet we ain't goin' ter come fur from it."

      "Oh, for two hours more of daylight!" sighed the boy.

      "We'd run ther critters down dead sure in thet time. But I don't want yer ter git ther idee thet they're goin' ter give up ther gal 'thout a murmur."

      "But they will have to give her up."

      "Thet's whatever. All ther same, we may hev ter fight, an' ole Half Hand is a mighty bad critter ter buck agin'; you hear me shout!"

      "I am ready to fight, if necessary."

      "Ef I'd heerd yer say so this mornin', I w'u'dn't putt no dependence on it; but now I'll allow thet yer means whut yer says, an' yer've got sand ter give erway. Boy, you're a holy terror on trucks, an' you may quote me ez sayin' so."

      Frank did not smile.

      "Wait," he said. "I may not show up so well in the encounter with the Blackfeet. I was lucky in the bear fight."

      "Wa-al, dog my cats ef you ain't ther fust tenderfut I ever saw thet wouldn't hev bragged his head off ef he'd killed a grizzly! Why, boy, you don't seem ter know whut ye've done! You've made a record. Ary other tenderfut I ever saw'd go back East an' publish ther story in all ther papers. He'd be hailed ez a mighty chief an' a tin god on wheels."

      "Tenderfeet are not all braggarts, any more than Westerners are all brave men."

      "Thet's whatever," nodded Rocks; "but it's took me a gaul derned long time ter find it out."

      The sun was low behind the western mountains, and darkness was filling the great canyons.

      The guide swung onward at a steady pace, following

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