Two or three times he thought that he would mount his horse; but each time the beast threatened trouble, so that Donald feared he might lose his bear skin off the saddle; and now, since he had worked so hard to save it, he was determined that he would take no risks about it. It occurred to him also that if his horse should get away from him and should run to camp and in among the cávaya, the loose horses would be certain to stampede, and might be scattered far over the prairie. It seemed better to walk the whole way than to take a risk such as this.
So he kept walking; and it was a hot, dirty and weary young Englishman who at length reached the camp. He tied his rope short to a wagon wheel and took the bear skin from his horse, and then unsaddled and turned loose the animal.
It was some hours later when Vicente, Jack and Tulare Joe reached camp with a small bunch of cattle.
[CHAPTER XXI]
A CALIFORNIA BEAR HUNT
That evening in camp Jack and Donald were full of the exploits of the day—the roping and death of the bear.
"What I can't understand yet," said Donald, "is why that bear died. Vicente said that it died because it was so mad; and certainly we know that it died, and without being hurt, except so far as it was choked before we got it stretched out. Did you ever hear of anything of that kind, Hugh? I suppose you know more about bears than anybody in the camp."
"Well," replied Hugh, "of course, I've seen bears in my time, and seen some of 'em killed, but I don't know anything more about whether they'll die of anger than you do. I expect the only men that can tell you much about that are Vicente here and Joe. I've heard more than once something about grizzly bears dying because they were mad; but I don't know anything about it."
"Come on, Joe," laughed Jack, "we've got to go back to you Californians now for information. California is the only place I ever heard of where they regularly roped grizzlies, and I suppose it's a long time since they did much of that."