At that moment Mr. Simms called out to Mike: "'Most done cookin', Mike? Ah want you-all to go with me to ketch a grizzly afore it is too dark to see him. Ah promised mah wife she should have a bear-skin rug this trip."
Mike looked at Mrs. Brewster who nodded for him to go. She calmly took the ladle and continued stirring the soup that the Indian had been attending to, then Mike hurried after Simms.
"There now—I know it is something serious and it is much better for me to know what may happen than to have it come upon me like a thunder-bolt," said Polly.
"Well, then, keep on stirring this broth while I busy myself over the rest of the supper, and I'll tell you. Don't exclaim, or show any shock. It is important for us to keep cool," advised Mrs. Brewster, as she toasted some dry bread over the embers.
"I wasn't present when this occurred but father told me. The men found the miner who had been shot, and down the slope further on, they saw the forms of the other two. But the panic-stricken horses that had been hobbled and left to graze, were so frightened at the clouds of smoke and crackling fire, that a few of the men had to lead them back to a clear place. There they were tied securely to some trees.
"Your father, Bill, and one of his men, jumped down the steep sides where the fire was raging, and began to beat out the flames. They could see the two drunken miners just beyond the fire-line down the trail, but they seemed so overcome with whisky and smoke that they failed to respond to any shouts from the men, or to the fear of the on-driving fire.
"Our men had beaten out the ground-fire half-way to the miners, when a terrific rumbling sounded, as from a distance behind them. Bill's man was far in advance of the other two rescuers, and perhaps, the crackling on the ground and the raging fire in the trees overhead, deafened him to this other portentous sound.
"Father, however, felt that it meant something more terrible than a fire, so he shouted to Bill and tried to warn the man. But a fit of coughing from inhaling the smoke, cut his call short. Bill then cried, 'Go on back, Sam—I'll get my man!'
"So your father managed to force his way back towards the Top Trail. There he saw a great white cloud swooping down from the peak of Grizzly Slide. He turned, screamed at Bill and waved his arms to warn them out of the track of the avalanche, if possible. Bill and his man saw this new danger and turned to climb back to safety.
"Father was leading, Bill a short distance behind him, and the man not far in the rear, when the first two heard a scream. They turned and saw the horse had stumbled and fallen. He tried to scramble to his feet before the onrush of the half-frozen earth and rock and snow could reach him, but it caught and whirled him away on its crest.