“Black bear?”
“Nonsense! The grizzly. You’ve read of him?”
“Yes.”
“Well, be glad you don’t know him outside of books; and take care you don’t, for you might have a chance to meet him. He sometimes comes about such places as this, following the rivers even as far as the prairie. I’ll tell you more of him another time; here we are at the camp.”
“A mule, a mule! Where did you get her, Hawkins?” cried all the men.
“By special delivery from Washington, for a ten-cent stamp. Would you like to see the envelope?” asked Sam, dismounting.
Though they were curious, none asked further questions, for, like the beast he had captured, when Sam wouldn’t he wouldn’t, and that was the end of it.
CHAPTER IV.
A GRIZZLY AND A MEETING.
The morning after Sam and I had caught Miss Nancy we moved our camp onward to begin labor on the next section of the road. Hawkins, Stone, and Parker did not help in this, for Sam was anxious to experiment further with Nancy’s education, and the other two accompanied him to the prairie, where they had sufficient room to carry out this purpose. We surveyors transferred our instruments ourselves, helped by one of Rattler’s men, while Rattler himself loafed around doing nothing.