Show IT WAS A ito IT SAVED A ricly Y MOUNTAIN 7 RS LIFE FIE FIVE TIMES ile took good andai ami when u quiet wee was once more re restored ile counted up dead de I 1 blodi so no W bonder der he ile ig celled called a carnus I 1 story teller A group of men were bitting sitting on th abo 0 hotel porch swapping yarns soine people do not believe in lack do and 1111 tell you why said the traveler e ler a he paused and deliberately put hia his right leg across the knee of hig his left and glanced pensively pens ely down the street the group pricked up their ears for the traveler was a famous story teller an I 1 all rightly j judged that his remark was but the prelude to the recital of one of his adventures adv when I 1 was some 15 years v cars younger 5 than I 1 am now continued the traveler 1 I wig was exceedingly fond of bunting hunting ono fall my love of this sport led me to take a buil hunting ting trip in tho the rocky mountains I 1 was vv as ambitious and wanted to add a grizzly bear skin and a few elk heads to iny my collection of trophies and incidentally if it might bo be to let daylight through an indian or two Wellfort well for two wo weeks I 1 hunted v ith out getting sight of hair bair or track of elk bear or indian and the thing was beginning to get monotonous when one afternoon found me traversing chobot the hot torn tom of a deep canyon can on I 1 was w as alone my guide having remained in camp on ac count of f p sprained ankle the bed of the canyon can on waa was rent with deep fissures and covered with great rocke rocks and its sides were seamed and cracked A few stunted shrubs and trees of the kind the elk oik is 13 fond of feeding upon grew along the sides bides and bottom of or the tile canyon and I 1 hoped to find some of the animals here cropping tho the tender twigs at last just as I 1 rounded a high point of rocks I 1 cau caught bt eight sight of an elk a noble fellow standing some 10 rods up the canyon with n ath his face toward me lie he was nos ties ing the air suspiciously and I 1 feared that I 1 would not get a shot at him unless I 1 was quick about it accordingly I 1 threw my rifle to my shoulder and tak ing hasty aim at the broad flat forehead fired 1 I was totally unprepared for the startling effect of that shot ali almost oat at the instant my finger pressed the trigger there came a puff of white sm smoke from behind a rock some 20 rods up on the opposite eido side of the canyon can on and I 1 saw an indian leap cap to bis his feet only to fall back dead while at the same moment a pierc ing scream seemingly coming from di erectly over my head bead caused me to look quickly tip up in the mid midair air with gre greit at paws outstretched and long sharp nails extended I 1 beheld a mountain lion apparently patently ly about to drop on my bead I 1 bounded to one side As I 1 did so my blood almost froze with horror for I 1 had jumped directly over a rattlesnake which now lay not two feet from me m wish with his head reared ready to strike before I 1 could make a movement to defend myself from this new danger do down M upon the snake fell the body of the tile lion crushing out its life the lion rolled over once or twice and then to my surprise lay still I 1 had not had time to recover from the terror and as ment caused by these startling in when vv hen my ears were vv ere greeted with a terrific bellowing and looking up the canyon I 1 saw the elk charging down upon me rue I 1 whirled about intending to seek safety in flight when wilen to my utter confusion not a dozen feet away and di erectly in in tho the path I 1 must pursue if I 1 con tinned my flight a monster grizzly bear reared himself up on his hind les legs and with wide open mouth rushed for me ine I 1 was vas in an awful aw tul situation I 1 could see no P possible 0 way of escaping on the right hand band was the tile perpendicular wall of tho the canyon and on the left a deep chasm before was the grizzly bear and behind the rushing elk death faced me whatever way I 1 turned I 1 trust I 1 may never feol feel the horror of that moment again tho grizzly bear sprang forward fora ard to toji seizo eizo and crush out my lifo life with ilia his strong arms and the elk gave a mighty bound his huge hoina burns lowered ready to transfix my body at that moment my heart beart seemed to sink nic into my boots and 1 I fell flat upon the gr ground 0 und with a crash like that of tho tile collision of two locomotives the ani ant mala met over my prostrate fortia the tile terri terncio fic in momentum of the elk be bore him self and tile bear over my body for about five seconds there was a tremendous do us r struggle gle then both beasts fell tell lock locked lExi together to the ground and in a moment more had expired one of the sharp prongs of the horns of the elk had bad pierced thelbart thel the heart eart of the grizzly and the elks elk s neck had been broken by the bear in his death struggle I 1 bounded to my feet not net knowing whether to run or stand till eo so sudden so terrible and so many had bad been the dangers which had threatened me but everything V vas Ms nuiet quiet q and all my foes were dead on investigation I 1 found that my rifle ball had struck the elk at the base of the ile horns where the bone is thick and hard and after partially stunning selifin him it bad ad glanced diagonally across the canyon and pierced the tile brain brair lof of the in dian who concealed behind a rock was about to fire upon in me e the shock of he tile ball had hac I 1 been sufficient to deflect t the aim of the indian enough to cause him to miss iniss me and to pierce the heart of the mountain lion just ilas t at the moment he me from a cleft in in the rocks sprang upon above my head the lion landed upon the rattlesnake and crushed the ii life 10 OM out of him before bo he had had time to strike and the elk and the bear in their eager ness to L kill lill ill me had de destroyed each 0 other 1 I bali that a lucky shot at least for me because it javed my life five times and was vv as the death of an indian a grizzly rattlesnake and find a moun bear a an elk a tain lion and the trA traveler reler deliberately removed oved abe right leg from th the 1 knee of the loft left and glanced upward with the look k of a inin who is s con confident fiden t that be he is a favor ito ot of provi providence deur e chicago Til tribune buno |