Holding his breath, as he still tugged at the mouth of his refractory mount, Frank saw the smoke shoot out from the muzzle of the gun as the report sounded.

“Whoop!  He’s down!” shrieked a cowboy curveting near by.

“Take care!  He’s coming again, Jerry!” shouted Frank.

The bear had rolled over at the shot, but being one of the toughest animals in the world, he had immediately gained his feet again, and was once more advancing.

But Jerry knew what to do, even though he had never met quarry of this caliber before.  He pumped another cartridge into the chamber, deliberately took aim, with apparently little show of excitement, and fired again.

Once more the grizzly stumbled and fell.  When he tried to get up again he did not seem equal to the effort.

Mr. Mabie was shaking the hand of the young Nimrod with great enthusiasm.  Perhaps he had purposely tried the nerve of Jerry, to find out what manner of boys these were, of whom old Jesse Wilcox spoke so well.

Now that the monster was dead, the ponies consented to draw somewhat closer; but the boys had to dismount, and hand over their steeds to a cowman when they wished to reach the spot where the victim of the hunt lay.

Will, with his camera, was, of course, in evidence.

“I wouldn’t have missed that for a cookie!” he declared.  “And if that frightened horse had only allowed me to take a crack at the time the old hermit toppled over, I’d be ever so much happier.”

Frank, remembering how the other had been forced to clasp his arms around the neck of his frantic steed at the time, smiled at the impossibility of such a thing coming about.

“Give us a grip of your paw, old fellow!” cried Bluff, rushing up, brimming over with enthusiasm and admiration.  “I’ll sure never forget that sight!  And he did the Rod, Gun and Camera Club proud when he used your weapon, didn’t he, Mr. Mabie?”

“I knew he would,” was the quiet remark of the stockman; and Frank understood that the other had been forming a favorable opinion of the chums from the minute he saw them come off the train.

“Would you like that skin to remember the event by, Jerry?” Mr. Mabie asked, a little later, while they were watching the cowboys remove the hide.

“It would give my mother a cold chill to see it, if she ever heard the story; but then we have a clubroom over our boathouse, and I guess it would look nice there.  So, since you are so kind as to offer it, I’ll say yes, Mr. Mabie.”

“Well, I should remark that we’d never forgive you if you let that chance slip.  It looks as though our big-game trip might pan out something worth while, after all,” observed Bluff.

“You do everything on a big scale out here in the Northwest, sir.  The fields of wheat are tremendous, the distances immense, the mountains higher than any in the East, by long odds; and the game the biggest in the whole country,” remarked Frank.