I reckon you ain't wintered here yet." Hale was obliged to admit that he had only taken Eagle's Court in the early spring.
"Oh, you're all right at Eagle's--when you're there! But it's like Thomson's--it's the gettin' there that--Hallo! What's that ?" A shot, distant but distinct, had rung through the keen air.

It was followed by another so alike as to seem an echo.
"That's over yon, on the North Ridge," said the ostler, "about two miles as the crow flies and five by the trail.

Somebody's shootin' b'ar." "Not with a shot gun," said Clinch, quickly wheeling his horse with a gesture that electrified them.

"It's THEM, and the've doubled on us! To the North Ridge, gentlemen, and ride all you know!" It needed no second challenge to completely transform that quiet cavalcade.

The wild man-hunting instinct, inseparable to most humanity, rose at their leader's look and word.