Grizzly Read Online Free

water and crawled several hundred yards downstream. The wind was merciless, whipping at his cold wet pants legs and boots.
    Resting on the bank, Justin checked his pack. The bottom of the pack had been ripped and his bedroll was missing. Most of the contents were probably scattered across the burn. In the zippered front pouch he found a small box of matches and stuffed them into his coat pocket.
    The sun was going down, and he was cold, tired, and hungry. He had never been this far into the mountains. He walked on, keeping up a slow but steady pace until the light was almost gone.
    At dusk, he found a sheltered hollow. Using his good arm, he scraped up some pine needles and gathered a few sticks of dry wood for a fire.
    Once he had a small blaze going, he satdown to examine his wounds. He tried to take his coat off but found that the sleeve was glued to his bad arm with dried blood. He decided to leave it alone for the moment so that it wouldn’t start bleeding again.
    Lying down on the hard ground as close to the fire as he dared, Justin tried to go to sleep. His arm continued to throb, and it was hours before he finally dozed off.
    It seemed as if he had been asleep only a few minutes when he heard something crashing through the brush near him.
    Justin sat up and whirled around. He found himself face to face with the grizzly. She stood on her hind legs a few feet from him, growling and sniffing.
    Justin scrambled to the other side of the fire, crouched low behind the blaze, and waited.
    The bear moved closer and snorted. She swayed back and forth, her eyes glowing red in the reflection of the flames, as if she was trying to make up her mind whether or not to charge through the fire at him.
    Justin held his breath, waiting, knowing he might die now, that he couldn’t do anything to stop her. But suddenly the great beast dropped to all fours, turned, and padded noiselessly back into the shadows.

C HAPTER 10
    Justin could hear the beating of his heart. The grizzly was still out there, waiting. At any moment she could change her mind and come back for him. He had to have a plan.
    In the cold pink light of morning Justin looked at the trees around him. If he could get to one and climb it, the bear wouldn’t be able to catch him. He had read somewhere that cubs would climb trees but that adult bears couldn’t.
    He studied the tree closest to him. It wastall, with no branches near the bottom that he could grab. Silently he moved away from the fire and back toward the river. There were younger trees along the river. All he had to do was find the right one.
    There was a noise in the trees to his right. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a patch of silver fur keeping pace with him as he moved. He wanted to run, to take his chances, but he held himself in check.
He was nearly out of the timber when he saw it. Lodged in the branches of a tall spruce was a tree that had been knocked over by the wind. It made a perfect ladder to the higher branches of the spruce.
    The grizzly was visible now. Justin put his hand on the windfall, took a deep breath, and scrambled up the tree as fast as he could using just one arm.
    The bear charged out of the trees, bellowing like an angry bull. She made a swipe at him and caught the heel of his boot with one of her claws, almost knocking him out of the tree.
    He hung on and kept climbing until he was high above the grizzly’s head and out of reach of her deadly paws.
    The bear dropped onto all fours and circled the tree. Then she moved back a few feet and sat on her haunches to wait.

C HAPTER 11
    A blast of cold wind hit him in the face. Justin jerked awake. He had fallen asleep with his head resting against the big spruce.
    He looked below. The grizzly was still there, a few yards away from the tree, tearing at a stump. She was completely absorbed in her project, hunting for food.
    Justin started to inch down to the branch below him. The instant he moved, the grizzly sat up and scrambled under