A RAINY DAY IN CAMP 211 



we got up nearly opposite the bear, but a little below 

 him. The distance was only one hundred and seventy- 

 five yards, and the bear looked as big as ever. Without 

 losing a minute I stepped out, knelt down, and just as 

 the bear looked at me, fired at the centre of him. My 

 bullet flew a foot too high, and the bear started to run. 

 I opened up and fired four more shots at him, and every 

 shot went high, just like so many steps in a ladder. 



" The bear plunged into the green timber on the 

 opposite side of the slide, and disappeared. I looked at 

 Mack, and said, ' I missed him\ ' 



" * Ye shore-ly did! ' said Mack. 



" We went out upon the slide, and looked at the 

 bear's tracks. Then we both burst out laughing. 



" That bear was nothing but a measly little cub^ fif- 

 teen months old! He was only two sizes bigger than 

 a full-grown woodchuck, and his tracks were simply 

 ridiculous, they were so small. . . . You see, the little 

 brute was out there on the snow, and there was abso- 

 lutely nothing to indicate its size. Instead of being one 

 hundred and seventy-five yards away it was only seventy- 

 five, and each time I fired at the bear I shot clean over 

 it. I never touched a hair of it." 



" That was the only bear that ever got away from 

 Mr. Phillips!" said Mack. 



" Yes," said Charlie Smith, " and to cap the climax 

 of that great big bear-fight, I heard the firing, and 

 rushed up from camp with knives and whetstones and 

 things, to help skin a big bear. But it just shows ye how 

 sometimes the mountains fool a man com-pletely ! " 



