American Big-Game Hunting 
But instead of doing so, he discarded his 
rifle and reached for her tail. Ah, I thought 
so! for, as he gave a yank, up came her head, 
her jaws flew open like clockwork, and a 
snort came forth. But right between the eyes 
went the deadly messenger, smashing her 
skull and ending any prolonged suffering for 
any of us. Her end accomplished, we turned 
to the other partner. He had been taking it 
all in, and was ready for a fight. He seemed 
pretty fit, too. Fortunately, he could not come 
up to us; the snow-drift was too steep, and 
he had only two serviceable legs to travel 
with. Still he had true grit, and faced us; but 
it was an unequal battle. 
Again the bullet reached its victim, and 
brother ba’r lay quietly on his back with his 
legs in the air. No need to trifle with this 
bear’s tail, as any fool could see that he was 
dead. However, we pelted him with a lot of 
snowballs, and then Woody went around to 
his stump of a tail and pulled it while I stood 
guard at his head. We took off our coats, and 
soon had the skins off the pair of them. These 
skins proved to be in the finest condition, 
though the bears themselves were poor. I 
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