90 HUNTING THE GRISLY. 



a heavy gallop, while I raced obliquely down 

 the hill to cut him off. After going a few 

 hundred feet he reached a laurel thicket, some 

 thirty yards broad, and two or three times as 

 long which he did not leave. I ran up to the 

 edge and there halted, not liking to venture 

 into the mass of twisted, close-growing stems 

 and glossy foliage. Moreover, as I halted, I 

 heard him utter a peculiar, savage kind of 

 whine from the heart of the brush. Accord- 

 ingly, I began to skirt the edge, standing on 

 tiptoe and gazing earnestly to see if I could 

 not catch a glimpse of his hide. When I was 

 at the narrowest part of the thicket, he sud- 

 denly left it directly opposite, and then wheeled 

 and stood broadside to me on the hill-side, a 

 little above. He turned his head stiffly to- 

 wards me ; scarlet strings of froth hung 

 from his lips ; his eyes burned like embers in 

 the gloom. 



I held true, aiming behind the shoulder, 

 and my bullet shattered the point or lower 

 end of his heart, taking out a big nick. In- 

 stantly the great bear turned with a harsh 

 roar of fury and challenge, blowing the bloody 

 foam from his mouth, so that I saw the gleam 

 of his white fangs ; and then he charged 

 straight at me, crashing and bounding through 

 the laurel bushes, so that it was hard to aim. 

 I waited until he came to a fallen tree, raking 

 him as he topped it with a ball, which entered 

 his chest and went through the cavity of his 

 body, but he neither swerved nor flinched, 

 and at the moment I did not know that I had 



