LET US GO AFIELD 



and certainly I fired square at its chest. Then, 

 apparently many seconds later, it sat and stared, and 

 at last let go all over, all at once, and rolled, stone- 

 dead, fifty feet down the mountainside toward the 

 canon edge. Kuroki exulted that he had killed his 

 bear, and I thought he had perhaps done so, though 

 later I found his bullet in a hindleg, my own through 

 the chest. 



The result of these two shots I do not pretend to 

 explain; but there were our two bears down. The 

 third had vanished. Kuroki said he had shot once 

 at it and missed it. I never saw this bear at all, 

 my own game having kept me busy longer than I 

 had expected. 



But now common stock and preferred seemed 

 pretty much the same in value. I looked for my 

 first bear, and it was getting up again and moving 

 off through the alders ! Again the rifles began, but 

 we could do nothing through the dense cover. The 

 Grizzly Bear Company, Limited, was facing disas- 

 ter! 



"Run on across, Kuroki!" I called, when at last 

 a shot seemed to stop the old fellow for a time. He 

 lay down and, I thought, was dying. "Kill that 

 cripple if he's still alive, and meet me at the other 

 dead bear. I'll kill it if it gets up." 



I was well-nigh worn out with the hard work to 

 226 



