BEAR-HUNTING 



the thicket, going up the far mountainside at aston- 

 ishing speed. We both fired again and again, but 

 in the brush we could not land, and in the open the 

 wet moss left no sign of our shots, so we were not 

 confident of the range. 



"Me hit um little boy!" crowed Czaroff, and I 

 saw one of the cubs stumble. I swung on it and 

 again it rolled. I fired at the third bear and it, too, 

 rolled over. But then, in spite of all, we suffered 

 the unspeakable chagrin of seeing our game appar- 

 ently bound to escape, after all. I wished then I 

 had not fired but had let it go unhurt. The rule for 

 big game is to get close up, and now, in both our 

 bear scrimmages, we had lost the keenness of close 

 work through this chance configuration of the 

 country. 



The bears lumbered off in spite of us- fine ones, 

 too, as we could see. "Good-by!" laughed Czaroff, 

 and then added feelingly, almost all the English he 

 knew, "San Francisco! California!" At least, he 

 did his best at swearing. 



The Grizzly Bear Company, Limited, it may be 

 supposed, turned out in full force the next morn- 

 ing; and again business system saved the day. We 

 put Barnes on the trail where we left it, and the 

 rest of us went on down the coast and ascended the 

 second valley, to intercept the game if it had crossed 



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