But all three of the bears kept their feet! What 

 bungling! What bungling! They fired fifteen 

 shots; and the game moved on. It reappeared at 

 this side of the snow, at a little knoll just above the 

 sheer canon wall. And then ensued what might 

 seem, in telling, a piece of imaginary hunting, but 

 which occurred just as I say. 



The two cubs moved off into the cover once 

 more. I saw Kuroki come and peer over the edge, 

 not seeming to care to come closer. I had had my 

 eye on the giant she-bear a moment before as she 

 stood near the rock-face. When I turned the glasses 

 on her she was gone! Then I saw Czaroff crawl 

 down a way and peer down. Even as I looked at 

 the cubs, the old bear had let go and gone down 

 the sheer canon wall! They told me later that she 

 roared all the way down. So, at last, she died. 

 Though I have hunted much, I never knew a bear to 

 die as she did, or to die so hard. But hers was a 

 noble, a gallant ending of a valorous life. 



I rushed down the mountain, forded the river 

 below, and intercepted my men as they came down. 

 They had not a hide nor a hair! The big bear, 

 they said, was a spirit bear, a devil, which could 

 not be killed! She had fallen down the rock- face 

 along a cascade, plunged over this fall, and gone far 

 out of sight under the snow-field at the floor of the 



236 



