58 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



Our fervent faith got a trifle dashed as half-hours 

 crept by with no sort of result. Save for the 

 rippling of the river the silence was unbroken. My 

 foot went to sleep, and pins and needles racked it. I 

 felt that I must move, though I ruined every chance 

 I had. Then, even as I essayed a changed position, 

 with an electric-like shock I realized that the opposite 

 alder tops moved gently, sinuously, one after the 

 other a-quiver, all down the pathway which we 

 watched, lynx-fashion, with keen, alert eyes. A great 

 beast was travelling, the thrill in the very air held us 

 as in a vice. 



Out he came, right into the open, as magnificent a 

 picture of wild life as it has ever been my lot to see. 

 His vast bulk outlined against the green of the under- 

 growth behind him, his head carried so low that the 

 great arches of his shoulders appeared to equalize the 

 width of the wide skull, and the depth from nose to 

 ear. 



Pausing for an instant the bear came to the very 

 edge of the water, and presently actually drank from 

 it. With his mouth dripping, the ponderous animal 

 mounted the bank again, and fell to, like some great 

 ox, on the grass round about him. We could have 

 shot him easiest as he slaked his thirst, but held our 

 fire in the desire to watch this drama of the wild. 

 Even as we watched, the bear seemed meditating a 

 move to a more distant patch of country. Cecily 

 looked at me. I nodded. I raised my rifle with a 

 momentary fear in my heart that the cramped attitude 

 of my position might render it next door to impos- 



