66 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



Feeling desperately hungry, we began to feast off 

 biscuits and tinned beef, and presently Ned appeared 

 up the trail, telling us that the shots had called him 

 out. We knew he could not possibly have heard 

 them in our distant camp, and I suspect that he was 

 tracking us in the furtive, secretive way these people 

 have. Very often a lurking form glided phantom- 

 wise between the tree-stems, causing me to pause a 

 moment, only to find that it was no forest-dweller, 

 but one of our own hunters hunting us. A strange 

 trait of inquisitiveness ; dangerous too. 



Ned had a string of ptarmigan over his arm, and 

 our '22 Winchester on his shoulder, but the whole lot 

 gave way at the sight of the bear, and he dropped on 

 his knees beside the carcase. 



" You shoot all right, you bet," he said in sepulchral 

 tones of amazement. We had known from the very 

 first that our men regarded the feminine part of our 

 expedition very much in the light of an American 

 dime show a great deal of fuss and palaver, and 

 very little when you really get to it. We did not 

 mind. It was a matter of indifference to us what they 

 thought. Why talk to them of other experiences 

 days with rhino, lion, leopard, as though one could 

 not do them again ? It always seems to me that when 

 anything you have done in the past looms very large 

 and splendid in your eyes, it argues that you have not 

 accomplished much to-day. Deeds, not words, count 

 with natives. 



By this time Ned had seen enough to convince him 

 that we were fairly safe to go out with, and knew the 



