x THE BEAR 217 



away on the pointed hill. It was so dark that I could hardly see 

 him, and my only chance was to ride round him, and work him 

 till he should stand quiet enough to let me take a steady shot. 



" He went on, sometimes here, sometimes there, and at last he 

 changed his mind, and seeing that he couldn't get away from the 

 horse across the open, he turned, and made for the 10 mile forest. 

 It was as much as I could do to drive him, by shouting and 

 cracking my whip whenever I headed him ; if I had only once let 

 him get out of sight, I should never have seen him again. 

 The ground is full of stones, as you know, which bothered the 

 horse in turning quickly ; but we went on, sometimes full gallop 

 straight away, at other times dancing round and round, until at 

 last the old bear got regularly tuckered-out, and he was so done he 

 could hardly move. There he was, with his tongue hanging out 

 of his mouth, standing, panting and blowing, and my horse wasn't 

 much better, I can tell you. Well, I was drawn up as close to 

 him as though I was going to strike him, and he was so completely 

 done there wasn't any fight in him ; my horse's flanks were heaving 

 in such a way that I could hardly load the two chambers that I 

 had fired. I was determined to have all my six shots ready before 

 I began to fire, and it was just lucky that I did, for I'm blessed if 

 I could kill him. There he stood, regularly exhausted-like, and 

 he took shot after shot, and never seemed to notice, or to care for 

 anything. At last I almost touched him, when I fired my sixth 

 cartridge between his shoulders, and he dropped stone dead. That's 

 all that happened, and I thought you wouldn't believe me if I came 

 back without a proof; so I cut him open, and took out his liver 

 to show you ; and here it is." 



Although this fine fellow thought nothing of his achievement, 

 I considered it to be the most extraordinary feat of horsemanship 

 that I had ever heard of, combined with wonderful determination. 

 In the darkness of night, without a moon, to hunt single-handed, 

 and to kill, a full-grown bear with a revolver, was in my experience 

 an unprecedented triumph in shikar. 



Early on the following morning I sent for the bear's skin. It 

 proved to be a large silver-tipped, and a close examination exhibited 

 the difficulties of the encounter during darkness. 



Eight shots had been fired from the commencement, to the 

 termination by the last fatal bullet ; but, although Texas Bill was 

 an excellent shot with his revolver, he had missed seven times, and 

 the eighth was the only bullet that struck the bear ! This had 

 entered between the shoulders vertically, proving the correctness 

 of his description, as he must have shot directly downwards. The 



