312 THE DRAMA OF THE FORESTS 



case of life or death, but principally death; an' you can depend 

 on it we wasn't takin' any chances. 



"Me an' the Captin was crowdin' so close upon the Arch- 

 deacon's heels that in his terror lest we should pass him by he 

 ups an' sets the pace at such a tremendous speed that the 

 whole three of us actually catches up to the bear . . . without 

 the brute's knowin' it. If it hadn't been for the Archdeacon 

 steppin' on the sole of the bear's upturned left hind foot as the 

 hungry beast was gallopin' round the fire . . . we'd have 

 been runnin' a good deal longer. 



"Well, sir, if you had just seen how foohsh that bear looked 

 when he discovered that we was chasin' him instead of him 

 chasin' us, you'd have died laughin'. Why, he was the most 

 bewildered an' crest-fallen animal I ever did see. But he soon 

 regained his wits an' — evidently calculatin' that his only 

 salvation layed in his overhaulin' us — ht out at a saprisin' 

 gait in a grand effort to leave us far enough behind for him to 

 catch up to us. But it didn't work; for by that time we had all 

 got our second wind an' he soon reahzed that we was de- 

 termined not to be overhauled from the rear. So he set to 

 ponderin' what was really the best thing for him to do; an' then 

 he did it. 



"You must understand that we was so close upon his heels 

 that there wasn't room for him to stop an' turn around without 

 us all fallin' on top of him. So what do you think the cunmn' 

 brute did? Why, he just hauled off an' kicked out behind with 

 his right hind foot, an' hit the Archdeacon a smashin' blow 

 square on his stomach, an' knocked him bang against the 

 Captin an' the Captin against me, an' me against the dogs; an' 

 we all went down in a heap beside the fire. 



"Well, sir, that old brute had put so much glad an' earnest 

 energy into its kick that it knocked the wind plum out of every 

 one of us, an' for the next few seconds there was a mess of arms 

 an' legs an' tails frantically tryin' to disentangle themselves. 



