A CHROMATIC BEAR HUNT 



more open stretches of the grove the sunlight 

 glinted down through the spruces, allowing 

 the boys a considerable view, but for the most 

 part the thickets were nearly impenetrable. 

 The moss was like a velvet rug, so noiseless 

 that only a snapping twig or a rubbing gar- 

 ment served notice of their approach. 



They had been skirting a marshy slew 

 tangled thickly with alders when they heard 

 a sudden commotion behind them and the 

 rush of some great animal through the 

 undergrowth. 



' ' There he comes ! Give it to him ! ' ' Joe had 

 yelled, and, emerging from the brush fifty feet 

 distant, had come a big gray fellow headed di- 

 rectly at them, running in utter silence. Fred 

 had never killed big game nor seen a bear at 

 large, but years on the range and over the traps 

 had quickened his eye and edged his muscles, 

 and his shot went true. It is incredible that 

 any living thing could have stood before those 

 high-powered bullets, nevertheless that bris- 

 tling body had never flinched nor wavered. 



"Give it to him again," Joe had barked, 

 hoarsely, and Fred obeyed, for it had been not 

 a question of a clean shot, but simply of 

 emptying the magazine into that swiftly com- 



73 



