A CHROMATIC BEAR HUNT 



his course. I shouted directions and guided 

 him by my waving arms, for there was no hope 

 of my catching up. With a lucky shot, when 

 the bear showed against the nose of a promon- 

 tory, Joe inflicted a foot wound, at which the 

 animal paused an instant to snap, and then 

 together they dipped out of sight, to show 

 again a mile farther on, running neck and neck. 



I descended and followed for a time, then 

 headed back towards camp in disgust, only to 

 see approaching across the very bluff whence I 

 had signaled, another bear, the counterpart of 

 Joe's running mate. I sized up its course, 

 then, backing out of sight, commenced to 

 climb. Lord! How I climbed. It was like 

 running up the endless slope of a slippery 

 church roof. 



When I played out completely and could 

 go no farther, I crept out for a look, but the 

 snows were as clean as paper. Manifestly 

 some whim had altered Bruin's route and he 

 had gone up that same seam by which the 

 first bear had eluded us. That meant more 

 climbing, now, so up towards the summit of 

 the five-thousand-foot range I scrambled, 

 while the higher I went the steeper it grew 

 and the louder I puffed. Eventually the 



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