152 SIR VICTOR BROOKE CHAP. 



It was some time before a shot offered itself that I 

 considered deadly, and I would not fire till I was quite 

 sure. My very life might depend upon the shot, as, should 

 I only wound her, I was so close that I could not hope 

 to escape detection, in which case the three bears would 

 have been on me, or two anyway, as one would have 

 surely paid his last toll if he came too close to the 

 deadly old rifle. I mention this to show you what a 

 master of woodcraft a man may become who gives his 

 whole energies to the work. It's like playing chess for 

 heavy stakes. Patience and coolness were at last 

 rewarded the bear exposed my favourite spot. The 

 old gun was up like a shot and the bear sank motion- 

 less in the sand. She was not quite dead, and began 

 to roar at me whom she now saw. I never saw so 

 savage a head and face. As I calculated, the two 

 others immediately rushed at her all three roaring, 

 growling, and screaming in the most extravagant and 

 ridiculous manner. To have parted with my last 

 barrel would have been madness, so it was at this 

 moment when all three were mixed together in a huge 

 black bundle, that I had decided upon for slipping 

 away ; this I managed well and got to a safe distance, 

 when I reloaded as fast as possible and then returned 

 to my friends, nothing fearing now that I had pills for 

 each of them. I found the big old lady bear stone 

 dead, and just as I was going to examine my prize I 

 heard a savage snort behind me. It was one of the 

 other bears. Seeing I would not run from him, he 

 settled the knotty point by doing the running himself, 

 and this without exposing a deadly shot. After him I 

 ran as hard as I could lay my legs to the ground, and 

 so fiercely did I go to work that I literally chased him 

 like a dog ; but I could not get a fatal shot, and eventu- 

 ally lost him in the thorny underwood. Number three 



