CHAMBA 41 



weapon on such occasions when he was about a 

 yard from me. That turned him, and he rushed past 

 Nurrud, nearly knocking the rifle out of his hand 

 as he brushed against it. He was so close when 

 I fired, nearly touching the muzzle of the gun, yet 

 he gave no sign of being hit we found the bullet 

 afterwards in the shoulder but rushed on down-hill. 

 Then I heard a loud report in my ear, and found 

 that one of the coolies, who knew absolutely nothing 

 about firearms of any sort, had fidgeted with bolts 

 and safeties until he had managed to let off a spare 

 gun he was carrying. It was a wonder that he had 

 not killed some one. 



We followed for perhaps a hundred yards to some 

 more rocks, where Nurrud said he could see the bear 

 lying, and that he still moved. It was now almost 

 dark, and I could only see what I thought was a 

 black stone. Will advised me to shoot at this, 

 which I did. It turned out to be the bear, and he 

 rolled over dead. 



Next morning about two hundred people from all 

 the surrounding villages came in to see and hear 

 about the bears and to look at us ! They were kept 

 at a distance from our wooden palace, but still I 

 think they had a good view and they were deeply 

 interested in the way we ate our food. They were 

 delighted to hear of the killing of the bears, since they 

 did so much harm to their Indian corn before it was 

 ripe enough to cut. 



More rain fell and there were more thunderstorms 

 as we marched back to Chamba. On the way poor 

 Rum John fell forty feet from the path to the river, 



