156 DAYS AND NIGHTS OF SHIKAR 



hammer rifle, had forgotten to put in other cartridges 

 and pulled the triggers. I heard Louisa's voice, a 

 sound of exclamation, probably a bad word, though 

 as I could not hear what she said this may have been 

 only the fancy of my evil mind. I heard the shikari, 

 who was up a tree further away, talking too. I 

 looked through the trees to my right, and could just 

 make out, about sixty yards away, between the 

 leaves, the tiny little platform arrangement, high up 

 in the tree where Louisa was sitting. Some black 

 thing was moving, just below : the head and 

 shoulders of a bear appeared, he was climbing the 

 tree, his great paw was extended and he was in the 

 act of clawing on to her machan, and the next moment 

 would be clawing her* Of course she was helpless 

 with her unloaded rifle. 



Two upright branches, coming down to a fork, 

 prevented my seeing more of the bear than his head 

 and shoulder. There was no time to climb down 

 and run to them, but there was just time to think 

 that sometimes a rifle throws up, and remember that 

 sometimes the patterns on a target go far afield of 

 the bull, and above it ; and that once a panther had 

 escaped, the bullet mark being found in the rock 

 just above him. 



I pulled my knees up, rested the rifle on them, got 

 the bead on the bear's shoulder as low as I possibly 

 could do, avoiding the forked branches and there 

 was not much room to spare now between Louisa 

 and the bear and fired. The bear dropped, where 

 I could not see, and Louisa, to my relief, was still 

 sitting upright in her machan. 



