302 CONFRONTING THE ENEMY. 



fore, entirely disarmed ; and, as was natural, thought it 

 was all over with me. 



" ' O God ! ' I said, ' have pity on my wife and my 

 poor children ! ' 



" And, tortured with an anxiety you will easily under- 

 stand, I waited for the creature to make his spring. 



" However, he seemed in no hurry. He advanced 

 with a heavy step, gradually slackening his pace ; then, 

 when within about a dozen feet, he halted, and crouching 

 upon the ground like a cat, regarded me with a fixed 

 gaze. I seated myself in my turn, and in the same 



" HE 11EGARDED ME WITH A FIXED GAZE." 



manner looked at him as steadily as I could. In my 

 younger days I had somewhere read that no animal could 

 sustain the fixed gaze of the human eye, and though my 

 experience had never confirmed the truth of the opinion, 

 I resolved to try if. on this occasion, the device could 

 help me. Unhappily, it produced little effect. At 

 intervals the bear closed his eyes, or turned his glance to 

 the right or left j but that was all. At length he laid 

 himself down, his paws folded under him, his chin resting 



