382 THE HUNTING GROUNDS 



him as he bolted into some cover, having been 

 turned by a straggling volley from some of my 

 gang and the Bey's people. I found the youth who 

 had fallen into the bear's clutches severely bitten in 

 the shoulder, besides having his side clawed, and 

 being considerably bruised and shaken, though not 

 dangerously hurt ; so, after bandaging his wounds 

 as well as I could, I collected the people together, 

 and prepared to make another effort to dislodge 

 Bruin from his shelter. 



One of my people had seen him enter some thick 

 underwood between two large rocks, and I tried to 

 coax the dogs to go in and drive him out ; but it 

 was of no use, they only ran yelping round the 

 thicket. Two of their number had been killed in 

 the first onset, and some of the others severely 

 mauled, which damped the courage of the rest ; so, 

 finding that nothing could be effected with their 

 assistance, I posted all the people in groups as 

 safely as I could at one end of the cover, in case 

 the game might break without showing fight, and 

 followed up the trail, which was very plainly marked 

 with blood, alone. 



The brushwood was very thick, and much im- 

 peded my movements, so I got on but slowly ; but, 

 by dint of creeping on my hands and knees and 

 scrambling, I managed to get some distance into 

 the cover, when I heard a savage growl, followed 

 up by a low grunting noise, evidently not far from 

 me. 



