126 GOLOVINSKY. 



head of an exact counterpart of the bear then under 

 Stepan's hands. Unluckily for me, she sighted me 

 at the same moment, and with a loud sniff plunged 

 straight downhill at a pace that, even had the 

 covert not concealed her, would have rendered my 

 chance of hitting her extremely problematical. I 

 saw from the direction she had taken that she 

 would pass almost over Stepan, and I hurried on 

 to be able to lend him a hand in case he only 

 wounded her. But I waited in vain for the report 

 of my man's mighty blunderbuss. Sitting engaged 

 in the sanguinary task of disrobing our dead bear 

 he had suddenly become aware of what appeared 

 to him either the shade or the enraged sister of the 

 deceased charging furiously down upon him ; and 

 oppressed with a consciousness of his guilt, Stepan 

 tied red-handed from the avenger, leaving his gun 

 to take care of itself. 



Poor Stepan, who was originally I believe no 

 coward, but in days past, according to his own ver- 

 sion, a mighty hunter, was an instance of a man 

 who had suddenly lost all his nerve, and this 

 occurred as follows. One day, when suffering 

 severely from fever, he was walking along the dried 

 bed of a mountain torrent, when, on turning a 

 sharp corner, he almost ran into a large bear. For 

 u moment they stood facing one another. Stepan, 

 having no weapons, thought his last hour had 

 corne. There was an awful noise, something struck 



