DENSE COVERTS. 139 



kill him. Jealously iny rifle followed his every 

 movement, dreading a change of direction, and in 

 another moment the shot would have been fired. 

 The grey thing suddenly rose on end, or seemed to ; 

 and parting the thorn vine with its fore-arms walked 

 into the open my man Stepan ! 



For a moment I felt absolutely sick, and I 

 don't think I was ever more unhinged in my life 

 than I was for the rest of the day ; and when, 

 later on in the heat of noonday, I was resting in 

 a ravine by a small pool, half dozing after lunch, 

 hearing the same pace just above me, and seeing 

 a great patch of grey move through the bushes, 

 I lost a veritable bear by not firing. So Stepan's 

 folly nearly cost him his life, and cost me a bear. 

 He had, it seemed, gone on too fast to the end of 

 his beat, and getting tired of waiting for me, 

 thought lie might as well come back to meet me. 

 Heard on the dead leaves, a bear's step as he 

 moves slowly along, stopping from time to time 

 to feed or listen, is wonderfully like that of a 

 mocassined hunter stalking slowly over the same 



ground. 



And now, day after day, the sport grew worse. 

 Stepan was evidently but a very poor guide. 

 Living, as he had done, for a couple of lonely years 

 in his hut at Golovinsky, his spirit of enterprise 1 

 had never led him to explore more than the two 

 beats in which we had already been successful. 



