170 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



our bourkas, and prepared to make a night of 

 it, ^ sub Jove fingido.' 



Frank came in soon after us with a tale 

 like our own of wasted opportunities. His 

 first shot had been a lucky one, equally distant 

 from himself and his guide, the result of the 

 accidental discharge of the abominably con- 

 structed ' Peabody ' with which he was handi- 

 capped. The second shot had been at a bear 

 which he and Vassili had met at fairly close 

 quarters, but which, thanks to the dark, 

 escaped with nothing worse than a bad fright- 

 ening. We ought, perhaps, to have been sad, 

 and held ourselves as of very small account 

 for the way we had let our bears off, but I am 

 afraid all proper sense of shame was dead in 

 us ; so we blamed the twilight, blamed the 

 rifles, blamed anything except ourselves, and 

 blessing the man who first taught the use of 

 tobacco, looked hopefully forward to another 

 day at the deserted corn-fields on the morrow. 



