182 SAVAGE SVANETIA. 



present the best of marks. Quiet as the big 

 shadow seemed, his progress was scarcely- 

 more noiseless than ours, so that when he 

 emerged on one side of the bare patch Simon 

 and I were not a hundred yards from him. 

 As he passed us without a suspicion of our 

 presence, I made a sign to Simon to stand 

 up ; and if poor old Michael had looked 

 straight at us the next moment, so blind is 

 he at night, he would probably not have 

 known those two tall dark shapes from the 

 trees around. 



Another half-dozen paces into the open, 

 and then as the rifle I am resting on Simon's 

 shoulder rings out on the stillness, the big 

 shadow writhes for a moment on the ground, 

 and then tearing at the wound lurches heavily 

 away into the dark fringe of woods to our 

 right, grunting and groaning horribly as he 

 goes. 



The bear never knew where the bullet 



