86 A SPORTING PARADISE 



by the corner of the rock. He was peeping 

 to see if I were still there. When the nose 

 vanished again I stole forward to the turn and 

 found him just ahead, looking down the cliff 

 to see if there were any other way below. 



" He was uneasy now ; a low, whining growl 

 came floating up the path, and for the first time 

 some suggestion of the humour of the situation 

 gave me a bit of consolation. I began to talk to 

 him, not humorously, but as if he were a 

 Scotchman and open only to argument. ' You're 

 in a fix, Mooween, a terrible fix,' I kept saying to 

 him softly, c but if you had only stayed at home 

 till twilight, as a bear ought to do, we should be 

 happy now both of us. You have put me in a 

 fix, too, you see ; and now you've just got to get 

 me out of it. I'm not going back. I don't know 

 the path as well as you do. Besides, it will be 

 dark soon, and I should probably break my neck.' 



" I have noticed that all wild animals grow 

 uneasy at the sound of the human voice, speaking 

 however quietly. There is in it something deep, 

 unknown, mysterious beyond all their powers 

 of comprehension ; and they go away from it 

 quickly when they can. I have a theory also 

 that all animals, wild and domestic, understand 



