THE BLACK BEAR OF MUSKOKA 113 



lean-to. Grasping his rifle, he fired at the vague, 

 threatening shadow, but must have missed, for 

 immediately afterwards he heard the smashing 

 of the underwood as the thing, whatever it was, 

 rushed off into the impenetrable blackness of 

 the forest and the night. 



After this, the two men slept but little, sitting 

 up by the re-kindled fire, but they heard nothing 

 more. In the morning they started to look out 

 for the few traps they had set the previous 

 evening, and to put new ones out. By an 

 unspoken agreement they kept together all day, 

 and returned to camp towards evening. 



On nearing it they saw, hardly to their 

 astonishment, that the lean-to had been again 

 torn down. The visitor of the preceding day 

 had returned, and in wanton malice had tossed 

 about their camp, kit, and bedding, and destroyed 

 the shanty. The ground was marked up by 

 its tracks, and on leaving the camp it had gone 

 along the soft earth by the brook, where the 

 footprints were as plain as if on snow, and, after 

 a careful scrutiny of the trail, it certainly did 

 seem as if, whatever the thing was, it had walked 

 off on but two legs. 



The men, thoroughly uneasy, gathered a 



8 



