TIIE RESULT OF A HURRIED COXBULTATIOX. 447 
the loss agile memhers of tlie cliaso^ and a liurried con- 
sultation resulted in a determination to follow the bear as 
far as the crown of the hill at any rate. We therefore 
separated into seven parties of two each, spread ourselves 
out to the right and left, and renewed the ascent with a 
distance of ten or fifteen feet between each couple. In 
this way we finally reached the top of the hill; but, 
though we had beat every bush with our guns and 
peered behind every rock and log, we could see no fur- 
ther sign of him, — not even the print of his heavy foot 
upon the yielding soil, or a drop of his wasting blood 
upon the hanging leaves. He had evidently given us the 
slip; and, as we once more joined company upon the bare 
and breezy height, we looked down the gloomy path we 
had just ascended, and wondered if he might not still be 
among some of those dense bushes or behind one of 
those large boulders, ready, at a moment’s warning, to 
hug any one passing within his i*each. It was now quite 
dark enough to make our position unpleasant as we 
looked and wondei’ed in this way. 
“What a pity we hav’n’t an extra hour of daylight to 
follow him up !” exclaimed one. 
“ Let’s come ashore the first thing in the morning and 
bring Jack and Brag (our two dogs) to track him to his 
den,” said another. 
“Yes ; they’d track him with a vengeance,” x’emarked 
a third. “ They’ve got too much sense for that” 
“Let’s look around a little longer,” said Lawton, who 
had no\v possessed himself of one of the men’s carbines 
and felt more eager than ever; “he can't be far ofi'.” 
“It’s no use going any farther!” remarked the cap- 
