X 
THE BEAR 
389 
We ran forward with difficulty, but no bear was 
to be seen. We searched everywhere, but in vain. 
I came to the conclusion that the game was hardly 
worth the candle. 
Through several hours we worked hard, but 
did not find another bear; and it was past five 
o’clock when we arrived at our camp, after a long 
day’s work, in which we had certainly “jumped” 
two bears, but had not succeeded in bagging one. ' 
Texas Bill came to hold my horse upon our 
arrival; he was looking rather shy, and ill-at-ease. 
“What’s the matter. Bill ? anything gone wrong ?” 
I asked. 
“Well,” he replied, “I hope you won’t blame 
me, as I don’t think it right, but you know where 
you killed a wapiti a couple of days ago, and we 
found the next morning that the bears had been 
and buried it; and you said we’d better leave the 
place quiet for a day, and then you’d go early in 
the morning, and perhaps find the bears upon the 
spot ? Well, after you were gone with Bob this 
morning, Jem Bourne proposed that we should go 
and have a look at the place, and sure enough 
when we got there we found a great big bear fast 
asleep, lying on the top of the buried wapiti, 
and her two half-grown cubs asleep with her. So 
Jem had your Martini-Henry with him, and he 
killed the mother stone dead, through the shoulder. 
Up gets one of the young ones, and hits his brother 
(or sister) such a whack in the eye with his paw 
that it just made me laugh, and then he cuffs 
