The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1882-04-06
WHOLE NO. 1916.

ltous; we had to advance as gingerly
AS possible, so as to avoid making any
noise, and whenever | slipped or trod
on dry twig, Jean-Pierre, the chas-
spur who was in command of me,
turned round, making hideous faces,
and cursed me under his breath.
Furthermore. l couldn't help think
ing that if the bear chose to appear
suddenly at this stage of the proceed
ings it would be an awkward business
for all of us.
We encountered no bear in the
woods; but when at length we rose
above the region of trees and emerged
upon a stretch of coarse grass, we
were rewarded for our climb by dis
covering which there was no mistak-
ing upon patch of the fast-melting
snow. Following these up hopefully,
we found ourselves upon the edge OF
tolerably extensive snow-feld. across
which the tracks were so distinct that
Jean-Pierre declared that they were
not an hour old. He further profess
ed to be able to see that the beast had
been moving upwards at a leisurely
pace, having no suspicion of being
pursued, and prophesied that we
shonld catch him up on some cliffs to
which he pointed, and which he calcu-
lated that it would take us something
like an hour to reach.
was very glad when he did reach
them, for toiling up hill through soft
snow is not my notion of enjoyment;
but | was not particularly sanguine
as TO the chance of Bruins having
had the civiity to wait for us, and,
s'nce upon the bare rocks, we had no
longer any clue to guide us to his
whereabouts. Jean-Pierre, neverthe-
less, continued to be full Of confidence.
He went on ahead, skirting the face
of the prpcipice, where there was just
foothold and no more, and no more,
and the rest of us followed. After
time he held up his hand to stop us,
bent down and examined the rock
where slight sprinkling of snow had
lodged. advanced little wav. came
back again. and then. pointing to
deep cleft Just in front of us, ex-
claimed. I'll est la!" asrsg
| was once posted at the entrance
Of this fssure and warned-in order
to steady nv nerves, | suppose-that
if 7 missed | was a dead man; after
which stone was thrown in. No
result. A second and larger one,
however. elected u deep gr-r-r-r, which
put an end to all doubt
Attention. m 'sieur. sill vons plait!'
sung ont Jean-Pierre, and he fired
into the chasm.
Immediately a large dark mass
hurled itself out through the smoke.
I suppose | must have taken aim,
though | can't say that I have any
recollection of doing so. for the next
instant fine large bear lay stone
dead at nv feet
Well, | dare say we kicked up rath-
pr more row oyer it than we need
have done (Percival declared after
wards that he could have heard us
yelling ten miles away); but I think
perhaps it might count as an extenu-
ating circumstance that this was my
first bear. As for the natives. Of
course they ought to have known bet
ter
So far. everything had gone quite
according tn programme. except that
it was the old he-bpar, not his partner,
that | had killed; but now came the
question of whether we were to rest
satisfied with what we had accom-
plished and return to camp. or
or whether we shonld push on
and try to effect inuction with Per-
cival After some debate it was agreed
that Jean Pierre and shonld adopt
the latter course. ] qnite admit that
this was all wrong: bnt | was flushed
with success. and I thought, snppos-
ing that Percival shonld happen to
miss. what thonsand pities it would
he that there shonld not be somebody
at hand to back him mp. So we set
our faces westwards and dOwnwards.
and in dua course of time reached the
outskirts of the woods where we sup
posed that our comp tnions would be.
/ don't think we had hepn five min
ntns off the snow when [ heard some
thing crashing among the trees be-
meath rs. | caught a momentary
glimpse of a great. numbering body,
and directly afterwards | distinctly
saw half-grown cub dashing helter-
skelter after it. fired almost at ran
dom. and 7 need hardly add that l
missed. The crashing sonnd grew
fainter. and then I looked at jean
Pierre and Jean-Pierre looked at me,
and then we both whistled.
TO BE CONTINUED.