not at the man, that he discharged his piece. The bear leaped and

fell into a pool of the river; the canyon re-echoed the report; and

in a moment the camp was afoot. With cries that were scarce human,

stumbling, falling and throwing each other down, these starving

people rushed upon the quarry; and before my father, climbing down

by the ledge, had time to reach the level of the stream, many were

already satisfying their hunger on the raw flesh, and a fire was

being built by the more dainty.

His arrival was for some time unremarked. He stood in the midst of

these tottering and clay-faced marionettes; he was surrounded by

their cries; but their whole soul was fixed on the dead carcass;

even those who were too weak to move, lay, half-turned over, with

their eyes riveted upon the bear; and my father, seeing himself

stand as though invisible in the thick of this dreary hubbub, was

seized with a desire to weep. A touch upon the arm restrained him.

Turning about, he found himself face to face with the old man he

had so nearly killed; and yet, at the second glance, recognised him

for no old man at all, but one in the full strength of his years,

and of a strong, speaking, and intellectual countenance stigmatised

by weariness and famine. He beckoned my father near the cliff, and

there, in the most private whisper, begged for brandy. My father

looked at him with scorn: 'You remind me,' he said, 'of a

neglected duty. Here is my flask; it contains enough, I trust, to

revive the women of your party; and I will begin with her whom I

saw you robbing of her blankets.' And with that, not heeding his

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