He said that on moonlight nights he had seen eight of them, and they came and sniffed around the door of the cottage.
"'Why don't you fire through the window at them ?' I asked scornfully, for I had seen a score of tame bears in captivity, and, like you, Mary, was inclined to despise them, though there was far less excuse for me; for I had heard stories which should have convinced me that, small as he is, the Indian bear is not a beast to be attacked with impunity.

Upon walking to the edge of the Ghauts there was no difficulty in discovering the route by which the bears came up to the farm.

For a mile to the right and left the ground fell away as if cut with a knife, leaving a precipice of over a hundred feet sheer down; but close by where I was standing was the head of a water course, which in time had gradually worn a sort of cleft in the wall, up or down which it was not difficult to make one's way.

Further down this little gorge widened out and became a deep ravine, and further still a wide valley, where it opened upon the flats far below us.

About half a mile down, where the ravine was deepest and darkest, was a thick clump of trees and jungle.
"'That's where the bears are ?' I asked Rahman.