And a cursed bad manoeuvre it is, I can tell you.

The acrobatic beast, whether a man hits it or not inevitably bears down the hunter by his sheer weight, and as a man's bones are more brittle than a beast's, and he has no tough pelt to cover him withal, he will be infallibly crushed to pulp,--while the bear takes the whole thing as a mere joke and ambles on further.

But the whole affair did not last half as long as I take to tell it.

Leonard had just time enough to fling himself on the ground before the first rush came.

Then he felt a heavy body fall prone upon him and then they began to roll over and over in company among all sorts of stones and bushes, till a benevolent rock interrupted their rapid descent.