We had been pursuing one of these old malefactors four days running, as I have said; four times we got within range of him and four times he broke away.

He carried a few bullets away with him beneath his hide, indeed, but a lot he cared about that! He gave one or two of our badly-aiming huntsmen a clout on the head which sent them flying, stripped the skin from the head of one of the beaters and then took refuge in the wilderness.

Friend Leonard and the other gentlemen now wanted to abandon the chase, for they were frightfully hungry and the heavy rain and rock scrambling had pretty well torn our clothes from our bodies, yet I urged them to make another attempt on the morrow.

I assured them that if they beat up the wood once more we should capture the bear.

The whole lot of them were against me.