, and some one found the bear, or its
den, or a lock of its wool--I really couldn't quite ascertain which--but
fearful excitement was the immediate result.
A consultation took place in frenzied whispers. My rifle was peeled from
its case, and we proceeded to scramble stealthily down a horribly steep
face much broken by rocks. The shikari being in front with my rifle over
his shoulder, I was favoured with frequent glimpses down its ugly black
barrel as I, like Jill, "came tumbling after," and I rejoiced that all the
cartridges were safely stowed in my own pocket. Well! we searched like
conspirators for that bear, peeped round rocks and peered into holes, and
anxiously eyed all possible and impossible places where a bear might be
supposed to reside, but there was no bear; and at length we arrived on the
bank of the torrent which rioted noisily down the bottom of the nullah.
I now began to realise that plunging about in snow, often over one's knees,
and scrambling among the fallen tree-trunks and great rocks selected by
the torrent to make its bed, was distinctly tiring work!
Presently we came to a bridge over the river. It consisted of a single log,
and appeared extremely slender. The stream was not deep enough to drown a
man, but, all the same, a slip, sending one into the foaming water among a
particularly large and hard collection of boulders, seemed most
undesirable, and I stepped across, like Agag, delicately, carefully
balancing myself with a khudstick.
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