of great
excitement. Then the bear went to work leisurely to gnaw the mesh close
to his mouth.

The hunter was not prepared for this. He had counted on the creature
struggling with its net till it was in a state of complete exhaustion,
when, by means of additional ropes, it could be so wound round and
entangled in every limb as to be quite incapable of motion. In this
condition it might be slung to a long pole and carried by a sufficient
number of men to the small, but immensely strong, cage on wheels which
the agent had brought with him.

Not only was there the danger of the bear breaking loose and escaping,
or rendering it necessary that he should be shot, but there was another
risk which Little Tim had failed at first to note. The scene on which
he had decided to play out his little game was on the gentle slope of a
hill, which terminated in a precipice of considerable height, and each
time the bear struggled and rolled over in his network purse, he
naturally gravitated towards the precipice, over which he was certain to
go if the rope which held him to the tree should snap.

The hunter had just become thoroughly alive to this danger when, with a
tremendous struggle, the bear burst two of the meshes in rear, and his
hind-quarters were free.

Little Tim seized his gun, feeling that the crisis had come. He was
loath to destroy the creature, and hesitated. Instead of backing out of
his prison, as he might easily have done, the bear made use of his free
hind legs to make a magnificent bound forward. He was checked, of
course, by the rope, but Tim had miscalculated the strength of his
materials. A much stronger rope would have broken under the tremendous
strain. The line parted like a piece of twine, and the bear, rolling
head over heels down the slope, bounded over the precipice, and went
hurling out into space like a mighty football!

There was silence for a few seconds, then a simultaneous thud and
bursting cry that was eminently suggestive.

"H'm! It's all over," sighed Little Tim, as he slid down the branch to
the ground.

And so it was. The bear was effectually killed, and the poor hunter had
to return to the Indian village crestfallen.

"But hold on, stranger," he said, on meeting the agent; "don't you give
way to despair. I said there was lots of 'em in these parts. You come
with me up to a hut my son's got in the mountains, an' I'll circumvent a
b'ar for you yet. You can't take the cart qu