to be seen. After five days they returned, their eyes bulging and
their tongues a-tremble to tell what they had seen. The council was
hastily called in Klosh-Kwan's dwelling, and Bim took up the tale.

"Brothers! As commanded, we journeyed on the trail of Keesh, and
cunningly we journeyed, so that he might not know. And midway of the
first day he picked up with a great he-bear. It was a very great bear."

"None greater," Bawn corroborated, and went on himself. "Yet was the
bear not inclined to fight, for he turned away and made off slowly over
the ice. This we saw from the rocks of the shore, and the bear came
toward us, and after him came Keesh, very much unafraid. And he shouted
harsh words after the bear, and waved his arms about, and made much
noise. Then did the bear grow angry, and rise up on his hind legs, and
growl. But Keesh walked right up to the bear."

"Ay," Bim continued the story. "Right up to the bear Keesh walked. And
the bear took after him, and Keesh ran away. But as he ran he dropped a
little round ball on the ice. And the bear stopped and smelled of it,
then swallowed it up. And Keesh continued to run away and drop little
round balls, and the bear continued to swallow them up."

Exclamations and cries of doubt were being made, and Ugh-Gluk expressed
open unbelief.

"With our own eyes we saw it," Bim affirmed.

And Bawn--"Ay, with our own eyes. And this continued until the bear
stood suddenly upright and cried aloud in pain, and thrashed his fore
paws madly about. And Keesh continued to make off over the ice to a safe
distance. But the bear gave him no notice, being occupied with the
misfortune the little round balls had wrought within him."

"Ay, within him," Bim interrupted. "For he did claw at himself, and leap
about over the ice like a playful puppy, save from the way he growled and
squealed it was plain it was not play but pain. Never did I see such a
sight!"

"Nay, never was such a sight seen," Bawn took up the strain. "And
furthermore, it was such a large bear."

"Witchcraft," Ugh-Gluk suggested.

"I know not," Bawn replied. "I tell only of what my eyes beheld. And
after a while the bear grew weak and tired, for he was very heavy and he
had jumped about with exceeding violence, and he went off along the shore-
ice, shaking his head slowly from side to side and sitting down ever and
again to squeal and cry. And Keesh followed after the bear, and we
followed aft