ned my fingers
like escaping steam. Then I cocked the gun again, shouldered it, and
pulled trigger again.

Once more she wouldn't go off!

The bear was now nearly on top of me and was beginning to rear on its
hind legs. Somehow the rifle came into my hand muzzle-end, and I hit the
great brute across the eyes with the butt hard enough to have felled an
ox.

I might as well have struck it with a cane. _Whack_ came a big
yellow-white paw, the Henry went flying, and my wrists tingled with the
jar; and there was I left looking, I've no doubt you'll think, very
humorous.

The bear might have finished me then if it had chosen. But it must needs
turn aside to go snuffling at the rifle and lick the oil off the locks.
I turned and footed it.

Now, at the best of times, I am no [v]sprinter, and in the great
mountain of clothes one wears up there in the cold Arctic night, no man
can make much speed. Besides, the way was that uneven it was a case of
hands and scramble more often than plain running over the sharp, spiky
level.

The bear, once he had finished his snuffle and lick at the Henry, came
on at a dreadful pace, making nothing of those obstacles that balked
me,--he had been born up there, you know. He laid himself out--I could
see over my shoulder--like one of those American trotting horses, caring
nothing for the ups and downs and ankle-breaking ice. In about two
shakes he was snorting at my heels again, till I could almost feel his
hot breath. The bundle of clothes hampered me. I stripped off my outer
over-all and let it drop behind me.

The bear stopped and snuffed that, but I didn't stay to watch him. I got
a good fifty [v]fathoms ahead of him whilst he was thus occupied. But
presently, when he'd got all his satisfaction out of that, on he comes
again, and I had to give him my coat. I hadn't a chance of equaling him
in pace, but the trick with the clothing never tired him. Fifty fathoms
was the least gain I made over a single piece, and as I got lower down
toward my skin he stayed over the clothes longer.

But still the _Gleaner_ was a long way off, over very tumbled ice, and
there I was careering on in a costume which was barely enough for
decency, and certainly insufficient for the climate.

However, it was little enough the bear cared for such refinements as
those. I stripped off my last garment as I ran, and gained nigh on two
hundred yards whilst he investigated it; and there were the bark's upper
spars