r being
announced.

I replied by imitating the gesture, so far as a half-closed fist would
permit, and struck him on the side of the head. He looked grave at this
treatment, and, slowly descending from his place, he lay down about a
yard off. Meanwhile the female, who had been smelling and sniffing round
and round the tub, made an effort to lift the lid with her head, and,
failing, began to strike it in sharp, short blows with her paw; the
excitement of her face, and the sturdy position of her hind legs,
showing that her temper was chafed at the delay. To increase her rage,
I pushed the lid a few inches back; and as the savory steam arose, the
creature grew more eager, and at last attracted the other to the spot.

It was quite clear that hunger was the passion uppermost with them,
and that they had not yet connected me with the cause of their
disappointment; for they labored by twenty devices to insert a paw or to
smash the lid, but never noticed me in the least. Wearied of my failures
to induce them to play, and angry at the indifference they manifested to
me, I sprang from the lid, and, lifting it from the tub, flung it back.
In an instant they had each their heads in the mess; the female had even
her great paw in the midst of the tub, and was eating away with that
low, gurgling growl peculiar to the wild beast.

Dashing right between them, I seized one by the throat with both hands,
and hurled him back upon the deck. A shout of "Bravo!" burst from the
crew at the boldness of the feat, and with a bound the fellow made at
me. I dropped suddenly on one knee as he came, and struck him with the
staff on the fore legs. Had he been shot, he could not have fallen more
rapidly; down he went, like a dead mass, on the deck. To spring on his
back and hold him fast down was the work of a second, while I belabored
him about the head with my fists.

The stunning effect of his first fall gave me the victory for a moment,
but he soon rallied, and attacked me boldly. It was now a fair fight;
for if I sometimes succeeded in making him shake his huge head or drop
his paw with pain, more than once he staggered me with a blow which, had
it been only quickly followed, would soon have decided the struggle. At
last, after a scuffle in which he had nearly vanquished me, he made a
leap at my throat. I put in a blow of such power with the staff on the
forehead that he gave a loud roar of pain, and, with drooping tail,
slunk to hide away him