day.

The next day a bulldog and a bull terrier were procured to take the
place of Growler, and the hunt was resumed. But being made wary by
this experience, Black Bruin "laid low" and they could not start him.

Each morning for three days they scoured the country, beating the woods
and loosing the hounds at all points where the bear had been recently
seen, but without success.

The fourth morning a farmer came to town in great haste. The bear had
killed a calf the night before and he had discovered the partly eaten
carcass buried in the woods near by. Here was the bait that would lure
the thief into their hands.

So hunters and hounds went at once to the carcass, where a rather fresh
trail was found. Half an hour's pursuit again routed out the bear.
Once he took to the open, and the young hunter from the city with the
Winchester sent a bullet through his paw, laming him considerably.
This would never do, so he doubled back to the woods.

He did not fear this yelping, baying pack as he did the men that were
also following him. He now knew that the thunder and lightning that
they carried could bite and sting as nothing else could.

For half an hour Black Bruin ran hither and thither, doubling in and
out. Finally he remembered his tree-climbing habit and in an evil
moment clambered up a tall spruce. In five minutes' time after he
scratched up the tree, men and dogs had surrounded his foolish refuge,
and his fate seemed sealed.

The last of the party to arrive was the young man with the Winchester,
for whom all had been waiting. One shot from him would end the hunt.

They discovered Black Bruin about thirty feet from the ground in a
thick whorl of limbs.

The young rifleman was much excited. This would be his first bear.
His name would be in the local paper, and he would have a great story
to tell when he got back to the city.

Experience would have taught him to draw his bead finer than he did,
and also to have lowered his rear sight, which was set for two hundred
yards; but taking careless aim, and thinking he could not miss at such
short range, he pressed the trigger.

There was a sharp crack from the rifle, and the bullet ploughed a deep
wound in Black Bruin's scalp, but glanced from his thick skull and went
singing through the tree-tops.

The blow of the bullet upon the skull dazed the bear for a moment, and
he loosed his hold and came tumbling down through the interlaced limbs.

But the hard