was too much. The fly
pulled out, and he vanished with a final swirl and slap of his broad
tail to tell me how big he was.

Just below me a bowlder lifted its head and shoulders out of the
swirling current. With the canoe line I might easily let myself down to
that rock and make sure of my next fish. Getting back would be harder;
but salmon are worth some trouble; so I left my rod and started back to
camp for the stout rope that lay coiled in the bow of my canoe. It was
late afternoon and I was hurrying along the path, giving chief heed to
my feet in the ticklish walking, with the cliff above and the river
below, when a loud _Hoowuff!_ brought me up with a shock. There at a
turn in the path, not ten yards ahead, stood a huge bear, calling
unmistakable halt, and blocking me in as completely as if the mountain
had toppled over before me.

There was no time to think; the shock and scare were too great. I just
gasped _Hoowuff!_ instinctively, as the bear had shot it out of his deep
lungs a moment before, and stood stock-still, as he was doing. He was
startled as well as I. That was the only thing that I was sure about.

I suppose that in each of our heads at first there was just one thought:
"I'm in a fix; how shall I get out?" And in his training or mine there
was absolutely nothing to suggest an immediate answer. He was anxious,
evidently, to go on. Something, a mate perhaps, must be calling him up
river; else he would have whirled and vanished at the first alarm. But
how far might he presume on the big animal's timidity who stood before
him blocking the way? That was his question, plainly enough. Had I been
a moment sooner, or he a moment later, we would have met squarely at the
turn; he would have clinched with me in sudden blind ferocity, and that
would have been the end of one of us. As it was he saw me coming
heedlessly and, being peaceably inclined, had stopped me with his sharp
_Hoowuff!_ before I should get too near. There was no snarl or growl, no
savageness in his expression; only intense wonder and questioning in the
look which fastened upon my face and seemed to bore its way through, to
find out just what I was thinking.

I met his eyes squarely with mine and held them, which was perhaps the
most sensible thing I could have done; though it was all unconscious on
my part. In the brief moment that followed I did a lot of thinking.
There was no escape, up or down; I must go on or turn back. If I jumped
forwar