ale
faces following him when he looked back, there was a glitter in the eyes
of each which told him that at least each of his friends would do his
best.

Passing now out of the grass to the cover of the bank again, Rob ran
along crouching, until he pulled up under cover of the bank at a point
not more than seventy-five yards from where they could now distinctly
hear the bears at their feeding.

"Get ready now!" he whispered.

Slowly the three crawled to the top of the bank. Rob laid a hand on
Jesse's rifle barrel, which he saw was unsteady. He made motions to both
of the others not to be excited. A strange sort of calm seemed to have
come upon him. Yet, plucky as he was, he was not prepared for the sight
which met him as he gazed through the parted grass at the top of the
bank.

The old grizzly, once more suspicious, had again sat up on her haunches,
and turning her head from side to side began to sniff as though she
scented danger. Her shaggy hair shone silvery now in the sun, and she
seemed enormously large. Rob's heart leaped to his mouth, but suddenly
dropping to his knee, and calling out to the others "Now!" he fired
without longer hesitation.

The sound of the other two rifles followed at once. The great bear gave
a hoarse roar which seemed to make the hair prickle on the boys' heads;
but even as she roared she dropped and floundered in the mud of the
bank, up which she strove to climb. Again and again the rifles spoke.

"Now the little ones--quick!" cried Rob, half springing to his feet, and
continuing to fire steadily. Some one's shot struck the first cub square
through the spine and killed it instantly. The second cub stood but a
moment longer. These boys had used rifles many times before, and
although not every shot went true, perhaps half of them struck their
mark; and it was as Rob had said--the rifles shot as hard for them as
for a grown man.

The great she bear, possessed of enormous vitality, was not easily
disposed of. The magazines of all the rifles were emptied the second
time before Rob would allow them to go a foot closer, and even so, the
great gray body retained life enough to roll half down the bank as they
approached. This time Rob finished the old bear with a shot through the
head, at a distance of not more than thirty yards.

The game was down and dead--three great bears, one of them huge beyond
the wildest dreams of any of them, and unbelievably large even for the
most widely experi