ea had
occurred to him. All eyes were at once turned towards him; while the
voice of Ivan was quickly heard, interrogating him as to the object of
his exclamation.

"I've got a plan, young monsieur!" replied the hunter, "by which I'll
either force the bear to come down, or roast him up yonder where he
lies. _Parbleu_! I've got an excellent idea!"

"What is it? what is it?" eagerly inquired Ivan; though from what the
izzard-hunter had said, he already half comprehended the design.

"Patience, young monsieur! in a minute you shall see!"

All three now gathered around the chasseur, and watched his movements.

They saw him pour a quantity of gunpowder into the palm of his hand; and
then tear a strip of cotton rag from a large piece which he had drawn
out of his pouch. This he saturated with saliva and then coated it over
with the powder. He next proceeded to rub both rag and powder
together--until, after a considerable friction between the palms of his
hands, the cotton became once more dry, and was now thoroughly saturated
with the powder, and quite blackened with it.

The next proceeding on the part of the chasseur was to procure a small
quantity of dead moss, which was easily obtained from the trunks of the
surrounding trees; and this, mixed with a handful or two of dry grass,
he rolled up into a sort of irregular clew.

The man now felt in his pouch; and, after a little fumbling there,
brought forth a small box that was seen to contain lucifer-matches.
Seemingly satisfied with their inspection, he returned the box to its
place, and then made known the object for which all these preliminary
manoeuvres had been practised. Our young hunters had already more than
half divined it, and it only confirmed their anticipations when the
hunter declared his intention to climb the tree and _set fire to the
nest_. It is needless to say that one and all of them approved of the
scheme, while they admired its originality and cunning. Its boldness,
too, did not escape their admiration, for it was clearly a feat of
daring and danger. The bottom of the nest might be reached easily
enough; for though a tall tree, it was by no means a difficult one to
climb. There were branches all along its trunk from bottom to top; and
to a Pyrenean hunter, who, when a boy, as he told them, had played
pigeon vidette in one of the "crows' nests" they had seen, the climbing
of such a tree was nothing. It was not in this that the danger lay,