and caught him just as he was
scrambling into the tree. Those implacable antlers ploughed his
hind-quarters remorselessly, till he squealed with pain and terror.
His convulsive scrambling raised him, the next instant, beyond reach
of that punishment; but immediately the great bull reared, and struck
him again and again with his terrible hoofs, almost crushing the
victim's maimed haunches. The bear bawled again, but maintained his
clutch of desperation, and finally drew himself up to a safe height,
where he crouched on a branch, whimpering pitifully, while the victor
raged below.

At this moment the bear caught sight of Crimmins eying him steadily.
To the cowed beast this was a new peril menacing him. With a
frightened glance he crawled out on another branch, as far as it could
be trusted to support his weight. And there he clung, huddled and
shivering like a beaten puppy, looking from the man to the moose, from
the moose to the man, as if he feared they might both jump at him
together.

But the sympathies of Crimmins were now entirely with the unfortunate
bear, his fellow-prisoner, and he looked down at the arrogant tyrant
below with a sincere desire to humble his pride with a rifle-bullet.
But he was too far-seeing a guide for that. He contented himself with
climbing a little lower till he attracted the giant's attention to
himself, and then dropping half a handful of tobacco, dry and powdery,
into those snorting red nostrils.

It was done with nice precision, just as the giant drew in his breath.
He got the fullest benefit of the pungent dose; and such trivial
matters as bears and men were instantly forgotten in the paroxysms
which seized him. His roaring sneezes seemed as if they would rend
his mighty bulk asunder. He fairly stood upon his head, burrowing his
muzzle into the moist leafage, as he strove to purge the exasperating
torment from his nostrils. Crimmins laughed till he nearly fell out of
the tree, while the bear forgot to whimper as he stared in terrified
bewilderment. At last the moose stuck his muzzle up in the air and
began backing blindly over stones and bushes, as if trying to get away
from his own nose. Plump into four or five feet of icy water he
backed. The shock seemed to give him an idea. He plunged his head
under, and fell to wallowing and snorting and raising such a
prodigious disturbance that all the lake shores rang with it. Then he
bounced out upon the beach again, and dashed off through