regulated his pace so as not to interfere
with that operation. His features wore their usual calm expression.
Every motion of his hands was quick and sudden, yet not hurried, but
performed in a way that led the beholder irresistibly to imagine that he
could have done it even more rapidly if necessary. On reaching a ledge
of rock that overhung the lake a few feet, he paused and wheeled about;
click went the doghead, just as the bear rose to grapple with him;
another moment, and a bullet passed through the brute's heart, while the
bold hunter sprang lightly on one side, to avoid the dash of the falling
animal. As he did so, young Hamilton, who had stood a little behind him
with an uplifted axe, ready to finish the work should Jacques's fire
prove ineffective, received Bruin in his arms, and tumbled along with
him over the rock headlong into the water, from which, however, he
speedily arose unhurt, sputtering and coughing, and dragging the dead
bear to the shore.

"Well done, Hammy," shouted Harry, indulging in a prolonged peal of
laughter when he ascertained that his friend's adventure had cost him
nothing more than a ducking; "that was the most amicable, loving plunge
I ever saw."

"Better a cold bath in the arms of a dead bear than an embrace on dry
land with a live one," retorted Hamilton, as he wrung the water out of
his dripping garments.

"Most true, O sagacious diver! But the sooner we get a fire made the
better; so come along."

While the two friends hastened up to the woods to kindle a fire, Jacques
drew his hunting-knife, and, with doffed coat and upturned sleeves, was
soon busily employed in divesting the bear of his natural garment. The
carcass, being valueless in a country where game of a more palatable
kind was plentiful, they left behind as a feast to the wolves. After
this was accomplished and the clothes dried, they re-embarked, and
resumed their journey, plying the paddles energetically in silence, as
their adventure had occasioned a considerable loss of time.

It was late, and the stars had looked down for a full hour into the
profound depths of the now dark lake ere the party reached the ground at
the other side of the point, on which Jacques had resolved to encamp.
Being somewhat wearied, they spent but little time in discussing supper,
and partook of that meal with a degree of energy that implied a sense of
duty as well as of pleasure. Shortly after, they were buried in repose,
under th