jest then. I knew he had the wind of me and I
could never make the brush, so I pulled my little lunch out of my pocket
and dropped it on the fly.

"Never looked back till I hit the timber, and then he was mouthing the
biscuits in a way which wasn't nice to see, considerin' how close he'd
been to me. I never slacked up. No, sir! Jest kept hittin' the trail for
all there was in me. But jest as I came around a bend, heelin' it right
lively I tell you, what'd I see in middle of the trail before me, and
comin' my way, but another bald-face!

"'Whoof!' he says when he spotted me, and he came a-runnin.'

"Instanter I was about and hittin' the back trail twice as fast as I'd
come. The way this one was puffin' after me, I'd clean forgot all about
the other bald-face. First thing I knew I seen him mosying along kind of
easy, wonderin' most likely what had become of me, and if I tasted as
good as my lunch. Say! when he seen me he looked real pleased. And then
he came a-jumpin' for me.

"'Whoof!' he says.

"'Whoof!' says the one behind me.

"Bang I goes, slap off the trail sideways, a-plungin' and a-clawin'
through the brush like a wild man. By this time I was clean crazed;
thought the whole country was full of bald-faces. Next thing I
knows--whop, I comes up against something in a tangle of wild blackberry
bushes. Then that something hits me a slap and closes in on me. Another
bald-face! And then and there I knew I was gone for sure. But I made up
to die game, and of all the rampin' and roarin' and rippin' and tearin'
you ever see, that was the worst.

"'My God! O my wife!' it says. And I looked and it was a man I was
hammering into kingdom come.

"'Thought you was a bear,' says I.

"He kind of caught his breath and looked at me. Then he says, 'Same
here.'

"Seemed as though he'd been chased by a bald-face, too, and had hid in
the blackberries. So that's how we mistook each other.

"But by that time the racket on the trail was something terrible, and we
didn't wait to explain matters. That afternoon we got Joe Gee and some
rifles and came back loaded for bear. Mebbe you won't believe me, but
when we got to the spot, there was the two bald-faces lyin' dead. You
see, when I jumped out, they came together, and each refused to give
trail to the other. So they fought it out. Talkin' of bear. As I was
sayin'----"

IN YEDDO BAY

Somewhere along Theater Street he had lost it. He remembered being
hustled somewhat