glow the butt of
the Martini steal across to me.

You can lay your life to it I was awake enough then. What sportsman in
Norway would not tingle with delight at the chance of getting a bear?
Ulus had slipped a thong round Se's throat, and that wily hound was
mute. He was as keen on _bjorn_ as either of us, and being gray,
and vastly experienced, he knew better than to bay or otherwise create
a disturbance.

"_Patron?_" whispered Ulus.

I loaded cautiously, not sending the lever quite home, so as to avoid a
click, and nodded. Then we slipped our knife-sheaths round to the
hip--for a shot in the dark is apt to wound only and cause a
red-mouthed charge--and then the door was opened.

We stooped and went outside. The rain was tumbling in sheets; the night
was dark as the pit, and very noisy; we could make out nothing. Se
strained forward in the leash, neck thrust out, nose on high, up wind
towards the lake shore. As we neared the edge of the clearing a falling
branch struck me across the face. The pine-needles stung, and I
stopped, blinded for the moment. Then Ulus gripped my shoulder and I
wiped the tears away, and saw dimly a dark shape coming out of the
trees. The Martini swung up, and I squinted along the barrel. A
mountain-ash was in the line of fire, swishing, swaying, so that it was
impossible to aim; but the animal was coming along bravely--had not
seen us probably--and so I determined to hold the shot till I could
make sure.

The beast came nearer, dodging amongst the stems.

Suddenly, as it got into an opener space, I noted that it was erect.
This surprised me, for I had heard that bears never reared on to their
hind feet till wounded. Still you can bet that I intended to shoot
first and inquire afterwards.

But just at that moment Ulus screamed "_Nei bjorn_," and hitting
up the rifle barrel, brought my finger sufficiently hard on the hair
trigger to cause explosion. The shot went Lord knows where. I swore,
and when the echoes had finished bellowing, I heard the bear swearing
too. Then I began to sweat, for it dawned upon me that I had been
within an ace of deliberately potting a man.

Ulus also used powerful language, and by letting drop the word
"_Finne_," gave me to understand that he supposed the intruder to
be a Laplander; but it seemed to me that the shape that loomed through
the trees was too big for one of those dwarfish aborigines. And,
moreover, although I only caught the import of the strange