The bear looked here, there, everywhere, but saw nothing of him.
Ah! if the brute had gazed a little closer at that big oak trunk, off to his left, he would have seen a short, sturdy-looking boy, who had just finished pouring the priming into the pan of his rifle, and drawing back the hammer, was stealthily peering around the trunk, so as to decide how best to aim at the creature.
It so happened that the latter was in the best position to receive such a charge, and George took but a few seconds to make his aim sure. When he let fly, the little sphere of lead that whistled from his rifle tore its way through the heart of the beast, which rolled over on his side and died immediately, almost without a struggle.
You remember there were two other bears. They were lumbering along the trail some distance behind the leader, but quite close together. They did not become aware that anything unusual was going on until Jack fired his first shot. Then they looked up in their stupid way, and stood still while the first part of the stirring incidents took place.
Before the crisis was reached, the couple seemed to conclude that there was no necessity to stay where they were likely to get hurt. So, without turning aside from the trail, they pushed on in the direction they were following when first seen.
Jack and Will quickly slid down from the saplings in which they had taken refuge, and, catching up their guns, ran towards the carcase of the bear, reached it almost at the same time with George, the three converging from different directions.
"He's dead sure enough," said Jack, kicking the bulky body.
"He ought to be, with three or four bullets in him," said Will; "George and I struck him the first time we fired, and you must have hit him. How was it, Jack, that you didn't kill him?"
"I'll find out," replied Jack, stooping down and examining the skull of the brute.
"I see how it is," he said, straightening up again; "I fired for his eye, but there was a stick across my line of aim--just enough to turn the ball aside, so that it didn't hurt him much."