We did not go down into the patch. The trees around the edges had been so much thinned out that it was less easy to approach in safety; so we contented ourselves with wandering round and eating such fruit as remained on the scattered bushes which grew among the trees on the outskirts of the wood. It was already after midnight, and we only stayed for an hour or so, and then I led the way back into the hills, intending to go and see if our old lair, for which my father and mother had had to fight in the former days, was still untouched by man and would afford us safe shelter for the coming day. As I did so, my thoughts went back to that morning, and I growled to myself; for I was thinking of my old enemy, and wondering whether I should ever have the opportunity of avenging the old injuries. And, lo! even as I was wondering the opportunity came.

Wahka had strayed from the path, and suddenly I heard him growling; and a moment later he came running to my side, and out of the brush behind him loomed the figure of another bear. I knew him in a moment, and it was characteristic of him that he should have attacked a cub like Wahka—not, of course, knowing that it was the grandchild of the pair whom he had tried to dispossess of their home so long before. As he saw the rest of us, he stopped in his pursuit of Wahka, and stood up on his hind-legs growling angrily; and as I measured him with my eyes I realized how much bigger I must be than my father, for this bear, who had towered over my father, was not an inch taller or an ounce heavier than I. We were as nearly matched as two bears could be; but I had no doubt of my ability to punish him, for I had right on my side, and had waited a long time for this moment, and would fight as one fights who is filled with rage at old wrongs that are left to him to redress.

And I did not leave him long in any doubt as to my intentions, but walked straight towards him, telling him as I did so that I had been looking for him, and that the time had come for the settling of old scores. He understood who I was, and was just as ready to fight as I.

I am not going to trouble you with an account of another fight. I pursued my old plan, and he had been so used to have other bears make way for him, and fight only under compulsion, that I think my first rush surprised him so much that it gave me even more advantage than usual. Big and strong as he was, the issue was never in doubt from the start; for I felt within myself that my fury made me irresistible, and from the moment that I threw myself on him he never had time to breathe or to take the initiative. He was beaten in a few minutes, and he knew it; but he fought desperately, and with a savageness that told me that if he had won he would have been satisfied with nothing less than my life. But he was not to win; and whimpering, growling, bleeding, and mad with shame and rage, I drove him back, and it was only a question of how far I chose to push my victory.

FROM THE MOMENT I THREW MYSELF ON HIM HE NEVER HAD TIME TO BREATHE.

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I let him live; but he went away torn and crippled, with his spirit broken and his fighting days over. Never again would he stand to face a full-grown bear. For years he had made everything that he met move aside from his path in the forest, and he had used his strength always for evil, to domineer and to crush and to tyrannize. Thenceforward he would know what it was to be made to stand aside for others, to yield the right of way, and to whine and fawn on his fellows; for a bear once broken in body and spirit, as I broke him, is broken for good.