"Look there! don't you see him—close to that old stump?"
"Oh! ah! now I do. By Jove! he's a wapper!"
"Where are those fellows?" asked P——, glancing round. I guessed to whom he alluded, and beckoned to our guides, who were sitting at some short distance, in ignorance of our plight, but had been watching our actions with all the attention, and listening to our conversation with all the comprehension of persons who did not understand our language. An instant sufficed to range them at our elbows.
P—— pointed to the spot he had already suggested as the focus of attention, and they both saw, with the quick-sightedness of men accustomed to live by the chase, the cause of his excitement.
"Ja! ja!" they exclaimed simultaneously, their countenances radiant with joy, "goot."
P—— bowed his head in the affirmative; and we could not help admiring the courage of the Norwegians, which seemed to merge into enthusiasm, the more imminent the risk and danger of our sport became.
An enormous bear, apparently fatigued by long travel, and panting loudly with protruding tongue, slowly stalked forth from a mound of earth which had accumulated round the stump of a beech-tree grown to maturity, but now decaying in the midst of rushes and briars of every sort. Bruin, no doubt, overheard our voices, for he stopped on his way, drew in his tongue, ceased his violent respiration; and, raising his head on high, snuffed the air on all sides, and then placing his nose close to the ground, kept it there for some little time. He was eighty or ninety yards from the spot where we stood. As again his head was lifted up, his small tuft of a tail moved quickly from right to left, revealing his turbulence and hesitation.
"Don't let us all fire together," hinted P——, in an under tone; "but let those Norwegians blaze away first, as we don't know anything about their skill."
"Then, I'll follow," said R——.
"And my pistol next," I interceded.