Part 10 (1/2)

His heart leaped with joy as he saw the bear stop, bite again at the wound, this tie turn from Jimmy toward himself

He would not risk another shot at that distance He would wait now for his eneers he slipped a loaded shell into the eht have two bullets at his disposal instead of one He had never felt so perfectly cool and steady in his life, nor so absolutely unafraid, as nohile he stood erect and waited

The bear was not twenty feet ahen he fired his first shot It staggered, shook its head for a moment, and then rushed on Bobby drew a careful bead and fired again The bear fell forward, pawed the rocks, regained its feet, and lunged at Bobby

CHAPTER XI

WHEN THE ICEBERG TURNED

But the bear had spent its vitality, and as Bobby sprang ni hunter had stood when he delivered his last shot, struggled a little, gave a gasp or two, and died And when Jireat pride was standing by the side of his prostrate victilee, touching the carcass with his toe

”But, Bobby, what a chance you took!” Ji you hadn't stopped him!”

”No chance of that at all,” declared Bobby in his usual positive tone

”All I wanted was tiet hietting you, and I was afraid for a et us both,” and Jiainst the dead bear ”My, but he's a big one! I don't think I ever saw a bigger one!”

”He _is_ a ripper!” adlad!”

And Bobby was justified in his pride He had fired upon the beast in the first instance, not through the lust of killing but because he was prompted to do so by the instinct of the hunter who lives upon the product of his weapons In this far northern land it is the instinct of self-preservation to kill, for here if man would live he must kill

In Labrador they butcher wild anis for food, and the only difference is that the wild creature, ainst the hunter's skill, has a reasonable chance of escape, while our domestic anihter

In our kindlier clietables and fruits upon which wemeat; but in the bleak land where Bobby and Jimmy lived the suetables, and no fruits save scattered berries on the inland hillsides And so it is that here men must depend upon flesh and fish for their existence and they must kill if they would live

Every lad on The Labrador, therefore, is taught from earliest youth to take pride in his profession of hunter and trapper and fisherman--for on The Labrador every man is a professional hunter and trapper and fisherman--and to strive for skill and the praise of his elders, and Bobby was no exception to the rule

And so it cae of thirteen proved hi now over the carcass of his victim he felt a vast and consistent pride in his success; for it was no sle-handed and poorly arrown polar bear It was an accorown ht have taken pride; and a grown reater skill and courage, after the first foolhardy shot had been fired

But this was Bobby's way It was an exhibition of his old trait of getting himself and Jimmy into a scrape and then by quick action and practical ain

Skipper Ed and Abel had heard the reports of Bobby's gun, and they knew that so unusual was on foot The first shot did not disturb them

That, they kneas for the seal for which Bobby had taken the gun But no self-respecting seal will reet to be fired at repeatedly, and the shots that followed told their practiced ears that ame than a seal was the object of the fusillade And so, without parley, each seized his rifle, and together they set out across the island, and thus it happened that presently they ca the prize

”Ji one, too!” said Bobby as the twoJienerous, and wished his friend to share in the glory of his triuot hied it, and if it hadn't been for Bobby he'd have caught me”

”Oh, you know better than that,” protested Bobby ”You got in his way, so he'd take after you, and that gave me time to load, and shoot him”

”_Peauke! Peauke!_” exclaimed Abel ”A fine fat bear”