'I begin to be sorry for your hundred ducats,' said Leonard.
'I am still sorrier for the lost bear's skin,' said I. 'It is in
Wallachia by this time!' he replied. Behind my back, some ten yards off,
was the opening of a narrow hole; there were hundreds such in the rocks
all about. 'Come, now!' I cried, 'suppose my bear has stowed himself
away in this hollow!'--and there and then, like a mischievous little
boy, I poked the barrel of my gun into the hollow and fired off a couple
of shots in quick succession. A frightful roar came from the depths of
the cavern. The wild beast during all this noise, clamour and beating
about the bush was actually behind my back holding his tongue,--and a
splendid big beast he was, two heads taller than I and with tusks like a
wild boar. In a moment he was upon me, and I had already discharged my
two barrels. It is all over with me now, I thought! Why, it will be
nothing at all to a magnificent beast like this to tear such a wretched
creature as myself limb from limb! Erect on his hind legs he came
straight at me, smashing my hunting-knife at a single blow, and,
enfolding me in his terrible arms, he tried to mangle my features with
his teeth. At the last moment I called to Leonard: 'Shoot between us,
old chap! you will hit one of us anyhow!' I preferred being killed by a
bullet to being torn to bits. The next instant a report sounded, and I
was only just aware that the pair of us, still tightly embraced, were
rolling backwards into the bottom of the ravine.
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