The keeper had fired through the window, both
barrels almost simultaneously. It was a question how much lead would
bring the bear down before he covered the intervening dozen yards. In
the confined space of the hut, the report of the heavy double charge was
like that of a cannon; moreover, Steinmetz, twenty yards away, had fired
at the same moment.
The room was filled with smoke. The two girls were blinded for an
instant. Then they saw the keeper tear open the door and disappear. The
cold air through the shattered casement was a sudden relief to their
lungs, choked with sulphur and the fumes of spent powder.
In a flash they were out of the open door; and there again, with the
suddenness of a panorama, they saw another picture--Paul kneeling in the
middle of the clearing, taking careful aim at the retreating form of the
first bear. They saw the puff of blue smoke rise from his rifle, they
heard the sharp report; and the bear rolled over on its face.
Steinmetz and the keeper were walking toward Paul. Claude de Chauxville,
standing outside his screen of brushwood, was staring with wide,
fear-stricken eyes at the hut which he had thought empty. He did not
know that there were three people behind him, watching him. What had
they seen? What had they understood?
Catrina and Maggie ran toward Paul. They were on snow-shoes, and made
short work of the intervening distance.
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