"You have?"
"Take it easy and quiet! He won't be there if you don't!"
Nearing the valley's rim, Ted dropped back to a crawl. He peered at the
boulder and breathed easily again; the bear had not moved. He put his
mouth very close to Paul Jackson's ear.
"There he is!"
"Where?"
"Just to the right of that big boulder!"
"I see him!"
Paul Jackson knelt, rested his right elbow on his right knee, raised his
rifle--and Ted groaned silently. The youngster's stance was perfect, but
so was his buck fever. The rifle shook like an aspen leaf in a high
wind. It blasted, and Ted saw the bullet kick up leaves twenty feet to
one side of the sleeping bear.
The bear sprang up as though launched from a catapult and kept on
springing. Straight up the slope he went, and across the nearly treeless
summit.