Page:Rudyard Kipling's verse - Inclusive Edition 1885-1918.djvu/335

 INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 317

"Up from his stony playground down from his well-digged

lair

Out on the naked ridges ran Adam-zad the Bear; Groaning, grunting, and roaring, heavy with stolen meals, Two long marches to northward, and I was at his heels !

"Two long marches to northward, at the fall of the second

night,

I came on mine enemy Adam-zad all panting from his flight. There was a charge in the musket pricked and primed was

the pan My finger crooked on the trigger when he reared up like

"Horrible, hairy, human, with paws like hands in prayer,

Making his supplication rose Adam-zad the Bear!

I looked at the swaying shoulders, at the paunch's swag and swing,

And my heart was touched with pity for the monstrous, plead- ing thing,

"Touched with pity and wonder, I did not fire then . = . I have looked no more on women I have walked no more

with men. Nearer he tottered and nearer, with paws like hands that

pray From brow to jaw that steel-shod paw, it ripped my face

away!

"Sudden, silent, and savage, searing as flame the blow Faceless I fell before his feet, fifty summers ago. I heard him grunt and chuckle I heard him pass to his den, He left me blind to the darkened years and the little mercy of