Page:The white czar; a story of a polar bear (IA whiteczarstoryof00hawk).pdf/106

 torches which they had not thought of before and explored the cave. They felt quite sure that the mate of this bear was the one that Eiseeyou had killed on the musk-ox hunt.

What they found in the cave confirmed this view. The cave was not quite empty, but it was a safe place for three well-armed men. At the farther end of the cave they found the bear's bed and a white cub lying dead in it, one of the stray bullets which they had fired before entering the cave having struck him.

A bear family nearly always consists of two cubs. For several minutes they could not find the cub's brother. But they finally heard a pitiful whimpering in a dark corner of the cave and discovered him hiding there. He was trembling and whimpering and very fearful.

So Eiseeyou went outside and brought in his sleeping bag and put the cub in it. That night he slept in the same bag with the mighty hunter, although it cramped him some.

The following day they took him back to