In their frenzy, three dogs broke loose and ran circles around the bear, snarling and gnashing their teeth as the beast lashed its claws at them, raking across the back of one, ripping off a hunk of fur and flesh. Hadley crept on his hands and knees and, with the bear’s head now craning across the sled near him, seized the rifle again and rolled and got up, shouldered the rifle and fired. The bear loped off, hit, and Hadley chambered another round and fired. “When the bullet hit him,” remembered Chafe, “he jumped in the air, and, turning a complete somersault, landed dead fifteen feet from
...more
