ic energy, thinking only
of Betty and her father in imminent danger; pausing now and then
abruptly to draw his hand across his brow and wonder if he was getting
near Bevan's Gully. Then, as his mind began to wander, he could not
resist a tendency to shout.

"What a fool I am!" he muttered, after having done this once or twice.
"I suppose anxiety about that dear girl is almost driving me mad. But
she can never--never be mine. I'm a thief! a thief! Ha! ha-a-a-ah!"

The laugh that followed might have appalled even a red and painted
warrior. It did terrify, almost into fits, all the tree and ground
squirrels within a mile of him, for these creatures went skurrying off
to holes and topmost boughs in wild confusion when they heard it echoing
through the woods.

When this fit passed off Tom took to thinking again. He strode over
hillock, swamp, and plain in silence, save when, at long intervals, he
muttered the words, "Think, think, thinking. Always thinking! Can't
stop think, thinking!"

Innumerable wild fowl, and many of the smaller animals of the woods, met
him in his mad career, and fled from his path, but one of these seemed
at last inclined to dispute the path with him.

It was a small brown bear, which creature, although insignificant when
compared with the gigantic grizzly, is, nevertheless, far more than a
match for the most powerful unarmed man that ever lived. This rugged
creature chanced to be rolling sluggishly along as if enjoying an
evening saunter at the time when Tom approached. The place was dotted
with willow bushes, so that when the two met there was not more than a
hundred yards between them. The bear saw the man instantly, and rose on
its hind legs to do battle. At that moment Tom lifted his eyes.
Throwing up his arms, he uttered a wild yell of surprise, which
culminated in a fit of demoniacal laughter. But there was no laughter
apparent on poor Tom's flushed and fierce visage, though it issued from
his dry lips. Without an instant's hesitation he rushed at the bear
with clenched fists. The animal did not await the charge. Dropping
humbly on its fore-legs, it turned tail and fled, at such a pace that it
soon left its pursuer far behind!

Just as it disappeared over a distant ridge Tom came in sight of a small
pond or lakelet covered with reeds, and swarming with ducks and geese,
besides a host of plover and other aquatic birds--most of them with
outstretched necks, wondering no doub