uld find a foothold, the branch to which I
was hanging snapped like a pistol-shot, and I plunged down with a crash.
I struck the bear and the lower branch, and then the ground. The fall
half stunned me. I thought every bone in my body was broken. I rose
unsteadily, and for a moment everything whirled before my eyes. Then I
discovered that the roar in my ears was the old hunter's yell. I saw him
hauling on the rope. There was a great ripping of bark and many strange
sounds, and then the cub was dangling head downward. Hiram had pulled
him from his perch, and hung him over the lowest branch.

"Thar, youngster, git busy now!" yelled the hunter. "Grab the other
rope--thar it is--an' rope a front paw while I hold him. Lively now,
he's mighty heavy, an' if he ever gits down with only one rope on him
we'll think we're fast to chain lightnin'."

The bear swung about five feet from the ground. As I ran at him with the
noose he twisted himself, seemed to double up in a knot, then he dropped
full-stretched again, and lunged viciously at me. Twice I felt the wind
of his paws. He spun around so fast that it kept me dancing. I flung the
noose and caught his right paw. Hiram bawled something that made me all
the more heedless, and in tightening the noose I ran in too close. The
bear gave me a slashing cuff on the side of the head, and I went down
like a tenpin.

"Git a hitch thar--to the saplin'!" roared Hiram, as I staggered to my
feet. "Rustle now--hurry!"

What with my ringing head, and fingers all thumbs, and Hiram roaring
at me, I made a mess of tying the knot. Then Hiram let go his rope, and
when the cub dropped to the ground the rope flew up over the branch.
Cubby leaped so quickly that he jerked the rope away before Hiram could
pick it up, and one hard pull loosened my hitch on the sapling.

The cub bounded through the glade, dragging me with him. For a few long
leaps I kept my feet, then down I sprawled.

"Hang on! Hang on!" Hiram yelled from behind.

If I had not been angry clear through at that cub I might have let go.
He ploughed my face in the dirt, and almost jerked my arms off. Suddenly
the strain lessened. I got up, to see that the old hunter had hold of
the other rope.

"Now, stretch him out!" he yelled.

Between us we stretched the cub out, so that all he could do was
struggle and paw the air and utter strange cries. Hiram tied his rope
to a tree, and then ran back to relieve me. It was high time. He took m