sh of white lightning lit up the forest aisles,--and in that moment
the man saw a huge black bear standing in the trail, not ten feet
distant. In that moment the eyes of the man and the eyes of the beast
met each other fairly. Then the blackness fell once more; and a thin
peal of midsummer thunder rolled over the unseen tree-tops.

When all was silence again the man felt uncomfortable, and regretted
the rifle which he had left under the canoe. That the bear would
attack him, unprovoked, he knew to be improbable; but he also knew
enough about bears to know that it is never well to argue too
confidently as to what they will do. The more he waited and listened,
the more he felt sure that the bear was also waiting and listening, in
an uncertainty not much unlike his own. He decided that it was for him
to take the initiative. Clapping his hands smartly, he threw back his
head, and burst into a peal of laughter.

The loud, incongruous sound shocked the silences. It almost horrified
the man himself, so unexpected, so unnatural, so inexplicable did it
seem even to his own ears. When it ceased, he knew that it had
accomplished its purpose. He heard rustling and snapping noises
swiftly diminishing in the distance, and knew that the bear was
retreating in a panic. At this he laughed again, not loudly, but to
himself, and stepped out into the trail.

But the man was not yet done with the effects of his loud challenge to
the solemnities of the dark. Hardly had he taken three steps along the
trail when a little in front of him--perhaps, as he guessed, some five
and twenty paces--there arose a slashing and crashing noise of
struggle. Branches cracked and rustled and snapped, heavy feet pounded
the earth, and a confusion of gasping grunts suggested a blind
menagerie in mortal combat. The man, fairly startled, groped his way
back to the tree, and waited behind it, knife in hand. In fact he had
a strong inclination to climb into the branches; but this impulse he
angrily restrained.

For a whole minute the daunting uproar continued, neither approaching
nor receding, and at length the man's curiosity, ever insatiable where
the mysteries of the wild were concerned, got the better of his
prudence. He lit a match and peered from behind his shelter. The
little, sudden blaze spread a sharp light, but whatever was making the
uproar went on as before, quite heedless of the singular phenomenon.
When the match died out it left the man no wiser.