en there came
a sudden indistinguishable sound. Johnny thought it like the dropping of a
small rock, followed by a half suppressed exclamation. A chill crept up
his spine.

They moved on a few paces. Again came a sound. This time it was like two
steps taken in the dark. At the same instant, fingers gripped his arm. He
sprang into an attitude of defense.

"Stop," came a whisper in his ear. "Place's full of natives." It was Pant.
"When I knock the candle to the floor, you drop flat and crawl for the
door."

For a second Johnny stared in the dark at the place where Pant's face
should be. He caught again the puzzling gleam of yellow light.

"All right," he breathed.

Ten seconds later, as the candle executed a spiral curve toward the floor
and flickered out, Johnny dropped flat and began to crawl.

CHAPTER V

THE BIG CAT

Hardly had Johnny and Pant disappeared over the hill that morning in their
quest for the supposed old ivory of rare value, when things began to
happen in the neighborhood of the camp. Dave Tower and Jarvis had been
detailed to inspect Mine No. 3, with a view to opening it as soon as the
mother-lode had been reached in No. 2. Armed with pick and shovel, they
had crossed the first low ridge, which made a short cut across the bend of
the river, when Jarvis suddenly whispered:

"Hist! Down! The cat!"

Dave dropped to his knees, eyes popping at the sight just before him. Not
twenty yards from them was a huge tiger. With head up, tail lashing, he
seemed contemplating a leap which might bring him over a third of the
distance between them. Two more leaps, and then what? Dave's hair prickled
at the roots; a chill ran down his spine; cold perspiration stood out on
his forehead.

"If only we had a gun," he whispered.

"Keep yer eye on 'im," the Englishman whispered. "Don't flinch nor turn a
'air. 'E's a bad un."

For fully three minutes--it seemed hours to Dave--the great cat lay spread
flat to the snow. Then a nervous twitch of his paws told that he was
disturbed. Dave's hands grasped the pick-handle until it seemed they would
crush it to splinters.

But what was this? The creature turned his head and looked to the right.

In another second they saw what the tiger saw. A clumsy, ponderous polar
bear, making her way inland to some rocky cavern for a sleep, had
blundered upon them.

"Ship ahoy!" breathed Jarvis. "Twelve feet long, if she's an inch, and a
bob for a tail at that."

"Look!