across
the glade was no longer motionless. Straining, Ben saw the soft roll of
a great shadow, almost imperceptible in the gloom--advancing slowly
toward him. Then the faint glow of the fire caught and reflected in the
creature's eyes.

They suddenly glowed out in the half-darkness, two rather small circles
of dark red, close together and just alike. This night visitor was not
moose or caribou, or was it one of the lesser hunters, lynx or
wolverine, or a panther wandered far from his accustomed haunts. The
twin circles were too far above the ground. And whatever it was, no
doubt remained but that the creature was steadily stalking him across
the soft grass.

At that instant Ben's muscles snapped into action. Only a second
remained in which to make his defense--the creature had paused, setting
his muscles for a death-dealing charge. "Go back into the cave--as far
as you can," he said swiftly to Beatrice. His own eyes, squinted and
straining for the last iota of vision in that darkened scene, made a
last, frantic search for his rifle. Suddenly he saw the gleam of its
barrel as it rested against the wall of the cliff, fifteen feet distant.

At once he knew that his only course was to spring for it in the instant
that remained, and trust to its mighty shocking power to stop the charge
that would in a moment ensue. Yet it seemed to tear the life fiber of
the man to do it. His inmost instincts, urgent and loud in his ear, told
him to remain on guard, not to leave that cavern maw for an instant but
to protect with his own body the precious life that it sheltered. His
mind worked with that incredible speed that is usually manifest in a
crisis; and he knew that the creature might charge into the cavern
entrance in the second that he left it. Yet only in the rifle lay the
least chance or hope for either of them.

"At him, Fenris!" he shouted. The wolf leaped forward like a thrown
spear,--almost too fast for the eye to follow. He was deathly afraid,
with full knowledge of the power of the enemy he went to combat, but his
fears were impotent to restrain him at the first sound of that masterful
voice. These were the words he had waited for. He could never disobey
such words as these--from the lips of his god. And Ben's mind had worked
true; he knew that the wolf could likely hold the creature at bay until
he could seize his rifle.

In an instant it was in his hands, and he had sprung back to his post in
front of the cavern maw