until it came
to the top, while in the other direction it sloped downward, diminishing
in width until it "petered out" entirely. The little spring fell upon
this ledge, and running along it, fell off again at its lower end. As
the best place to fill our tin cup was where the water struck the ledge,
we, when we had finished our lunch, walked down to that point.

Filling the cup, I was in the act of handing it to Joe, who was behind
me, when a sudden clatter of hoofs caused us to straighten up. Our eyes
came just above the level of the cliff, and the first thing they
encountered was Big Reuben himself, not ten feet away, coming straight
for us at a run!

"Duck!" yelled Joe; and down we went--only just in time, too, for the
bear's great claws rattled on the surface of the rock as he made a slap
at us.

Where had he come from? Had he followed us back from the mountain?
Hardly: we had come too quickly. Had he seen us coming in the early
morning, and, making a circuit out of our sight, lain in wait for us as
we returned? Such uncanny cleverness seemed hardly possible, even for
Big Reuben, clever as he was known to be.

These questions, however, did not occur to us at the moment. All that
concerned us just then was that there was Big Reuben, looking down at us
from the edge of the cliff.

There was no doubt that it was the same bear we had interviewed in the
night, for all the hair on one side of his face was singed off where I
had thrust at him with the torch, while one of his ears was tattered and
bloody, showing that some of Joe's buck-shot, at least, had got him as
he dropped from the window.

Joe and I were on our hands and knees, when the bear, going down upon
his chest, reached for us with one of his paws. He could not quite touch
us, but he came so uncomfortably close that we crept away down the
ledge, which, dipping pretty sharply, soon put us out of his reach
altogether.

Seeing this, the bear rose to his feet again, gazed at us for a moment,
and then stepped back out of sight.

"Has he gone?" I whispered; but before Joe could answer Big Reuben
appeared again, walking down the ledge towards us. Of course we sidled
away from him, until the ledge had become so narrow that I could go no
farther; and lucky it was for us that the ledge was narrow, for what
was standing-room for us was by no means standing-room for the bear: his
body was much too thick to allow him to come near us, or even to
approach the spot w