le, that it might not impede his
flight, and concentrated all his energies into the one effort of
running.

He had no time to look where he was going. He could only strive with the
desperation of despair to preserve the distance between him and his
pursuer, in the faint hope that something would intervene to save him.
Fred was not only firing his gun as fast as he could, but he shouted to
the bear, in the hope of diverting his attention from Jack, who could
not keep up the unequal flight much longer.

The terrified fugitive leaped over boulders, dashed around interposing
rocks, and bounded across open spaces, hardly daring to look over his
shoulder, for he knew from the sounds of pursuit that the animal was at
his heels. It seemed every moment as if the prodigious paw of the
grizzly would smite him to the earth, when no human power could save
him.

Suddenly the fugitive, while dashing forward in this blind, headlong
fashion, found himself confronted by the canyon with which he and Fred
had already had a memorable experience. It yawned at right angles to the
course he was following, its width so great that it was impossible for
him to leap it at that point. But he knew there must be some such place,
and he continued his flight along the side of the chasm, hunting for a
spot that would permit him to reach the other bank.

He did not stop to think how this could benefit him, for it was to be
supposed that if the grizzly could outrun he could also outleap him, and
the moment the fugitive landed on the further bank the brute would do
the same, without losing an inch of the advantage already gained. In
fact, Jack Dudley had no time to think of anything except to run with
all the vigor which nature had given him.

All at once he saw a spot where the feat looked possible. There was no
time for him to turn off to gain the momentum, but, measuring the
interval with his eye, he gathered his muscles and leaped outward. The
jump was diagonal, and made under most difficult circumstances.

Who shall describe the awful thrill that shot through Jack Dudley when,
at the moment of leaving the rocky edge of the rocky wall, he was sure
he was about to fail in his last effort? The other margin of the canyon
wall appeared to recede, and he uttered a despairing cry, certain that
the next instant he would go spinning down the frightful abyss.

It is at such critical times that the question of life and death is
often decided by incidents