undred years. And to think
that I missed that shot when my life depended upon it! It must be my
nerves."

A feeling of annoyance swept upon him, and picking up his rifle, he
hurled it among the trees.

"Lie there," he ordered. "You are of no use to me now, and I have no
strength to tote you along."

Then he laughed, and the hollow sound of his voice startled him. He
sprang to his feet and looked around. Why had he laughed? he asked
himself. Was he going out of his mind? He glanced at his hands and
shuddered, so bruised and bleeding were they. His clothes, too, were
in tatters, while his boots were so worn that portions of his feet were
visible.

For a few minutes he stood rigidly still, as if in a dream. The
intense loneliness of the place was appalling. It was unnerving him,
and he was losing control of himself. Suddenly he started and ran as
if for life, back over the track he had recently traversed. He was no
longer the Tom Reynolds who had started forth from Big Draw, but a
denizen of the wilds. The desire for food possessed him. It made him
mad, a demon, ready to fall upon any creature that crossed his path.
He was crafty as well, and reaching the shelter of the forest, he
glided cautiously along the edge of the meadow, up toward the little
brook where he had slept the night before. No tiger creeping through
the jungle moved more stealthily than did he. Nothing escaped his
notice, and he eagerly watched for rabbit or squirrel that he might
pounce upon it.

For some time he thus advanced, but nothing could he see. At length he
came to an opening in the trees, which exposed the brook plainly to
view. His eyes swept the stream, and as they did so they presently
rested upon a black object crouched upon a fallen tree projecting out
over the brook. He recognized it at once as a black bear, watching for
fish. It was lying flat on the log, with one big paw close to the
water waiting for its breakfast.

Reynolds' first impulse was to rush forward and engage the brute in a
deadly conflict. But a natural caution restrained him, and he
accordingly waited to see what would happen. Neither did he have to
wait long, for in a twinkling the big paw struck, the water splashed,
and a shiny form hurtled through the air, and fell several yards away.
And after it sprang the bear, but his body had scarcely left the log
ere Reynolds was bounding toward him with such yells and whoops that
the forest resounded