the straps Marge ran to Tara.
At her command the big beast rose slowly and stood before her, swinging
his head from side to side, his jaws agape. David called to Baree and
the dog came to him like a streak and stood against his leg, snarling
fiercely.

"Tut, tut," admonished David, softly, laying a hand on Baree's head.
"We're all friends, boy. Look here!"

He walked straight over to the grizzly and tried to induce Baree to
follow him. Baree came half way and then sat himself on his haunches and
refused to budge another inch, an expression so doleful in his face that
it drew from the girl's lips a peal of laughter in which David found it
impossible not to join. It was delightfully infectious; he was laughing
more with her than at Baree. In the same breath his merriment was cut
short by an unexpected and most amazing discovery. Tara, after all, had
his usefulness. His mistress had vaulted astride of him, and was nudging
him with her heels, leaning forward so that with one hand she was
pulling at his left ear. The bear turned slowly, his finger-long claws
clicking on the stones, and when his head was in the right direction
Marge released his ear and spoke sharply, beating a tattoo with her
heels at the same time.

"_Neah_, Tara, _Neah_!" she cried.

After a moment's hesitation, in which the grizzly seemed to be getting
his bearings, Tara struck out straight for the break between the
mountains, with his burden. The girl turned and waved a beckoning hand
at David.

"_Pao_! you must hurry!" she called to him, laughing at the astonishment
in his face.

He had started to fill his pipe, but for the next few minutes he forgot
that the pipe was in his hand. His eyes did not leave the huge beast,
ambling along a dozen paces ahead of him, or the slip of a girl who rode
him. He had caught a glimpse of Baree, and the dog's eyes seemed to be
bulging. He half believed that his own mouth was open when the girl
called to him. What had happened was most startlingly unexpected, and
what he stared at now was a wondrous sight! Tara travelled with the
rolling, slouching gait typical of the wide-quartered grizzly, and the
girl was a sinuous part of him--by all odds the most wonderful thing in
the world to David at this moment. Her hair streamed down her back in a
cascade of sunlit glory. She flung back her head, and he thought of a
wonderful golden-bronze flower. He heard her laugh, and cry out to Tara,
and when the grizzly climbed up