ad been weighed in the balance and found entirely wanting.

There was still one very slight hope left, however. If Pedro could
only reach his stiletto, even with his hands pinioned to his sides, he
might be able to plunge it into the brute's side down low and inflict a
wound that would cause the bear to loose his hold for a second, when he
might wrench himself free and deliver a second fatal thrust.

The stiletto was in a sheath and Pedro could just reach the point. His
only hope was to work it loose, then with a quick motion jump it out,
and catch it as it fell. It was a desperate chance, but all that was
left to him.

His slightest movement brought blood-curdling growls from Black Bruin,
who evidently did not intend to take any chances with him.

At the same instant that Pedro began reaching for his stiletto, Black
Bruin started marching him up the road into the woods. Where he was
taking him and what new horror awaited him the Italian could not
imagine.

Inch by inch he carefully worked the stiletto higher and higher in the
sheath. Then with a quick upward motion of his hand, he jumped it
clear of the leather and clutched for the handle as it fell. But his
fingers barely glazed the steel, the weapon fell to the earth, and his
last hope was gone.

About fifty feet down the road, Black Bruin wheeled his captive sharply
to the right and taking a few steps in that direction, they stood upon
the brink of the precipice, at the bottom of which was the foaming,
dashing, turbulent stream.

As though to make the horror of the situation even more intense, the
moon which had been under a cloud, came out and shone peacefully into
the yawning depths. In the silver moonlight the white foam on the
water looked as soft as wool; but Pedro knew that beneath the froth and
foam were the jagged and hungry rocks that made it.

There they remained for the space of ten seconds, the dark, cruel,
sinister little man, held in the inexorable grip of the great shaggy
beast. Each second the crushing arms of the bear tightened and the
man's breath came in gasps and sobs. His tongue protruded from his
mouth, and his eyes bulged out of their sockets with fear and pain.
Blood dripped from his nose and his ribs creaked as the infuriated
beast slowly crushed him.

When the figure of his tormentor no longer struggled in his arms, Black
Bruin opened his powerful jaws and with a single bite crushed the
vertebras of the neck. Then, with