abin he had not taken time to secure his
revolver; he had no weapon; he was doomed to meet the same fate that he
had meted out to Lester Armstrong--starve to death slowly, hour by
hour--knowing that when he was too weak to hold longer to the branch he
would fall.

Oh, God in heaven! fall into the gaping jaws of the enraged animal that
was waiting to receive him.

He had led too wicked a life to pray; he did not know a prayer; he could
only raise his agonized eyes to the far-off sky, wondering how long his
awful torture could last-how long he would be able to hold out--how
long.

He felt his blood slowly turning to ice in his veins, and slowly and
surely the dusk deepened and the darkness of another night fell over the
world.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"SOME TERRIBLE PRESENTIMENT IS WARNING ME THAT MY DARLING IS IN DANGER."

There never was a night so long that another day did not dawn--at
last--and when the morrow's light broke, Halloran was slowly but surely
collapsing--giving himself up to the horrible doom that awaited him--for
the bear had not quitted his position under the tree, nor had he taken
his eyes off his intended victim for a single moment.

As the sun rose, Halloran watched it with dazed, bloodshot eyes,
exclaiming:

"Good-by, golden sun, I shall never see you set, nor witness you rise
again upon another day. I--" the sentence was never finished, for over
the snowy waste rang a voice like a bugle blast:

"Keep quiet, take heart, help is at hand; I am going to shoot the animal
and deliver you," and simultaneously with the voice four shots in rapid
succession rang out upon the early morning air.

There was a wild howl of pain, a terrible roaring bellow, a sudden dash
toward a dark figure hurriedly approaching, two more shots, and the bear
rolled over dying beyond power to harm, his red blood dyeing the white
snow in great pools. Halloran knew no more. His strength and endurance
seemed suddenly to leave him, darkness closed in about him, his hold
loosened and he fell backward down, down through space.

He did not know that a pair of strong arms caught him, thus saving him
from a broken neck. When he opened his eyes a few moments later, to his
intense surprise he found Lester Armstrong bending over him, and the
sight rendered him fairly dumb with amazement.

Before he could ask questions that sprang to his lips, Lester explained
to him that owing to the dampness of the place, the fire Halloran ha