ion of distancing his pursuer, when his heart
sank, and a curdling sensation of horror so convulsed him that he
dropped his cap, and pressed his hands to his throat; for there, fifty
yards in front, and coming toward him, was a second bear, into whose
jaws he was running hard.

Danger behind, danger before, and between them death without mercy.
There was only one way out of the peril, and that was to run back and
turn up the narrow defile.

It was a desperate venture, for the first bear was lumbering along and
had nearly reached the turning; in fact, would have passed it before the
boy could reach the haven of comparative safety if it had not stopped
suddenly in surprise at seeing the quarry so suddenly turn round and
seem to charge. Instead, then, of running to meet him, the bear
suddenly raised itself up, and, with outstretched claws, awaited Steve's
approach. It was all over in a moment or two: the boy had to go so
close to the waiting bear that the beast struck at him with its right
paw, and nearly touched the boy's shoulder; but the next instant he was
beyond reach, and running up the defile.

There was no bounding over the ground, though, here, for the place was,
as has been shown, encumbered with fallen blocks; and Steve's heart,
which the moment before rose with a leap at the way in which he had
eluded the bears, sank once more like lead, for he knew enough of the
natural history of these beasts and their construction to feel that,
though they had left the ice for a prowl among the rocks, they would be
thoroughly at home over such ground as he was traversing.

"I've only put it off for a bit," he said to himself; "and they'll run
me down."

This thought only roused him.

"They shan't find it an easy task, though," he muttered, and, forced as
he was to slacken his speed, he had the satisfaction of seeing, on
glancing back along the gloomy passage, that the bears were also
compelled to slacken their pace and climb over intervening rocks as he
had done. And it was plural, for the second one had joined the first,
and they were coming steadily on, their light coats showing with
terrible plainness in the gloom among the rocks.

The breathless rush, then, was over; but the progress, though slow, was
terribly hard work, and that which depressed the lad most was to see
that the great brutes made no hurry or fuss over their pursuit, but came
deliberately on, as if quite sure of the result, and prepared to follo