of its
little, reddish-looking eyes. Then he buckled to at the climb, and got
up foot by foot at a rate which surprised him. But the bear was as
alert. When the lad was twenty or thirty feet up the animal had nearly
reached the foot, and by the time the pursued had mounted another twenty
feet the great brute was close up and raised itself on its hind quarters
to mount.

A cry that he could not suppress rose to Steve's lips, for, to his
despair, his last hope died away. He had climbed on desperately,
finding the ice-covered rock grow steeper and steeper, till, as he
raised one foot to take the next step, there was no crevice or crack to
give it hold, and it glided over the ice again and again. He reached to
the left, but there was no handhold there. To the right it was the
same, and--horror of horrors!--he knew now that he had clambered to a
point which it was beyond human power to exceed, and this at a time when
the bear was five-and-twenty feet below, and mounting fast.

If he could reach that ledge just above him with his hands, he might
draw himself up; but could he? There was only one way, by making a
leap, and this with so little foothold. But a low growl decided him,
and, pulling himself together, he stooped, and then sprang up with all
his might.

Hurrah! He reached the ledge with his crooked hands, and tried hard to
drive his toes into the ice as he hung. But only for a few seconds.
The sharp edge of the ledge was of ice of the most glassy nature, and
Steve closed his eyes, for he had done all that mortal could do; his
fingers glided over the angle to which they had for a moment or two
clung, and then, as he drew himself up, he was falling like a ball, and
as swift right on to the climbing bear.

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

WATTY'S FEAST.

Watty Links was undoubtedly great in a certain capacity. He resembled a
Dutch galliot, especially built to contain the largest quantity of
merchandise in the smallest tonnage. Of course Watty was not built to
receive merchandise, but he was built to receive food, and the quantity
he could consume when he was unfettered was so great that a crew made up
of men proportionately as great eaters would have made a captain wince
when stores were running out, and shipowners decline to take them again
at any wage.

There being a pretty good amount of the deer haunch left when the men
departed--for in their hurry and excitement no one had thought it worth
while to pa