believe it, boys? I was nigh jumpin' straight off that there
ledge, right into the landscape an' eternity! There, starin' 'round
the wall o' rock, not one inch more than a foot away from mine, was
the face o' the bear.

"Well, I was scared. There's no gittin' round that fact. There was
something so onnatural about that big, wicked face hangin' there over
that awful height, an' starin' so close into mine. I jest naturally
scrooged away as fur as I could git, an' hung on tight to the rock
so's not to go over. An' _then_ my face wasn't more'n two feet away,
do the best I could; an' that was the time I found what it felt like
to be right down scared. I believe if that face had come much closer,
I'd have _bit_ at it, that minute, like a rat in a hole.

"For maybe thirty seconds we jest stared. Then, I kind o' got a holt
of myself, an' cursed myself good fer bein' such a fool; an' my blood
got to runnin' agin. I fell to studyin' how the bear could have got
there; an' pretty soon I reckoned it out as how there must be a big
ledge runnin' down the cliff face, jest the other side o' the wall o'
the pocket. An' I hugged myself to think I hadn't managed to climb
'round on to that ledge jest before the bear arrived. I got this all
figgered out, an' it took some time. But still that face, hangin' out
there over the height, kept starin' at me; an' I never saw a wickeder
look than it had on to it, steady an' unwinkin' as a nightmare. It is
curious how long a beast _kin_ look at one without winkin'. At last,
it got on to my nerves so I jest couldn't stand it; an' snatching a
bunch of weeds (I'd already flung away all the loose dirt, flingin' it
at the rattler), I whipped 'em across them devilish leetle eyes as
hard as I could. It was a kind of a child's trick, or a woman's, but
it worked all right, fer it made the eyes blink. That proved they were
real eyes, an' I felt easier. After all, it _was_ only a bear; an' he
couldn't git any closer than he was. But that was a mite too close,
an' I wished he'd move. An' jest then, not to be gittin' _too_ easy in
my mind, I remembered the rattler.

"Another cold chill down my backbone! I looked 'round right smart. But
the rattler wasn't anywhere in sight. That, however, put me in mind of
what I'd been goin' to do to _him_. A boot wasn't much of a weapon
agin a bear, but it was the only thing handy, so I reckoned I'd have
to make it do. I yanked it off, took it by the toe, an' let that
wicked f