a time, only made the
beast more dangerous for the moment. It paused, coughing, and tried to
paw the torment from its jaws, and then rushed forward, screaming
hideously.

In that pause, however, though it was but for a second or two, the
second bear had forged ahead of its companion. It was greeted
instantly by an arrow from the massive bow of Ook-ootsk, aimed with
cool deliberation. The long shaft of hickory, delivered thus at close
range, caught the enemy in the front of the right shoulder and drove
clean in to the joint, so that the leg gave way and the gigantic brute
almost fell upon its side. With a roar, it bit off the protruding half
of the tough hickory, and then came on again, on three legs. From
A-ya's nimble bow it got another arrow, which went half-way through
its neck; but to this deadly wound, which sent the blood gushing from
its mouth, it seemed to pay no heed whatever. A-ya's next shot missed;
and then, screaming for the old men to come into the fray, she
snatched up her stone-headed spear and ran around behind the nearest
fire, expecting the bears to follow her and be led away from the
hiding-place of the children.

But she had forgotten that the slave, Ook-ootsk, with his twisted and
shrunken leg, could not run. That valiant savage, blinking his little
eyes rapidly and blowing defiantly through his upturned nostrils as he
saw his doom rushing upon him, let drive one more of his long shafts
into the red, towering bulk, then dropped his bow, sank upon one knee,
and held up his spear slantingly before him, with its butt firmly
braced upon the ground. As the monster reared itself and fell upon
him, the jagged point of the spear was forced deep into its belly,
straight up till it reached the backbone. Then the shaft snapped,
Ook-ootsk sprawled forward upon his face, and the monster, in the
paroxysm of its amazement and agony, leapt onward and plunged right
over him, involuntarily hurling him aside and clawing most of the
flesh off his back with a kick of one gigantic hind paw.

He clenched his teeth stoically, shut his eyes, folded his long, hairy
arms about his head, and rolled himself into a ball, confidently
expecting in the next moment to feel the life crunched out of him.

But just as the monster, recovering itself, was turning madly to
finish off its insignificant but torturing opponent, A-ya came leaping
back to the rescue, with a blazing and sparkling faggot in each hand,
and the old men, some