l suddenly it turned to the right,
and plunged down towards the river.

"Look!" said Gunson, pointing, and there were the footprints again, but
turning off now to our right, while our way lay straight on.

"Then he's gone!" cried Esau, eagerly.

_Crash! Rush_! There was the sound of breaking twigs, as if some
monstrous creature was forcing its way through the undergrowth to the
right, and I heard another rush behind me as I stood there behind
Gunson, too much paralysed to run, as I saw him drop on one knee and
raise the rifle to his shoulder.

The rushing noise continued, but it grew more faint, and Gunson rose to
his feet.

"We've frightened him as much as he has frightened us. Here, hi!
Hallo! where are you?" he cried, as he caught sight of two bundles lying
on the ground where they had been dropped.

There was no answer.

"Here, Dean, come along," shouted Gunson again; and I shouted too.

"Ahoy!" came back from some distance away, and a good ten minutes
elapsed before Esau reappeared, looking hot and white.

"Did you shoot him?" he said.

"How could I, when you ran away with the ammunition. Seen the bear?"

"No."

"Well, have you seen Quong?"

"No," said Esau, rather dolefully, and looking as if extremely
dissatisfied with the part he had played.

"The bear can't have seized him?" I said, looking at Gunson.

"Impossible," he said. "It went the other way."

Just then I caught sight of something blue, and burst out laughing.

"What is it?" cried Gunson.

I pointed upward to where, about fifty feet from the ground, the little
Chinaman was perched in a great spruce fir, clinging tightly to one of
the horizontal boughs, with his feet on another, and as he peered
anxiously down, looking like a human squirrel on the watch for foes.

"Here, come down," I cried. "It's all right now. Come down."

"Yes, come down, you little coward," shouted Esau, who brightened up
directly he found that some one had cut a worse figure than he. "I
say," he continued, with a forced laugh, "doesn't he look comic up
there?"

"Yes," said Gunson, grimly, as he gazed fixedly at Esau, who turned
uncomfortable directly, and made no remarks about Quong, as he walked to
the foot of the tree, which was about a hundred yards away, and losing
sight of its occupant now he was hidden by the intervening boughs.

"Come, Quong," I said, "get down, or we shall leave you behind."

"Gone?" he said in a weak voice.

"Yes; come