reach the shore but a short distance behind
him.

Again he raised his gun, and as before they attempted to screen
themselves from danger, while the next impulse of his paddle sent his
canoe high up the bank, and he sprung out and plunged into the woods.

Tim O'Rooney had no thought of the particular manner in which he was to
effect his escape. His one desire was to get away from them. The
probabilities are that, beyond all doubt, he would have been speedily
overtaken and slain but for one of those singular occurrences which do
not happen to a man more than once in a life-time, and which seem to
show unmistakably that Providence often interferes directly in favor of
the innocent and distressed.

He had run perhaps a couple of hundred yards, or thereabouts, when a
peculiar whoop from his pursuers announced that they had landed and were
now coming speedily behind him. He knew that he had no chance in
running, and was looking about him for some place in which to take
shelter, when a furious growl startled him and he found himself within a
dozen feet from enormous grizzly bear. This quadruped seemed anxious for
a fight, for he came straight at the fugitive, who might certainly be
excused for being dazed at the combination of dangers by which he was
surrounded.

That of the grizzly bear was the greatest; for with mouth open and his
red tongue lolling out he came fiercely at him. His gait was awkward and
shambling, but he managed to get over the ground very rapidly. Indeed,
the danger was so imminent that Tim, seeing there was no choice, raised
his gun and fired at the monster.

The bullet struck him near the head, but it did not kill him, nor did it
cause him to fall, but it bewildered him, and he rose on his hind feet
and clawed the air as if the bullet was a splinter and he was seeking to
pluck it from his flesh.

This bewilderment was the means of Tim being saved. Before the animal
had entirely recovered, he had darted out of sight, and when the Indians
came up the bear was just in "fighting trim," and immediately made at
them. Consequently they were compelled to give over all thoughts of the
flying hunter and attend to their own personal safety. What the final
result was Tim never learned, and we cannot speak with certainty.

CHAPTER XXVI.

SHASTA'S HUNT.

If the Pah Utah in the extremity of his suffering had been betrayed into
the extraordinary weakness of manifesting it, he now seemed anxious to
make