ure and his horse with one of those powerful paws;
and, for a dreadful moment, it appeared to Bud as if the huge beast
might even overtake the speedy horse. Then he saw that Thure was slowly
gaining, that the rope, which still clutched the hind leg of the
grizzly, was slowly tightening; and, with breathless haste, he began
reloading his rifle. He had had all the roping of _El Feroz_ he wanted;
and now his only desire was to get a bullet into the huge body, where it
would kill quickly, as speedily as possible. Suddenly, just as he was
driving the bullet down into the barrel of his rifle, he heard a wild
yell of exultation from Thure, and looked up just in time to see the
hind part of the grizzly shoot upward into the air; and the next moment
his astonished eyes saw the huge body dangling from a strong limb of an
old oak tree, that thrust itself out from the sturdy trunk some fifteen
feet above the ground, and held there by the grip of Thure's rope around
one of the hind legs.

It needed but a glance for Bud to understand how this seemingly
marvelous feat had been accomplished. The quick eyes of Thure had seen
the tree, with its sturdy limb thrust out some fifteen feet above the
ground, almost directly in the line of his flight; and, swerving a
little to one side, so as to pass close to it, and slowing up his horse
a bit, he had gathered up the slack of the rope in his hand, and, as he
passed the tree, he had thrown it so that the middle of the rope had
fallen over the top of the limb not far from the trunk; and then, of
course, the rope had jerked the bear up into the air, and Thure had
whirled his horse about, and now the well-trained animal stood, his fore
legs braced, holding the struggling grizzly up to the limb.

"Shoot, shoot him quick, before the limb or the rope breaks!" yelled
Bud, the moment his eyes had taken in the situation, and, ramming the
bullet swiftly home, he spurred Gray Cloud toward the dangling bear.

Thure at once seized his rifle; but so furious were the struggles of the
grizzly--he hung just so that his fore paws touched the ground--as he
twisted and turned and frantically pawed up the dirt, insane with rage,
that it was impossible to get accurate aim from where he sat on his
horse; and Thure jumped from his saddle and ran quickly close up to the
swinging grizzly, now struggling more furiously than ever at the near
approach of his hated enemy.

"Don't! Look out! Can't you see how the limb is b