in the corner,
clawing at its chain and tossing its head from side to side, still
panting and angry from the fight.

Now and again, also, it licked the bayonet-wound between its shoulders,
and rubbed its lacerated nose on its paw. Castine was mixing some tar
and oil in a pan by the fire, to apply to the still bleeding wounds of
his Michael. He had an ugly grin on his face.

He was dressed just as in the first day he appeared in the village, even
to the fur cap; and presently, as he turned round, he began to sing
the monotonous measure to which the bear had danced. It had at once a
soothing effect upon the beast.

After he had gone from the store-room, leaving Ferrol dead, as he
thought, it was this song alone which had saved himself from peril; for
the beast was wild from pain, fury and the taste of blood. As soon as
they had cleared the farmyard, he had begun this song, and the bear,
cowed at first by the thrusts of its master's pike, quieted to the
well-known ditty.

He approached the bear now, and, stooping, put some of the tar and oil
upon its nose. It sniffed and rubbed off the salve, but he put more on;
then he rubbed it into the wound of the breast. Once the animal made a
fierce snap at his shoulder, but he deftly avoided it, gave it a thrust
with a sharp-pointed stick, and began the song again. Presently he rose
and came towards the fire.

As he did so he heard the door open. Turning round quickly, he saw
Christine standing just inside. She had a shawl thrown round her, and
one hand was thrust in the pocket of her dress. She looked from him to
the bear, then back again to him.

He did not realise why she had come. For a moment, in his excited state,
he almost thought she had come because she loved him. He had seen her
twice since his return; but each time she would say nothing to him
further than that she wished not to meet or to speak to him at all. He
had pleaded with her, had grown angry, and she had left him. Who could
tell--perhaps she had come to him now as she had come to him in the old
days. He dropped the pan of tar and oil. "Chris!" he said, and started
forward to her.

At that moment the bear, as if it knew the girl's mission, sprang
forward, with a growl. Its huge mouth was open, and all its fierce lust
for killing showed again in its wild lunges. Castine turned, with an
oath, and thrust the steel-set pike into its leg. It cowered at the
voice and the punishment for an instant, but came on