d bone and sinew that
was bearing down with the speed of an express train upon the seemingly
slow-moving man.

It all happened in a few seconds; but they were seconds that seemed
like hours to the men who watched. They saw Tippet leap to his feet at
Bradley's shouted warning. They saw him run, stooping to recover his
rifle as he passed the spot where it had fallen. They saw him glance
back toward Bradley, and then they saw him stop short of the tree that
might have given him safety and turn back in the direction of the bear.
Firing as he ran, Tippet raced after the great cave bear--the monstrous
thing that should have been extinct ages before--ran for it and fired
even as the beast was almost upon Bradley. The men in the trees
scarcely breathed. It seemed to them such a futile thing for Tippet to
do, and Tippet of all men! They had never looked upon Tippet as a
coward--there seemed to be no cowards among that strangely assorted
company that Fate had gathered together from the four corners of the
earth--but Tippet was considered a cautious man. Overcautious, some
thought him. How futile he and his little pop-gun appeared as he
dashed after that living engine of destruction! But, oh, how glorious!
It was some such thought as this that ran through Brady's mind, though
articulated it might have been expressed otherwise, albeit more
forcefully.

Just then it occurred to Brady to fire and he, too, opened upon the
bear, but at the same instant the animal stumbled and fell forward,
though still growling most fearsomely. Tippet never stopped running or
firing until he stood within a foot of the brute, which lay almost
touching Bradley and was already struggling to regain its feet.
Placing the muzzle of his gun against the bear's ear, Tippet pulled the
trigger. The creature sank limply to the ground and Bradley scrambled
to his feet.

"Good work, Tippet," he said. "Mightily obliged to you--awful waste of
ammunition, really."

And then they resumed the march and in fifteen minutes the encounter
had ceased even to be a topic of conversation.

For two days they continued upon their perilous way. Already the
cliffs loomed high and forbidding close ahead without sign of break to
encourage hope that somewhere they might be scaled. Late in the
afternoon the party crossed a small stream of warm water upon the
sluggishly moving surface of which floated countless millions of tiny
green eggs surrounded by a light scum o