The youth was surprised but not taken off his guard, and as the animal came closer he leveled his weapon, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The bear had raised up on its hind legs and the bullet took it straight in the breast, inflicting a bad but not a mortal wound. Then Dave started to fire a second time, but in a twinkling the bear leaped over a low rock and disappeared in the brushwood. Listening, Dave heard it lumbering away, growling with rage and pain as it went.
"Hello!" came a faint voice. "Is that you, Lapham?"
"No, it is somebody else," answered Dave. He could scarcely speak, he was so agitated. "Where are you?"
"Here, near the cliff. I am wounded, and I—I" The voice died out completely.
"I'm coming!" shouted Dave. "Just let me know where you are."
For a minute there was no answer, and Dave continued to call. Then came what was half call and half moan. With ears on the alert, the boy followed up the sounds and quickly came in sight of a man, wrapped up in a fur overcoat and crouched in a heap between two rocks at the base of the cliff. He held a pistol in his hand, but the weapon was empty.
For the instant man and boy faced each other—the former too weak to speak and the latter too
