yourself out of sight!" called Nick to Nellie, "for you can't do
anything to help me."

The girl understood this, and she began to believe, with Nick, that she
had done an exceedingly foolish thing in venturing into the bear's field
of vision in this fashion.

And what was to be the end of this singular and most uncomfortable
condition of affairs?

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CONCLUSION.

For a half hour the situation remained unchanged. Nick Ribsam kept his
perch in the branches of the sapling, and, before the end of the time
named, he found the seat becoming so uncomfortable that he was sure he
could not bear it much longer.

The narrow limb on which he rested, while he held himself in place by
grasping the sapling itself, seemed to grow narrower and sharper, while
his own weight increased, until he believed it would be preferable to
let go and hang on with his hands.

It was not much better with Nellie, who had awakened to such a sense of
her position that she did not dare to do more than peep out from where
she stood, at rare intervals, quickly drawing back her head lest the
savage animal should see her.

The bear himself showed a patience which was astonishing, and was like
that of the Esquimau, who never stirs a muscle for hour after hour,
while sitting beside the air-hole in the ice, waiting for the seal to
show his nose above the surface.

Bruin moved more slightly now and then, but went no more than a dozen
yards from the tree, and seemed never to take his eyes from his victim
for more than a second or two.

During these trying minutes, the smoke sometimes filled the air scarcely
less than before and the eyes of the brother and sister smarted and
stung and shed tears, and their lungs became sore from continual
coughing, rendered the more distressing in the case of Nellie, who was
obliged to suppress the noise by cramming her handkerchief in her mouth.

But during the same period, the wits of Nick Ribsam were not idle. He
had thought of sending Nellie home to bring her father to his
assistance, but he was restrained by the fear that the bear would detect
her, and, even if she should get away, he doubted whether she would be
able to find her way through the woods to the open country beyond.

Here and there the trees were burning, and the dry limbs lay on the
ground, giving out the red glow of smoldering embers, or sending out
little twists of smoke to join the enormous mass of vapor which hung
like a