the huge, pointed white
head from the side at first, with a golden eye that glared at him. A
perfectly white bear.

Like his dream.

The head swung toward him, a gaping mouth lined with teeth like ivory
daggers.

The whole white body emerged, bigger than a bull bison.

It roared, deafening as a cannon blast. It reared up on its hind legs,
filling the tunnel like a white avalanche. After the roar, it rumbled
steadily, deep in its chest. Though it was more than ten feet away, he
could smell its rotten-meat breath.

He squeezed the trigger. His rifle thundered, echoes slamming the sides
of his head. Smoke obscured the vast white body. His ears jangled.

He felt a sudden terror that the shot might start a cave-in.

But it didn't.

It didn't stop the bear either. It came on, padded feet scraping on the
tunnel floor, swinging claws like rows of sickles.

_I couldn't have missed. Oh Jesus, oh God, I couldn't have._

He threw the rifle down, snatched his pistol out of his holster and
fired again.

Blinding flash, deafening blast, stinking smoke.

And the bear kept coming.

It was so close, the lead balls _must_ have gone into it. It must be
just so damned big it would take more than two shots to kill it.

But there was no time to reload. The bear towered over him, white body
filling the whole world, eyes, claws, teeth, all shining in the glow of
that pitiful little candle that somehow had stayed lit.

He screamed and sobbed like a little boy in his terror, but he managed
to get his Bowie knife out. He'd killed a big Indian with this knife.

A paw the size of his head knocked the knife from his hand.

"Oh, please don't kill me!" he wept. "For the love of Jesus!"

The other paw hit his chest like a sledgehammer. He felt his ribs cave
in. He felt the claws stab into his lungs.

His breath flew from his body. His strength drained away. He couldn't
scream anymore. He couldn't beg for his life. His voice was gone. Only
blood came out of his throat. The last thing he saw was an enormous
mouth gaping, full of yellow-white pointed teeth coming at him. He felt
claws rip again through his chest and belly and knew that he was going.

* * * * *

The pale eyes' smoke boat was a frightening thing, shooting black clouds
and sparks from two black-painted iron tubes that rose up from a big
lodge in its middle. On each side of the boat was a wheel with wooden
boards attached, and the wheel