em!" cried Bill. "This is no place for me! Come on,
Tom!"

"Hold still! Let me get a shot!" pleaded the old hunter.

He could see the two animals plainly, now that his eyes had become used
to the difference between their shaggy coats and the surrounding snow
and ice. Andy kneeled down and took careful aim. A shot rang out, and
one of the bears toppled over.

"Good shot!" cried Jack.

Once more the hunter pulled the trigger. A dull click was the only
response. Andy quickly cocked the gun again, thinking it had missed
fire. Again the hammer fell with only a click. The hunter quickly threw
open the magazine.

"The chamber is empty!" he cried. "I have fired my last shot!"

"And there comes the bear!" yelled Mark. "He's in a fit of rage!"

The fierce beast, in anger at the sight of his enemies, was coming
toward the men and boys at top speed. On the first alarm Bill and Tom
had turned to flee. Andy, swinging his gun by the muzzle, and loosening
a long hunting knife in his belt, awaited the bear's onslaught. Mark and
Jack were too surprised to run, and stood their ground, not knowing what
to do.

"Run away!" shouted Andy. "I'll tackle the beast! I'm not afraid!"

"We're not going to leave you!" yelled Jack. "I have a revolver!"

Quickly he drew out the small weapon, a present from the inventor.
Taking hasty aim he fired several shots, but his aim was poor. One
bullet struck the bear on the nose, and, instead of stopping the beast,
only made him the more angry.

The brute was now but fifty feet away and coming on at a rapid pace
over the uneven lumps of ice and snow.

"Run, I tell you!" called Andy. "Do you boys want to be killed?"

He aimed a furious stroke at the bear, but as he did so his foot slipped
and he came down heavily on the ice. Mark and Jack uttered cries of
terror and fright.

With blood dripping from his wounds, foam falling from his red jaws, and
with every appearance of rage, the maddened beast rushed on the old
hunter.

"He'll be killed!" yelled Mark.

"If I only had a gun!" groaned Jack.

Andy rolled to one side. As he did so he uttered a loud cry, and then,
to the astonishment of the boys, he disappeared from sight as if the
frozen earth had opened and swallowed him up. At the same time the bear,
that was just about to cast himself down on the fallen hunter, seemed to
drop down through some hole into the earth.

For an instant Jack and Mark looked at each other with fear in their
eye