" he said. "I will speak with the little Zorka about it."

Ritter Winter now forgot that he was speaking with a deserter, whom it
was his duty to arrest. He held out his hand joyfully to the Bosnian
peasant, and said encouragingly: "Go speak with her; but make haste.
Go instantly."

They crept together to the pantry where the girl slept near the
chained bears. Joco opened the door without making a sound, and
slipped in. It seemed to the Captain that he heard whispering inside.
These few moments seemed an eternity to him. At last the bear-leader
reappeared and, nodding to the Captain, said: "Sir, you are expected."

Captain Winter had undoubtedly taken too much wine. He staggered as he
entered the pantry, the door of which the bear-leader shut and locked
directly he had entered. He then listened with such an expression on
his face as belongs only to a born bandit. Almost immediately a
growling was heard, and directly afterwards some terrible swearing and
a fall. The growling grew stronger and stronger. At last it ended in a
wild roar. A desperate cry disturbed the stillness of the night:
"Help! help!"

In the yard and round about it the dogs woke up, and with terrible
yelping ran towards the pantry, where the roaring of the bear grew
ever wilder and more powerful. The rattling of the chain and the cries
of the girl mingled with Ibrahim's growling. The neighbors began to
wake up. Human voices, confused questionings, were heard. The
inn-keeper and his servants appeared on the scene in their night
clothes, but, hearing the terrible roaring, fled again into security.
The Captain's cries for help became weaker and weaker. And now Joco
took his iron stake, which he always kept by him, opened the door, and
at one bound was at the side of the wild beast. His voice sounded
again like thunder, and the iron stick fell with a thud on the bear's
back. Ibrahim had smelt blood. Beneath his paws a man's mangled body
was writhing. The beast could hardly be made to let go his prey. In
the light that came through the small window, Joco soon found the
chain from which not long before he had freed Ibrahim, and with a
swift turn he put the muzzle over the beast's jaws. It was done in a
twinkling. During this time Zorka had been running up and down the
empty yard, crying in vain for help. Nobody had dared come near.

The following day Captain Fritz Winter, Ritter von Wallishausen, was
lying between burning wax candles upon his bier. Nobod