go thither. At all events, he would have
light around him, and could see his antagonist before being attacked;
while the thought of being assailed in the cave, and hugged to death by
an unseen enemy in the darkness, had something awful and horrible in it.
If he were to be destroyed in this way, neither Caspar nor Ossaroo
might ever know what had become of him--his bones might lie in that dark
cavern never to be discovered by human eyes: it was a fearful
apprehension!

Karl could not bear it; and, rising half erect, he rushed out into the
light.

He did not pause by the entrance of the cave, but ran back along the
shelf to the point where the path led up. Here he stopped, and for
several minutes stood--now looking anxiously back towards the cavern's
mouth, and now as anxiously casting his glances down the giddy path that
conducted to the bottom of the cliff.

Had Karl known the true disposition of the Tibet bear, or the design of
the particular one he had thus encountered, he would not have been so
badly frightened. In truth, the bear was as much disinclined to an
encounter as he, at a loss, no doubt, to make out the character of its
adversary. It was probable that Karl himself was the first human biped
the animal had ever set eyes on; and, not knowing the strength of such a
strange creature, it was willing enough to give him a wide berth,
provided he would reciprocate the civility!

The bear, in fact, was only rushing to its cave; perhaps to join its
mate there, or defend its cubs, which it believed to be in danger, and
had no idea whatever of molesting the plant-hunter, as it afterwards
proved.

But Karl could not know this, and did not know it. He fancied all the
while that the bear was in pursuit of him; that, to attack him, it had
sprung up to the ledge; and that it had rushed past him into the cave,
thinking he had gone far in; that, as soon as it should reach the
interior, and find he was no longer there, it would come rushing out
again, and then--

It is well-known that one danger makes another seem less, and that
despair will often lend courage to cowards.

Karl was no coward, although in calm blood the descent of the cliff had
cowed him. But now that his blood was up, the danger of the descent
appeared less; and, partly inspired by this belief, and partly urged on
by the fear of Bruin reissuing from the cave, he determined once more to
attempt it.

In an instant he was on his knees, and letting