the
place where the carcass lay; and whatever excursion they might make from
that spot, they should always arrange some clue by which they might
return to it.

Fortunately for them there was water in the cavern. In many places it
dripped from the rocks in sufficient quantity to give them as much as
they wanted for drink; and not far off they had crossed a little rivulet
that ran down the bottom of one of the great galleries. This they knew
they could find again; and, consequently they felt no apprehensions on
the score of water.

It was a question, then, how long they would be in finding the entrance,
and how long they could live upon the flesh of the bear.

The finding of Bruin's carcass had considerably bettered their
prospects; and as they gathered around it to dinner, they felt more
cheerful than they had done since the moment when they had laid it low.

As they ate, it was dark enough around them to have called the meal a
supper; and it was long enough since they had eaten their breakfast--
though they could not guess how long--but as they had eaten nothing
since breakfast, they styled this first meal upon the bear-meat their
dinner.

No dinner or supper was ever cooked like that--_it was not cooked at
all_! for they had no fire wherewith to cook it.

They were not squeamish. A very long interval had transpired since they
had eaten their slight breakfast. Karl and Caspar had refrained from
the uncooked viand until their appetite could resist no longer; and then
the raw flesh of the bear became palatable enough. It was supper time
with Ossaroo. His stomach had more easily got over its scruples, and he
had bolted his dinner long, long ago; so that when the others sat down
to their first meal, Ossaroo was able to join them at his second.

Both Karl and Caspar ate heartily enough,--quite as heartily as if a
chandelier with its wax-lights had been sparkling over their heads.
Perhaps the absence of light was a circumstance in their favour. The
huge paws--those "titbits" of the bear's flesh--constituted their
dinner; and hunters will tell you that, boiled, roasted, or _raw_, a
bear's paw is not bad eating.

When they had finished their meal, all three groped their way to where
they heard the trickling of water.

They found a place where it oozed in a rapid and continuous dripping
through the rocks; and, applying their mouths to this subterranean
fountain, they were enabled in a few moments to slake their