oing this he let fall his cutlass.

Piteous cries now assailed his ears; it was Marie's voice.
Herming was trying to drag her up. Louis was seized with a
desperate rage. He stiffened himself to bend Vasling's loins; but
at this moment the combatants felt themselves seized in a
powerful embrace. The bear, having descended from the mast, had
fallen upon the two men. Vasling was pressed against the animal's
body. Louis felt his claws entering his flesh. The bear, was
strangling both of them.

[Illustration: The bear, having descended from the mast, had
fallen upon the two men.]

"Help! help! Herming!" cried the mate.

"Help! Penellan!" cried Louis.

Steps were heard on the stairs. Penellan appeared, loaded his
pistol, and discharged it in the bear's ear; he roared; the pain
made him relax his paws for a moment, and Louis, exhausted, fell
motionless on the deck; but the bear, closing his paws tightly
in a supreme agony, fell, dragging down the wretched Vasling,
whose body was crushed under him.

Penellan hurried to Louis Cornbutte's assistance. No serious
wound endangered his life: he had only lost his breath for a
moment.

"Marie!" he said, opening his eyes.

"Saved!" replied Perfellan. "Herming is lying there with a knife-wound
in his stomach."

"And the bears--"

"Dead, Louis; dead, like our enemies! But for those beasts we
should have been lost. Truly, they came to our succour. Let us
thank Heaven!"

Louis and Penellan descended to the cabin, and Marie fell into
their arms.

CHAPTER XVI.

CONCLUSION.

Herming, mortally wounded, had been carried to a berth by Misonne
and Turquiette, who had succeeded in getting free. He was already
at the last gasp of death; and the two sailors occupied themselves
with Nouquet, whose wound was not, happily, a serious one.

But a greater misfortune had overtaken Louis Cornbutte. His
father no longer gave any signs of life. Had he died of anxiety
for his son, delivered over to his enemies? Had he succumbed in
presence of these terrible events? They could not tell. But the
poor old sailor, broken by disease, had ceased to live!

At this unexpected blow, Louis and Marie fell into a sad despair;
then they knelt at the bedside and wept, as they prayed for Jean
Cornbutte's soul, Penellan, Misonne, and Turquiette left them
alone in the cabin, and went on deck. The bodies of the three
bears were carried forward. Penellan decided to keep their skins,
which would b