that there was a very distinct path that had been beaten through the
undergrowth. The discovery for a moment startled him. Then he realized
that the woods were, of course, full of all sorts of harmless animals,
who had to come down to the water to drink. This would explain the beaten
path, and in some measure it reassured him.

Still his gait was quicker as he sped along, intent on regaining the
canoe. It would have perhaps been just as well if he had put his rifle in
when he started. He listened attentively now as he hurried on, but not a
sound broke the stillness of the woods.

And now his pulses began to drum with that subtle sixth sense of his that
warned of danger. Again and again in his adventurous career he had felt
it, and it had never misled him. It was something like the second sight
of the Highlander. His nature was so highly organized that like a
sensitive camera it registered impressions that others overlooked. Now
some "coming event" was casting "its shadow before," and the mysterious
monitor warned him to be on his guard.

It was with a feeling of intense relief that he came again in sight of
the canoe and saw that it was undisturbed. He looked across and saw his
friends waving at him. He waved back and stooped to unfasten the canoe.

Then something that struck him as odd in their salutation caused him to
look again. It was not simply a friendly greeting. There was terror,
panic, wild anxiety. And now they were shouting and pointing to something
behind him.

He turned like a flash. And what he saw made his heart almost leap from
his body.

CHAPTER V

The Grizzly at Bay

Tearing down upon him in a rapid, lumbering gallop was a monstrous bear.
It needed no second glance to tell that it was a grizzly. The little eyes
incandescent with rage, the big hump just back of the ears, the enormous
size and bulk could belong to none other than this dreaded king of the
Rockies.

For an instant every drop of blood in Bert's body seemed to rush to his
head. It suffused his eyes with a red film and sounded like thunder in
his ears. Then the flood receded and left him cold as ice. He was himself
again, cool, self-reliant, with his mental processes working like
lightning.

He had no time to unfasten the canoe. Long before he could get in and
push off, the bear would have been on top of him. The beast was not more
than thirty feet away and two or three more lunges would bring him to the
water's edge.