fewer than the wolves had been, were the
greatest of all the American carnivora, and they resented savagely the
attempt to drive them from their food, turning with foaming mouths upon
their assailants, who could not meet them now with bullets, but who
fought with the weapons of an earlier time.

Will plied the bow and arrow, and, when the arrows were exhausted, used
a long lance. He and Xingudan were really the leaders, marshalling their
hosts with such skill and effect that they gradually drove the bears
away from the ponies, leaving the animals to be quieted by the women and
old men, while the warriors fought the bears. Among these men was Roka,
now recovered from his wound, and using a great bow with deadly
accuracy. He and Will at length drew up side by side, and the stout
Indian planted an arrow deep in the side of a bear. Yet the wound was
not fatal, and the animal, first biting at the arrow, then charged. Will
struck with the lance so fiercely that it entered the animal's heart
and, wrenched from his hands, was broken as the great beast fell.

"Behold!" shouted Xingudan in Roka's ear, "he has saved your life even
as he saved mine!"

Not one of the bears escaped, but two of the men lost their lives in the
terrible combat, and the strength of the village was reduced yet
further. The two men, however, had perished nobly and the people felt
triumphant. Will examined the bears by the numerous torchlights. He and
Xingudan and Inmutanka agreed that they were not the true grizzly of the
Montana or Idaho mountains, but, like the first one, much larger beasts
coming out of the far north. Will judged that the largest of them all
weighed a full three-quarters of a ton or more, and a most terrific
creature he was, with great hooked claws as hard as steel and nearly a
foot in length.

"One blow of those would destroy the stoutest warrior, Waditaka," said
Xingudan.

"Our bows and arrows and lances have saved us," said Will. "I think
they've been driven out of the Arctic by the great cold, and have
migrated south in search of food."

"Then they smelled the horses and attacked them."

"Truly so, Xingudan, and they or other wild beasts will come again. The
ponies are our weakest point. The great meat-eating animals will always
attack them."

"But we must keep our ponies, Waditaka. We will need them in the spring
to hunt the buffalo."

"Of course, Xingudan, we must save the ponies."

"How, O Waditaka?"

The youth fel