ve had proceeded a distance of fifty yards into the patch of firs when
he came to a halt. A peculiar sound to his left had caught his ears. He
had never heard such a sound before and he wondered what it was.

"Must have been some bird--or a wild animal," he murmured, after he had
listened for some time. "There ought to be many kinds of small wild
animals in a place like this."

He proceeded on his way again, but a dozen steps further came to another
halt. Something lay in the snow at his feet. It was a fur glove. He
picked it up, looked it over, and then, in his agitation, dropped it.

The glove was stained with blood!

"Can that be father's glove?" he thought. "And if it is, how does it
happen that it is covered with blood?"

A shiver ran down his backbone that was not caused by the cold, and for
the minute he could hardly move. He tried to call once more, but his
throat was so dry he could scarcely make a sound. Again from a distance
came that peculiar noise, low and muttering. He now recognized it as a
growl, but whether of a dog or a wild beast he could not determine. He
brought out the pistol he had placed in his pocket and held it ready for
use.

"Footprints!" The word came from his lips involuntarily. He had reached
a spot where the snow was only a few inches deep, and here the
footprints of a man were plainly to be seen. They led through the belt
of firs and then towards the jagged rocks at the base of a high cliff.

Again that suspicious growl reached him, and now Dave saw a dark object
just as it disappeared around a corner of rock close to some brushwood.

"Was that a beast or a man crawling in the snow?" he asked himself.
"That sound came from an animal, but the thing didn't look like a
beast."

He went on, more cautiously than ever. Then he heard a sudden cry that
made every nerve in his body tingle:

"Get back there! Get back, you brute!"

It was a man's voice, weak and exhausted, trying to keep off some wild
beast. Then came a low growl, followed by the discharge of a pistol, and
a few seconds later there came running toward Dave a full-grown bear,
growling savagely and wagging its shaggy head from side to side. The
youth was surprised but not taken off his guard, and as the animal came
closer he leveled his weapon, took aim, and pulled the trigger. The bear
had raised up on its hind legs and the bullet took it straight in the
breast, inflicting a bad but not a mortal wound. Then Dave started