they could do
nothing better than wait for the night, in hopes that the darkness might
bring about something in their favour.

Night soon came on, but not darkness. It chanced to be a clear
moonlight; and they saw at once that it would then be quite as perilous
to go down the ravine as it had been during the day. They could hear
the snorting and growling of the monster below; and they knew she still
held the pass. Should they attempt to descend, she would discover them
long before they could get down. She could hear them clambering among
the rocks and bushes. The advantage would be hers, as she could attack
them unawares. Besides, even had the coast been quite clear, they would
have found it difficult to get down the steep descent in the night.
They dared not attempt it. After much deliberation, therefore, they
resolved to wait for the morning.

Throughout all the live-long night they kept awake. They heard their
steeds neighing below--wondering, poor brutes, what had become of their
masters. The hinny of Jeanette echoed wildly from the cliffs, and was
answered by the bark and howl of the prairie-wolf. These sounds,
together with the more ominous snort of the bear, kept sleep from the
eyes of our adventurers. They dared not go to sleep, unless by perching
themselves in the trees; as they knew not the moment the bear might come
up to the summit. Sleeping upon the slender branch of a mountain pine
is more painful than pleasant; and all three preferred keeping awake.

Morning broke at length. The first light showed that the shaggy
sentinel was still at her post. She sat upon the same spot, as though
she was guarding her dead offspring. The young hunters, but
particularly Basil, began to grow impatient. They were hungry, though
there were still left some fragments of the wild mutton, which they
could have eaten. But they were thirsty as well. The juice of the
cactus allayed, but did not quench, their thirst. They longed for a
draught of cool water from the spring below. The buffaloes, too, were
gone northward, "on the run." They might never overtake them. They
might never again have such an opportunity of procuring that for which
they had endured all this suffering. These thoughts influenced all
three, but Basil more than any. Some attempt must be made to reach the
plain, and escape from their elevated prison.

Basil proposed provoking the bear, by firing upon her. She would pursue
them, he urg