questioning the fact that she could run. Bruin gathered
himself together and made after her. Now, to look at a
bear running, one would not imagine he was going at any
great rate; his long, lumbering strides seem laboured,
to say the least of it, but in reality he covers the
ground so quickly that it takes a very fast horse indeed
to keep pace with him.

Before Dorothy had got half-way to the hut, she knew she
was being closely pursued. She could hear the hungry
brute behind her breathing hard. At length she reached
the hut, but the door was shut. She threw herself against
it and wrenched at the handle, which must have been put
on upside down to suit some whim of the owners, for it
would not turn. The bear was close upon her, so with a
sob of despair she passed on round the house. Next moment
she found herself confronted with a log wall and in a
species of _cul-de-sac_. Oh! the horror of that moment!
But there was a barrel lying on its side against the wall
of the hut Afterwards she marvelled how she could have
done it, but she sprang on to it, and, gripping the bare
poles that constituted the eaves of the shanty, leapt
upwards. Her breast rested on the low sod roof; another
effort and she was on it. The barrel was pushed from her
on springing, and, rolling out of harm's way, she realised
that for her it had been a record jump. The vital question
now was, could the bear follow?

She raised herself on hands and knees among the soft,
wet snow, and looked down apprehensively at the enemy.

What she saw would at any other time have made her laugh
heartily, but the situation was still too serious to be
mirthful. There, a few paces from the hut, seated on his
haunches and looking up at her with a look of angry
remonstrance on his old-fashioned face, was Bruin. His
mouth was open, his under jaw was drooping with palpable
disappointment, and his small dark eyes were gleaming
with an evil purpose. That he had used up all his
superfluous fat in his long winter's sleep was obvious,
judging by his lanky, slab-like sides. His long hair
looked very bedraggled and dirty. He certainly seemed
remarkably hungry, even for a bear. There was no gainsaying
the fact that he was wide awake now.

Dorothy rose to her feet and glanced quickly around.
Particularly she looked up the trail in the direction
taken by her father and the others, but the dark, close
pines, and a bluff prevented her from seeing any distance.
She could hear noth