lar
intervals I saw the dull glow of the tobacco in the bowl as our sentry
kept patient watch over us.

"Esau," I said at last, "do you feel any pain?"

There was no reply.

"Esau, can you feel anything now?" I said.

Still no reply, and I began to be startled there in that intense
darkness where it took so little to excite one's imagination. Had he
after all been seriously hurt by the bear, and now sunk into a state of
insensibility?

"Esau!" I whispered again, but still there was no reply; so half rising
I reached over to touch his face, which was comfortably warm, and I
heard now his regular hard breathing. For a few minutes I could not
feel satisfied, but by degrees I grew convinced Esau was sleeping
heavily, and at last I lay down too, and dropped off soundly asleep as
he. How long I had been in the land of dreams I did not know till next
day, when I found from Gunson that it must have been about a couple of
hours, and then I awoke with a start, and the idea that the bear had
come back and seized me, till the voice of our companion bidding me get
up relieved me of that dread.

"What is the matter?"

"Look," he cried.

I was already looking at a blaze of light, and listening to a fierce
crackling noise. There before me was one of the great pine-trees with
the lower part burning, and clouds of smoke rolling up. "But how--what
was it set it on fire?"

"Ask Quong," said Gunson gruffly, as he stood by me with the glow from
the fire lighting him up from top to toe, and bringing the trees and
rocks about us into view.

"Me only put fire light when bear go, leady for make water velly hot,"
said the little Chinaman, dolefully; "fire lun along and set alight."

"Yes, you couldn't help it," said Gunson. "The dry fir-needles must
have caught, and gone on smouldering till they reached a branch which
touched the ground, and then the fire ran along it like a flash."

"But can't we put it out?" I cried, excitedly, as the boughs of the
huge green pyramid began to catch one after the other.

"Put it out!" he said, with a half laugh. "Yes; send Dean there for the
nearest fire-engine. There's plenty of water. I did try at first while
you were asleep, and burned myself."

"But--"

"Oh, let it burn," he said, carelessly. "It stands alone, and a tree
more or less does not signify in these regions. A hundred more will
spring up from the ashes."

I stood silently gazing at the wondrous sight, as the huge