Ruth had already started on. She did not wish to have any words with The Fox. A rod or more separated her from her mates. Out of an aperture heretofore unnoticed, and between Ruth and the other girls, was thrust the shaggy head and shoulders of a huge animal.
“A dog!” cried Madge.
“It’s a wolf!” shrieked Mary Cox.
But the Western girl knew instantly what the creature was. “Run, Ruthie!” she shouted. “I’ll call Jib and the boys. It’s a bear!”
And at that moment Bruin waddled fully out of the hole—a huge, hairy, sleepy looking beast. He was between Ruth and her friends, and his awkward body blocked the path by which they were climbing to the summit of the natural bridge.
“Wu-uh-uh-uff!” said the bear, and swung his head and huge shoulders from the group of four girls to the lone girl above him.
“Run, Ruth!” shrieked Helen.
Her cry seemed to startle the ursine marauder. He uttered another grunt of expostulation and started up the steep path. Nobody needed to advise Ruth to run a second time. She scrambled up the rocks with an awful fear clutching at her heart and the sound in her ears of the bear’s sabre-like claws scratching over the path!
CHAPTER XII—THE MAN FROM TINTACKER
Ruth was just as scared as she could be. Although the bear did not seem particularly savage, there surely was not room enough on the path for him and Ruth to pass. The beast was ragged and gray looking. His little eyes twinkled and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, like that of an ox when it is plowing. Aside from a grunt, or two, he made at first no threatening manifestation.