"And Niels stabbed it eighteen times with his knife before it fell!"
"Mercy! what a bear!"
And the children ran so that the sweat poured down from their faces.
Finally they reached the place. Ole Böen pushed the door open and got in first.
"Have a care!" cried Hans after him.
Marit and a little girl that Thorvald and Hans had led between them, were the next ones, and then came Thorvald, who did not go far forward, but remained standing where he could observe the whole scene.
"See the blood!" said he to Hans.
The others hardly knew whether they should venture in just yet.
"Do you see it?" asked a girl of a boy, who stood by her side in the door.
"Yes, it is as large as the captain's large horse," answered he, and went on talking to her. It was bound with iron chains, he said, and had even broken the one that had been put about its fore-legs. He could see distinctly that it was alive, and the blood was flowing from it like a waterfall.