The animal crouched back, and then turned with a frightful howl.
A sudden, clicking snap echoed on the air, and the bear seemed struggling and floundering in a strange way.
“The trap!” cried Will, wildly.
His excited words expressed the bear’s dilemma. Bruin, enraged and retreating, had walked into the very snare he had before avoided.
He was foaming with rage, and, his hind legs firmly caught between the clamps of the immense steel trap set at the mouth of the cave, was struggling wildly to release himself.
With a shout of relief and joy, Will darted past the imprisoned bear and into the open air.
He found Tom Dalton standing staring at the bear in open-mouthed wonderment.
The trap was secured by an iron chain around a tree, and, although it allowed bruin a certain range of action, it held him a prisoner.
Tom was struck on the arm, and came very near within the bear’s floundering grasp, but Will pulled him aside in time to avoid a crushing blow from the animal’s heavy paw.
Will entertained his companion with a vivid account of his adventure.