"Ay, thou fearless one! Why, it is said that if the grizzly even raises his paw and slaps the face every feature is crushed out of shape."
"I should not be surprised."
They plunged on, tearing their clothes on the spiked brush and the thorns of the sweetbrier, fragrant lilac petals falling in a shower about them, great ferns trodden and rebounding. The air was heavy with perfume and the pungent odour of redwood and pine.
Roldan had passed Adan. Suddenly his horse stumbled and would have gone headlong had not his expert rider pulled him back on his haunches.
"What is it? What is it?" cried Adan, who also had been obliged to pull in abruptly, and who liked horses less when they stood on their hind legs. "Is it the bear upon us? But, no, I hear him—above and beyond. What are you doing, my friend?"
Roldan had dismounted and was on his hands and knees. In a half moment he stood erect.
"We are saved," he said.
"Ay? What?"
"It is a hole, my friend—large and deep and round. Did you put any meat in your saddle-bags?"
"Ay, a good piece."