"I see something moving over the snow on that mountain!" she cried a little excitedly. "It is hurrying toward the summit—just under the skyline! What is it?"
Aldous and MacDonald looked toward the ridge. Fully a mile away, almost even with the skyline now, a small dark object was moving over the white surface of the snow.
"It ain't a goat," said MacDonald, "because a goat is white, and we couldn't see it on the snow. It ain't a sheep, 'cause it's too dark, an' movin' too slow. It must be a bear, but why in the name o' sin a bear would be that high, I don't know!"
He jumped up and ran for his telescope.
"A grizzly," whispered Joanne tensely. "Would it be a grizzly, John?"
"Possibly," he answered. "Indeed, it's very likely. This is a grizzly country. If we hurry you can get a look at him through the telescope."
MacDonald was already studying the object through his long glass when they joined him.
"It's a bear," he said.
"Please—please let me look at him," begged Joanne.
The dark object was now almost on the skyline. Half A minute more and it would pass over and out of sight. MacDonald still held his eye to the telescope, as though he had not heard Joanne. Not until the moving object had crossed the skyline, and had disappeared, did he reply to her.