Faster and faster he crashed downward, tearing out small bushes and trees as he went under his huge weight. At last everything grew silent, and Jack looked over the edge of the gulch.
At the bottom, half hidden among the avalanche of brush he had brought with him, lay the carcass of the huge grizzly—quite dead, it seemed, for when Jack hurled down a stone he never moved.
At the same instant Pete sat up, a puzzled expression on his face.
"Am I dead?" he inquired.
"No, thanks to old Maud!" shouted Jack, joyously flinging his arms about Pete and doing a war dance of exultation. "She's the best one-eared mule in the world!"
"That's right," agreed Pete solemnly, after he had been made acquainted with the happenings of the last few moments, for he had lost consciousness in the bear's mighty hug.
"And say, Pete," said Jack in a choky voice, "I understand what you did, old man, and——"
His voice broke, and tears came into his eyes as he thought of Pete's act of self-sacrifice.
"Aw blazes," said Pete, with a bit of a quaver in his own tones, "that's all right. But look at Maud, will you?"
That intelligent animal, with her one ear cocked erect as if in triumph, had thrown back her head and opened her mouth.