He reached out to the rocks and secured his rifle. When he turned back he was just in time to see a gray form at the bear’s throat. The wolf hung on while the big animal beat the air helplessly with his paws.
Bang!
Sandy’s rifle cracked and the wolf dropped to the ground. But the others hardly seemed to notice the intervention of the bear’s ally. So numerous were they, that their ranks appeared to be hardly thinned by their losses.
Again and again, unbaffled by the tremendous courage and the sweeping blows of their adversary, they returned to the attack. Again and again, too, did Sandy’s rifle crack, and each time a wolf drew his last breath. The battle was beginning to tell on the wolves as well as on the bear. Their leaders were gone. The pack began to fight in desultory fashion.
The bear’s blows were feebler, but since that desperate assault on his throat, the wolves had not had the courage to close with him. Sandy’s rifle completed their rout. At last they appeared to realize that they were pitted against the terrible fire tube of the white man as well as the steel-shod paws of the bear. They wavered, broke ranks and then, as if by a concerted resolution, they turned tail.
Straight for the forest they sped, while the bear, flinging his big bulk down on the snow began licking his wounds. Sandy looked down upon him. The big creature was an easy shot, pitifully easy, and his skin would make a fine trophy. Sandy raised his rifle to his shoulder and aimed it. He put it down and raised it again. But again his resolution failed him. “No, old fellow,” he exclaimed aloud, “you helped me fight those gray demons and for all of me, you shall go where you like unharmed.”
It was late afternoon before the wounded bear rose slowly to his feet, and without a backward glance shuffled off toward the south. Sandy watched him going across the snows for a long time. He was glad he had not shot him.
He turned from the trail of the wounded bear toward the north once more, and as he did so a shout burst from his lips.
Coming toward him over the snow were the figures of two men. With them was a dog sleigh, and they were traveling fast on a course that would bring them past the rocks.
Ten minutes later Sandy recognized in the travelers his uncle and the latter’s partner, Mr. Colton Chillingworth.