A sharp click was the only response. Either the cartridge was defective or the weapon was unloaded. Fortunately Leslie was no fool with firearms. He understood the mechanism perfectly. He jerked back the bolt. No cartridge flew from the open breech. The rifle had not been loaded. Hawke, for some unknown reason, had omitted to Be Prepared, and he was even now paying the penalty.
"Where are the cartridges?" shouted the lads in desperation.
Hawke's stifled reply was completely out-voiced by a deep growl from the bear, the pressure of whose enormous and powerful paws was already telling upon its victim.
"The cartridges, man; where are the cartridges?" repeated the lad, in his anxiety getting almost within reach of the terrible bear.
"My pocket," gasped Hawke. "Be quick, for the love of Heaven."
Regardless of the risk, Leslie plunged one hand into the pocket of Hawke's fur coat. His fingers came in contact with the metal cylinders. Even as he did so, he felt a violent blow on the side of his head that sent his fur hood flying a dozen yards. The bear had struck him with terrible force, its cruel talons missing him by the fraction of an inch.
It was then that Guy, who had taken some time to scramble through the arch of ice, threw himself into the fray. Armed only with a short knife, he plunged the blade again and again into the animal's side. Maddened, but not mortally wounded, the animal dropped its first victim and transferred its attention to its second assailant.
Pinned by the bear's fierce grip, Guy was lifted completely off his feet. His knife fell from his grasp. He could feel the brute's hot, sickly breath as it alternately growled and howled with fury and pain.
Rapidly, yet without fumbling, Leslie thrust a cartridge into the rifle. Stepping up till the muzzle almost touched the animal's ear he fired. The small calibre bullet fired at close range was as destructive in its effect as a dum-dum. The bear, making a convulsive movement that very nearly finished Guy's career, toppled heavily upon the ice.
Reloading the rifle, in order to Be Prepared for similar surprises, Leslie laid the weapon on the ice and devoted his immediate attention to the now unconscious Aubrey Hawke.