short, and lay quivering on the ground like a huge wounded snake. Roldan
gave an exclamation, of surprise as much as of dismay: he was an expert
with the rope. He turned, however, dragging it in. It caught about the
mustang's hind legs. The beast went down, neighing with horror. Roldan
tried to jerk him to his feet. He seemed hopelessly entangled. Roldan
extricated himself, knowing that he was comparatively safe, as bears
prefer horse-meat to man's. He had no sooner got his feet free of the
boots than the mustang leaped to his feet and fled like a hare, dragging
the lariat in a straight line after him.

Roldan was alone, the bear not ten yards away. The rest of his party
were a mile and more behind. No one apparently had noticed his flight
with the solitary bear. The light was uncertain and the excitement over
there intense.

Roldan took to his agile young heels. But the bear gathered himself and
leaped, not once but several times. There was no doubt that his blood
was up, and that he meant a duel to the death. Roldan turned with a
catching of what breath was left in him. He mechanically drew his knife
from its pocket and flourished it at the advancing bear. Bruin cared as
little for steel as for rope. He came on with a mighty growl.

Roldan gave one rapid glance about. There was not even a tree in sight.
From his point of departure an object seemed approaching, but it was too
dark to tell as yet whether it was a horseman or another bear. The brute
was almost on him, panting mightily. All the senses between Roldan's
skeleton and his skin concentrated in the determination to live. He
sprang forward and plunged his long knife into the protruding injected
eye of the bear, then leaped aside, his dripping knife in his hand, and
danced about the maddened beast with the agility of a modern prize-