Oh, God in heaven! fall into the gaping jaws of the enraged animal that was waiting to receive him.

He had led too wicked a life to pray; he did not know a prayer; he could only raise his agonized eyes to the far-off sky, wondering how long his awful torture could last-how long he would be able to hold out—­how long.

He felt his blood slowly turning to ice in his veins, and slowly and surely the dusk deepened and the darkness of another night fell over the world.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

“Some terrible presentiment is warning me that my darling is in danger.”

There never was a night so long that another day did not dawn—­at last—­and when the morrow’s light broke, Halloran was slowly but surely collapsing—­giving himself up to the horrible doom that awaited him—­for the bear had not quitted his position under the tree, nor had he taken his eyes off his intended victim for a single moment.

As the sun rose, Halloran watched it with dazed, bloodshot eyes, exclaiming: 

“Good-by, golden sun, I shall never see you set, nor witness you rise again upon another day.  I—­” the sentence was never finished, for over the snowy waste rang a voice like a bugle blast: 

“Keep quiet, take heart, help is at hand; I am going to shoot the animal and deliver you,” and simultaneously with the voice four shots in rapid succession rang out upon the early morning air.

There was a wild howl of pain, a terrible roaring bellow, a sudden dash toward a dark figure hurriedly approaching, two more shots, and the bear rolled over dying beyond power to harm, his red blood dyeing the white snow in great pools.  Halloran knew no more.  His strength and endurance seemed suddenly to leave him, darkness closed in about him, his hold loosened and he fell backward down, down through space.

He did not know that a pair of strong arms caught him, thus saving him from a broken neck.  When he opened his eyes a few moments later, to his intense surprise he found Lester Armstrong bending over him, and the sight rendered him fairly dumb with amazement.

Before he could ask questions that sprang to his lips, Lester explained to him that owing to the dampness of the place, the fire Halloran had kindled had quickly gone out, thus saving the young man from being burned to death.  He told him, too, why death had not come to him through starvation, as had been intended, and that it had taken him all that time to force apart the links of the chain, when he found that there was no one to hear or prevent, no matter how much noise he made in so doing.

He had seen the revolver, which had been forgotten, and little imagining it would be of such vital use, had thrust it in his pocket and started forth to make his way back to New York, when he unexpectedly came upon the scene of the bear under the tree, and a fellow-being in deadly peril.