In going down this wooded slope, the smaller size of the boy gave him considerable advantage.  Yet, so well did the grizzly succeed that he reached the spot less than twenty feet in his rear, and, heading directly for him, at once proceeded to decrease the distance still further.  This placed the question of escape by superior speed upon the part of the lad as among the impossibilities, and it began to look very much as if his race were run.

At this juncture, as if all the fates had combined against him, Fred, while glancing backward over his shoulder, stumbled and fell.  He sprang up as hastily as possible, but the loss of ground was irreparable.  As he looked back he saw that the colossal beast was so close that it seemed that one sweep of his paw would smite the terrified fugitive from the face of the earth.

It was a critical moment indeed, and the crack of the rifle from the wood, which the pursuer and pursued had just left, was not a breath of time too soon.  Aimed by one who knew the vulnerable points of such a creature, and by someone whose skill was unsurpassed, the leaden messenger crashed its way through bone and muscle to the seat of life.  The brute, which was ready to fall upon and devour the young fugitive, pitched heavily forward and rolled upon the ground in the throes of death.

Fred did not realize his delivery until he had gone some distance further and looked back and saw the black mass motionless upon the ground.  After some hesitation, he then turned and walked distrustfully back to where it lay.

He found the beast stone-dead, a rill of blood from beneath the fore-leg showing where some one’s bullet had done the business.  The lad recalled the sound of the gun which had reached his ear.

“That was the best shot for me that Mickey ever made,” he muttered, looking around for his friend.

But he was nowhere to be seen.

“Mickey must always have his fun,” added Fred after failing to detect him.  “Instead of coming out at once and letting me know how he came to do it, he fires the lucky shot, and then waits to see how I will act.  My gracious! he is a bouncer!”

This last remark was excited by the carcass, which he kicked, and which shook like a mountainous mass of jelly; and as he passed around it he gained a fair idea of the immense proportions of the bear, in whose grasp he would have been as helpless as in that of a royal Bengal tiger.

“Whew! but he came mighty close to me!  When I fell down I expected to feel his paws on me before I could get up.  In a few seconds more it would have been all up with me.”

Several minutes passed, and nothing was seen of the Irishman, whereupon the lad concluded he might as well go back and gather the wood, which would be needed at the camp-fire.

“I wonder if there’s any more of them,” he muttered, as he began picking his way among the rocks.  “If there are, why Mickey must look out for me.”