What tidings that might ever be received regarding her, must come from the lips of him who had abducted her.

If he could desperately wound the man, he might frighten him into a confession, but then Teddy feared instead of wounding him merely with his rifle, he would kill him altogether if he attempted to shoot.
After a full half-hour's deliberation, Teddy decided upon his course of action.

It was to spring knife in hand directly upon the face of the hunter, pin him to the ground and then force the confession from his lips, under a threat of his life, the Irishman mercifully resolving to slay him at any rate, after he had obtained all that was possible from him.
Teddy did not forget his experience of a few months before when the hunter gave him an involuntary bath in the river.

He therefore held his knife firmly in his right hand.

Now that he had concluded what to do, he lost no time in carrying his plan into execution.
He took a crouching position, such as is assumed by the panther when about to spring upon its prey, and then drawing his breath, he leaped downward.
A yelping howl, an impetuous scratching and struggling of the furious mass that he attempted to inclose in his arms, told Teddy that instead of the hunter, he had pounced down upon an innocent, sleeping bear! It was well for the Irishman that the bear was peaceably inclined, else his search for the lost trail might have terminated then and there.