There, panting and grunting, he turned to blink at the oncoming fire and to get his direction.

For perhaps a half-minute he stood thus; or made little futile rushes from side to side.

And this breathing space was taken up by Lad in the gnawing of the rope.
Then, while the collie was still toiling over the hempen mouthfuls, the bear seemed to recover his own wonted cleverness; and to realize his whereabouts.

Straight up the hillock he charged, toward the lean-to; his splay feet dislodging innumerable surface stones from the rocky steep; and sending them behind him in a series of tiny avalanches.
Lad, one eye ever on his foe, saw the onrush.

Fiercely he redoubled his efforts to bite through the rope, before the bear should be upon him.
But the task was not one to be achieved in a handful of seconds.
Moving with a swiftness amazing for an animal of his clumsy bulk, the bear swarmed up the hillock.