Not only
did it sever the more easily; but it soon lost the cohesion
needed for resisting any strong pull.
The bear, lurching half-blindly, had reeled out into the open,
below the knoll. 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.
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