"Now I wonder if you're the same disreputable citizens that tried
to make a free lunch counter of me last night?" George mused. "I
presume you're hungry, all right, but I'd rather not be the person
to do the feeding this morning. You look too fierce for me, both
of you."
The smell of blood evidently excited the bears to unusual feats of
courage, for they entered the mouth of the cavern and stood
growling and showing their teeth within a short distance of where
George stood.
Only for the great blaze which now leaped almost to the roof of the
cavern, the boy would have been attacked at once. He glanced at
the rapidly decreasing pile of wood, and wondered what would take
place as soon as the fire had died down. He had no weapon with
which to defend himself.
For at least a quarter of an hour the bears and the lad gazed at
each other through the red light of the fire. The bears were
gradually moving forward, and every time the lad laid a stick of
wood on the blaze they seemed to understand more fully that his
defense was weakening.
George thought he had never seen wood burn away so fast. The blaze
seemed to melt it as boiling water melts ice.
Already the blaze was dropping lower, and the pile of wood was
almost gone.
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