We shall be lost--eaten even as a cat eats a
mouse, a coyote a chicken."
"You will look well lining the dark corridors of the bear, my friend.
Your yellow jacket with those large red roses, which would make a bull
sweat, would hang like tapestry in the houses of Spain. Those hide
boots, spotted with mud, and the blood of the calf, would keep him from
wanting another meal for many a long day--"
"Ay, thou fearless one! Why, it is said that if the grizzly even raises
his paw and slaps the face every feature is crushed out of shape."
"I should not be surprised."
They plunged on, tearing their clothes on the spiked brush and the
thorns of the sweetbrier, fragrant lilac petals falling in a shower
about them, great ferns trodden and rebounding. The air was heavy with
perfume and the pungent odour of redwood and pine.
Roldan had passed Adan. Suddenly his horse stumbled and would have gone
headlong had not his expert rider pulled him back on his haunches.
"What is it? What is it?" cried Adan, who also had been obliged to pull
in abruptly, and who liked horses less when they stood on their hind
legs. "Is it the bear upon us? But, no, I hear him--above and beyond.
Pages:
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33