It suffused his eyes with a red film and sounded like thunder in
his ears. Then the flood receded and left him cold as ice. He was himself
again, cool, self-reliant, with his mental processes working like
lightning.
He had no time to unfasten the canoe. Long before he could get in and
push off, the bear would have been on top of him. The beast was not more
than thirty feet away and two or three more lunges would bring him to the
water's edge.
Bert's first impulse was to dive into the lake and seek to escape by
swimming. But this he discarded at once. Fast as he was, he knew that
the grizzly could outswim him.
With a quick turn to the left, he plunged into the woods, running like a
deer. The bear lost a second or two in trying to check his momentum. Then
he turned also and went crashing through the underbrush in pursuit.
Had the going been open Bert might have made good his escape. His legs
and wind had once won him a Marathon from the fleetest flyers of the
world. But here conditions were against him. Vines reached out to trip
him. Impenetrable thickets turned him aside.
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