"I reckon there isn't much animal life left in these parts now, at any rate," Andy Sudds said. "I don't see what we're going to do if something doesn't turn up for food. We're going to be on short commons." Wash had set his "bird cage," as the oil man called the Shanghai's coop, within the warmth of the fire, and the rooster evidently felt the grateful glow of the flames. He had been picking up some corn that Wash flung him, grain by grain. Now he suddenly stopped, raised his head, and uttered a loud and apparently frightened squawk. "What dat?" demanded the darkey, his eyes rolling. "Buttsy hear sumpin'--he suah do." "What do you reckon he hears?" queried Jack, idly. "I dunno dat. But he's some disturbed--yo' kin see it's so," returned Washington, nervously. "Does yo' hear anything yit?" "You think he can smell out an enemy, do you?" chuckled Jack. "He done gotter great head, Buttsy has," declared the black man. "If dere is anyt'ing prowlin' aroun' permiscuous like, he's de boy to hear 'em--yes, sah!" "By the same token it was a flock of geese that saved Rome," Mark said. Wash had his back to the thick clump of firs. Jack was facing him. Suddenly the boy, raising his eyes to look across the fire at the darkey, beheld a huge black object rise out of the brush directly in Washington's rear. One glance told Jack what the creature was. There was no mistaking the gleaming eyes, the pointed, slobbering muzzle, and the hairy, yellowish breast of the gigantic Kodiak bear as it poised its huge body over the unconscious darkey. Like a ghost the bear had crept to the camp of the explorers and was now on the eve of an attack, totally unheralded! CHAPTER XX THE HEROISM OF THE SHANGHAI ROOSTER Jack Darrow was the only person in the group around the campfire who at first saw the huge bear. And he was so startled that for a breath he did not know what it was best to do. To shriek out in alarm would neither save the darkey nor frighten off the bear. The Shanghai rooster settled down with a half-stifled squawk in the bottom of his coop. Without doubt the bird saw the bear and realized that his life was in peril. "What de matter wid yo'?" demanded Washington, rolling his eyes and beginning to look scared himself. Jack's mouth was dry and he had to wet his lips before he could as much as whisper. Only a few seconds had elapsed since the bear rose into view behind the darkey; but it seemed to Jack as though an eternity had passed. His whispered words were for the old hunter, whom he knew was always alert. "Andy! Your rifle!" The brown claw of the old hunter was never far from the grip of his gun when he lay before a campfire. Jack saw the hand clamp upon the weapon even before Sudds rolled over. "What's up, Jack?" he whispered. "Behind Wash--quick!" No need to tell the hunter to be quick. He was on his knees and the gun was at his shoulder in the twinkling of an eye.