The breath seemed to go out of the man. Bruce shook him by the shoulders. Dave, still in the tree, strained to hear the rest. "Yes--where?" "It's hidden--just--out--" The words were no longer audible to Dave, and what followed Bruce also strained to hear in vain. The lips ceased moving. The shadow grew in the eyes, and the lids flickered down over them. A traveler had gone. Bruce got up, a strange, cold light in his eyes. He glanced up. Dave Turner was climbing slowly down the tree. Bruce made six strides and seized his rifle. The effect on Dave was ludicrous. He clung fast to the tree limbs, as if he thought a bullet--like a grizzly's claws--could not reach him there. Bruce laid the gun behind him, then stood waiting with his own weapon resting in his arms. "Come down, Dave," he commanded. "The bear is gone." Dave crept down the trunk and halted at its base. He studied the cold face before him. "Better not try nothing," he advised hoarsely. "Why not?" Bruce asked. "Do you think I'm afraid of a coward?" The man started at the words; his head bobbed backward as if Bruce had struck him beneath the jaw with his fist. "People don't call the Turners cowards and walk off with it," the man told him. "Oh, the lowest coward!" Bruce said between set teeth. "The yellowest, mongrel coward! Your own confederate--and you had to drop your gun and run up a tree. You might have stopped the bear's charge." Dave's face twisted in a scowl. "You're brave enough now. Wait to see what happens later. Give me my gun. I'm going to go." "You can go, but you don't get your gun. I'll fill you full of lead if you try to touch it." Dave looked up with some care. He wanted to know for certain if this tenderfoot meant what he said. The man was blind in some things, his vision was twisted and dark, but he made no mistake about the look on the cold, set face before him. Bruce's finger was curled about the trigger, and it looked to Dave as if it itched to exert further pressure. "I don't see why I spare you, anyway," Bruce went on. His tone was self-reproachful. "God knows I hadn't ought to--remembering who and what you are. If you'd only give me one little bit of provocation--" Dave saw lurid lights growing in the man's eyes; and all at once a conclusion came to him. He decided he'd make no further effort to regain the gun. His life was rather precious to him, strangely, and it was wholly plain that a dread and terrible passion was slowly creeping over his enemy. He could see it in the darkening face, the tight grip of the hands on the rifle stock. His own sharp features grew more cunning. "You ought to be glad I didn't stop the bear with my rifle," he said hurriedly. "I had Hudson bribed--you wouldn't have found out something that you did find out if he hadn't lain here dying. You wouldn't have learned--"