The boys dug their spurs into the trembling mustangs, who responded with a snort of pain and plunged into the thicket. Only the bold skill of the riders saved them from pitching sidewise down the steep slope, despite the brush, for they were unshod and their knees had weakened. But the grizzly, alas! was still master of the situation. In less than a moment the boys saw him lumbering along above them. He evidently had possession of a trail, more or less level. "Dios de mi alma!" cried Adan. "If he gets ahead of us he will come down and meet us somewhere. 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. What are you doing, my friend?" Roldan had dismounted and was on his hands and knees. In a half moment he stood erect. "We are saved," he said. "Ay? What?" "It is a hole, my friend--large and deep and round. Did you put any meat in your saddle-bags?" "Ay, a good piece." "Raw?" "Yes." "Give it to me--quick. Do not unwrap it." Adan handed over the meat, then dismounted also. "A bear-trap?" he asked. "Yes, a natural one. Come this way, before I unwrap the meat."