The bear, Naltan thought, must have been late in going into hibernation for the winter because he had not found enough food. Now a delicious morsel of warm-blooded food was on the trail ahead of him. Now Naltan understood why Beartooth had left the trail; he must have seen the bear ahead on the trail and turned off to escape him. But the hear was not going to be avoided so easily. Naltan suddenly stopped and turned to Ceysoda. “What shall we do if we do come upon the bear and Beartooth?” he asked. “We are not armed with our bows and arrows. We could hardly defend ourselves against such a worthy opponent as a bear. Two young Indians such as we, no matter how brave, would be easy prey for a large bear. Yet we must go on and see if there is any help we can give. To turn back now would certainly mark us as cowards.” Ceysoda did not like the idea of fighting a full-grown bear; yet he liked less the thought of turning his back on danger and returning to the village to meet his friends’ ridicule and his father’s anger for having been so cowardly. They would have trouble enough as it was, for having left the village without letting their parents or friends know where they had gone. Naltan’s voice swung his thoughts back to his present plight. “I have an idea, Ceysoda. Between us we have two knives. Let us cut a couple of stout saplings to use as spears if we should need them. At least we will have some chance, even if it is not a very good one, against the bear.” So the two boys immediately began cutting stout saplings to hack into crude spears—poor weapons against an angry bear, but the best the boys could think of at the moment. When they sharpened the points on their spears, they continued following the very clear trail in the snow. They did not travel as fast now because they sensed a danger lurking ahead of them. They did not know just how far ahead the bear was, whether he was still following Beartooth, or whether he had discovered them. In fact, at this very moment, he might be awaiting them, hidden among the rocks up ahead, which they could plainly see now as they watched the forest in front of them cautiously while following the tracks carefully in the snow.