When no more than the length of a yardstick separated them there came a
pause. For perhaps thirty seconds they were like two angry men, each trying
to strike terror to the other's heart by the steadiness of his look.
Muskwa shook as if with the ague, and whined--softly and steadily he
whined, and the whine reached Thor's ears. What happened after that began
so quickly that Muskwa was struck dumb with terror, and he lay flattened
out on the earth as motionless as a stone.
With that grinding, snarling grizzly roar, which is unlike any other animal
cry in the world, Thor flung himself at the black. The black reared a
little--just enough to fling himself backward easily as they came together
breast to breast. He rolled upon his back, but Thor was too old a fighter
to be caught by that first vicious ripping stroke of the black's hind foot,
and he buried his four long flesh-rending teeth to the bone of his enemy's
shoulder. At the same time he struck a terrific cutting stroke with his
left paw.
Thor was a digger, and his claws were dulled; the black was not a digger,
but a tree-climber, and his claws were like knives. And like knives they
buried themselves in Thor's wounded shoulder, and the blood spurted forth
afresh.
With a roar that seemed to set the earth trembling, the huge grizzly lunged
backward and reared himself to his full nine feet.
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