He at least would not break the spell.
"You look almost as if you could talk, old fellow," he said to himself, "and if I knew your language I'd ask you a lot of questions." The bear, too, was motionless now, torn by doubt and curiosity.

It certainly was a singular figure that sat there, fifteen or twenty yards before him, and he had the most intense curiosity to solve the mystery of this creature.

But caution held him back.
There was a sudden flaw in the light breeze.

It shifted about and brought the dreadful man odor to the nostrils of the honest black bear.
It was something entirely new to him, but it contained the quality of fear.

That still strange figure was his deadliest foe.