CHAPTER XIXTHE HUNTERS HUNTED
Withthe rising of the sun the young pioneers felt once more like themselves. The dangers of the night were past, and they imagined that but little could come to disturb them until darkness had once again set in.
“It has got to be a bear to-day,” said Harry. “If it isn’t I shall be much disappointed.”
“Reckon we’ll have to take what comes,” answered Joe. Still he wanted to bring down a bear as much as did his chum.
They resolved to strike out to the westward, over the ridge and toward a hill topped with a heavy growth of timber. Here was a series of rough rocks which, according to Harry’s idea, would make an ideal hiding place for a bear.
They set out on their snowshoes, and it was not long before the ridge was gained, and then they started directly for the hill, at a point where there was something of a gorge or gully, where in the summer time flowed a deep brook. Butthis watercourse was now frozen over, and the surface was covered with snow ten feet in depth.
A light breeze was blowing, otherwise the weather was as it had been the day before. The way up the hill was rather hard, and having reached the top they were glad enough to sit down on a fallen tree and rest.
Thus quarter of an hour went by, and they were on the point of resuming their journey when Joe caught sight of something moving through the timber on the other side of the hill.
“Harry, what do you make out that to be?” he whispered.
His chum took a careful look.
“I believe it’s a bear!”
“That is just what I was thinking.”
“If it’s a bear, how are we to get up to him?”
“We had better skulk along behind the trees. I can go to the right, and you can go to the left. But don’t fire until you are sure of what you are aiming at.”
“All right.”
With their guns before them the two young hunters left the vicinity of the fallen log, and proceeded in the direction of the object. They soon separated a distance of a hundred feet.
It was not long before Joe made out the object to be a black bear beyond any doubt. The bigfellow was lumbering along clumsily as if either tired or wounded. As a matter of fact he had been in a fight with some other wild animals the day before, and had received severe nips in the shoulder and the left foreleg.
It was not long before the bear saw that he was being pursued, and then he started off on something of a gallop through the snow, sending the latter flying in all directions.
“Fire on him!” shouted Joe, and let drive, followed immediately by his companion.
Both shots took effect, but neither was serious, and they only caused the bear to utter a savage roar of pain and rage. He turned as if to attack Harry.
“Look out, he is coming for you!” yelled Joe, who was reloading with all possible speed.
At the sound of his voice the bear turned and, seeing Joe, paused. Then he changed his course.
“He is coming for you!” screamed Harry. “Get out of the way, unless you want to be hugged to death!”
Joe had scarcely time enough to throw some powder and a bullet into his rifle, and fix the priming, when the huge black beast made a leap for him. Crack! went the firearm, and the bear was struck on the side of the neck. With a snort ofpain he stopped once more, then turned and hurried away as before.
By the time Harry was ready to fire again the bear was out of reach of his gun, behind a growth of trees and brushwood. He was keeping to a stretch of ground swept clear of snow by the wind. When the boys reached the timber he had disappeared in the vicinity of a pile of rocks.
“More than likely his den is in there,” said Joe. “We want to go slow now, or we’ll fall into a trap.”
The tracks of the bear were plainly to be seen. They led over the very roughest of the rocks, where it was utterly impossible to follow with snowshoes.
“We’ll have to take the shoes off and strap them to our backs,” said Joe, and this they did, keeping an eye open for the black bear in the meantime.
The rocks were covered with slippery ice, and both had not progressed far before they began to slide in one direction or another.
“Take care,” said Harry. “Give me your hand,” and they moved forward holding tightly to each other.
All might have gone well had not the bear suddenly appeared when least expected. This caused the young pioneers to start back, and both losttheir balance and slipped from the rocks to an opening far below.
“Help! help!” cried Harry, and then plunged into a snowbank, with Joe after him.
When the boys recovered from the shock, they found themselves under the side of a large sloping rock. In front of them was the snowbank that had probably saved each from a broken neck. Behind them was a rough opening, leading partly between and partly under the rock.
“Are yo—you all—all right?” panted Joe, when he could catch his breath.
“I—I reck—reckon so,” was the answer. “I—I aint sure yet,” and Harry shook himself to find out if any bones were broken.
“It looks to me as if the bear was hunting us instead of us hunting the bear,” went on Joe grimly.
“Do you see anything of him now?”
“No.”
Harry had lost his gun in the snow, and it took a minute to find this and put on a fresh priming. Then both kept a sharp lookout for the bear, but the animal did not appear.
“What shall we do next?” asked Joe, rather blankly.
“Well, one thing is certain, Joe, we can’t stay down here all day.”
“Do you think the bear is up there above us?”
“I shouldn’t be surprised.”
After another wait Joe proceeded to explore the opening behind them. He found it of no great depth, with a passageway leading upward between two of the larger rocks.
Just as he made this discovery he made another, more important. The black bear was squeezing his way downward through the passageway!
“He is coming down after us, Harry!”
“Where?”
“Back here! Come, let us both give him another shot!”
Joe already had his gun leveled, and he blazed away the moment his chum was beside him. Harry followed suit, filling the small opening with dense smoke.
A roar followed the shots, ringing loudly in their ears in that confined space. As they could no longer see the bear they took no chances, but leaped back into the snowbank, and then began to scramble up the rocks as fast as they could. Joe reached the top first, and gave a willing hand to his companion.
The first work of the young pioneers was to reload once more. In the meanwhile they heard several roars and grunts from the bear, the sound reaching them as from under the ground.
“If he backs out, we can give him two more shots in his hind quarters,” said Harry. “Those ought to finish him unless he is as tough as sole leather.”
They waited for the appearance of the bear, but the animal did not show himself. Something like a prolonged grunt came up to them, and after that all was quiet.
“Do you think we really killed him after all?” came from Harry, as he attempted to look into the opening from the top.
“It’s possible. But let us wait a while, and see if he makes another move.”
Five—ten—fifteen minutes passed, and at last they came to the conclusion that the game must be either dead or mortally wounded.
“I’m going to poke into the hole and see,” said Joe. “I’ll do it with the muzzle of the gun, so if he has turned around he’ll get the ball directly down his throat.”
With caution he approached the opening, and poked down into it with his firearm. At first he could feel nothing. Then he grew more daring, and crawled down several feet.
“Here he is,” he cried, a moment later. “He seems to be stuck fast between the rocks, and I reckon he is stone-dead.”
Growing bolder, both went as far into the openingas possible. They found the bear wedged in tightly, and he uttered no sound when shoved sharply with the gun barrels, or when stabbed with Harry’s hunting knife.
“He’s dead, sure enough,” said Harry. “But we might as well crawl down the rocks again, and take a look at him from the front.”
Instead of crawling down, each took a leap into the snowbank. They felt strangely elated over bringing the bear low, and now approached him boldly, yet with their guns once more ready for use.
But there was no need for further fear. The game was dead beyond all doubt, and had probably died when they heard the last groan from him.
“He is ours!” cried Harry. “And what a big fellow he is, too.”
“It’s a great haul, Harry.”
“I reckon the haul is still to come, Joe. We’ll have to yank him out of that hole somehow.”
“Or bring up a horse to do it,” was the gay answer. Both of the boys felt like whistling and singing over their luck. And small wonder, for to bring down such game was not an everyday occurrence.
After inspecting the situation, both came to the conclusion that the easiest way of getting the bearout of the hole would be to haul him forward to the front of the rocks, and then slide him along the snow and over a patch of ice to where there was something of an incline leading to the top of the hill.
It was hard work, and it took all of an hour to get the bear half the distance. Both boys were perspiring freely, and very soon had to stop for breath.
“We are earning this bear,” said Joe, while wiping his forehead. “I never worked so hard before in my whole life.”
“That’s the fun of hunting,” answered Harry. “Of course, you wish the bear was only half as large.”
“Do I? Not much! I want him just as big as he is. Won’t they be surprised at home and at the fort when they hear of this?”
“It’s the biggest bear brought down, so far as I know.”
“After this I think we may as well start right for home.”
“I am willing.”
At the top of the hill they found a long and sweeping pine branch, and of this made the best drag they could, and then fastened the bear on top with withes.
“Now for a long and hard pull,” said Joe.“We must get him home to-night. If we don’t the wolves may steal him from us.”
“What about the deer?”
“We can come back for them to-morrow.”
“But if some wildcats come at them in the meanwhile?”
“We’ve got to stand the risk of that.”
And then, after a lunch in the open, they started for home, dragging their splendid prize after them.