CHAPTER XV
A CHARGING GRIZZLY
They were now getting high up in the mountain, and pretty near,Jack thought, to where the sheep was. The horse was still withthem, and it astonished Jack to see that Hugh found a means ofgetting him up or around every cliff or rock slide that they met.At length they were so near the top that, after speaking with Joeabout it, Jack told Hugh that he thought they were pretty near thegame. One more high cliff should bring them to the little basin inwhich the sheep lay.
"Well, boys, if you're sure of that," said Hugh, "we'll leavethe horse here, and maybe we can pack the meat down to him. It'sgetting to be pretty steep and pretty rocky under foot, I don'twant to take him any further than we must."
"Well," said Joe, "I think we're right close now--that it's justover this little bluff ahead of us."
Hugh twisted the horse's rope around a little bush that grew on thehillside, and then turning to Joe said, "Well, Joe, go ahead, andtake us up to it." Joe started, and they were soon at the ridge;but just before passing over it, Joe made a motion with his hand,and sank back out of sight, and whispered to Hugh, "There's a bearat the sheep."
"Sure?" said Hugh.
"Sure," said Joe.
"Well, how can we get at him?" asked Jack, who had pushed up besideHugh.
"The same way we did at the sheep, I guess," said Joe. "It don'tlook very far from here. You take a look, Hugh." Hugh climbedup, and cautiously raising his head, looked for a few seconds,and lowering it again said, "Well, boys, we've got more than webargained for; there's two bears there, a big one and a little one.Now, let's go 'round to the left here, and get behind those rocksand a little above them, and then we'll have a chance to look atthem and see what we'll do."
They went back down the ravine, and then a little way around andagain climbing the rocks, found that they could see the basin inwhich the sheep lay, and hurrying forward, they soon reached itsrim and looked down on the spot.
Sure enough, there were two bears, tearing away at the sheep'scarcass, and seeming greatly to enjoy themselves. They looked likemother and cub, and to Jack the mother looked pretty big. They hadmauled and partly eaten the fore part of the sheep's carcass, andhad dug into its belly, gnawing the flanks.
The cub paid no attention to anything, and was eating greedily, butthe larger bear stopped feeding every few moments and looked in alldirections, and throwing up her head seemed to snuff the breeze.Fortunately, the wind was blowing from the southeast, and so up thestream, and there was no danger that the animal would detect thepresence of human beings; yet she seemed uneasy, and more or lesssuspicious.
"Well, boys," said Hugh, "what do you want to do? I expect you wantto kill them bears."
"Yes, indeed, Hugh," said Jack, "of course we want to kill them."
"Hide's no good now," said Hugh, "they're in summer coat, and allsunburned, and the winter coat isn't started."
"Oh, Hugh," said Jack, "you don't mean you want to let those bearsgo. Why look how they've torn our sheep to pieces. Why they oughtto be killed for that, if for nothing else."
"Well, well, well," said Hugh, smiling, "you are an unreasonablecreature. Do you expect if you leave meat out on the mountain thatbears, or wolves, or Indians, or white people either, are going topass it by and not use it? How do you suppose those bears knew thatyou were coming back?"
Jack saw that Hugh was making fun of him, and said, "Well, howshall we take them, Hugh?"
"Fix it any way you like. Suppose you take the old bear and Joe thecub; and I won't fire until I have to."
"All right," said Jack, "but wouldn't you rather fire? I've hadsome hunting, and so has Joe since we've been out, and you haven'thad a shot. Wouldn't you like to kill the old bear?"
Hugh laughed again, as he said, "No, I'll give that up to you. Youtake the old one, and Joe'll take the young one; but I tell you,the young one's hide is better than the old one's."
"Oh, I don't care about that," said Jack. "What do you say, Joe,does that suit you?"
"Yes," said Joe, "it suits me all right."
"All right then, let's shoot at the word; and you count, Hugh; whenyou say three we'll both fire."
"All right," said Hugh, "get ready. Are you ready?"
Both boys grunted in assent. One, two, three! the two guns crackedat the same instant. The smaller bear fell over, and then sprangto its feet, screaming dismally, and ran along the hillside. Thelarger one turned her head quickly and bit at the place at whichJack had fired, and then, without a moment's waiting, came rushingtoward the spot over which the smoke of the two rifles still hung.
"Hurrah, boys!" said Hugh, with more interest than Jack had everseen him show. "Here she comes; get ready, and shoot again." Thetwo boys, having reloaded, fired, but both hurriedly, and the bearmade no pause, but kept galloping toward them at tremendous speed.She was now within thirty or thirty-five yards, and Hugh, saying,"Scatter out if she keeps a-coming, and keep shooting," raisedhis rifle to his shoulder and fired; and as he did so, the bearcrumpled up and fell to the ground, and after a few struggles, laystill; but for several moments all three stood with loaded guns,waiting to see what she would do.
"She was a tough one," said Hugh, "but I reckon that neither of youboys hit her a second time to do any harm to her. You were a littleexcited, I guess, and shot before you got your sights rightlydrawed. I tell you when a bear is coming for you, that isn't thetime to get excited. If you get excited when a deer or antelope isrunning away from you, that's all right, but when a bear is comingto you, you want all your wits.
"But what became of your bear, Joe," he continued.
"I don't know," said Joe; "last I saw of him he was going over thatridge, squealing a whole lot. I know just where he went over, and Ican go there and look for him."
"Well, you'd better," said Hugh. "But first let's see if there'sany life left in this old lady down here." They slowly approachedthe bear, and threw stones at her, but she did not move. Moreover,much blood was running from her mouth and nostrils, and she wasevidently dead. When they turned her over to skin her they saw thatshe was not a very large bear, but a grizzly. Her coat, as Hugh hadsaid, was not in good order, being faded and sunburned, and withmany thin patches. Still, Jack thought it would be worth takinghome with him, and he and Hugh proceeded to skin her, while Joewent off to look for the small one.
"Keep your eyes about you, son," said Hugh, as the boy started."Even a little bear can scratch and bite a whole lot, if he getshold of you. If you find the bear lying down, don't go up to himuntil you're sure either that it is dead or alive; and if it isalive, kill it."