CHAPTER XXI THE BATTLE OF THE BEARS
Much sooner than Johnny expected, the hunchback awoke. Perhaps the pangsof hunger were making themselves felt. Be that as it may, the night wasnot half gone when, each armed with a stout bow and a quiver of arrows,they stole out into the vivid moonlight.
"Night hunting," Johnny thought. "Wonder what sort of game will be afootat such an hour? Have to be large. Can't see well enough for snowshoerabbit or ptarmigan."
He was soon enough to know.
* * * * * * * *
As Faye drifted rapidly downstream, now threatened by floating fragmentsof ice, and now caught and whirled around by mad swirls of racing water,she expected every moment to reach the end of life. So long, however, asthe faithful Tico swam at her side she could not give up hope. So, withthe moon painting a mocking golden path to shore and all the starryreflections dancing about her, she drifted on.
But what was this? Something cut her face. Another. This time came astinging blow. Putting up a hand to protect herself, she graspedsomething and held on for a second.
"Willows," she told herself. "Overhanging willows. There's a chance--"
Again her hand went up. At once it was struck a glancing blow.
"Oh--Oo!" The pain in her wrist for the moment was intense, yet shepersevered. The next attempt was better. Arrested in her mad flight, sheswung round and hung there for a second. Once more her hold was broken.Not however until her other hand had gone up. Before the current hadgotten her under way, she had gripped a stouter, stiffer branch. With asupreme effort she threw herself half out of the water to grasp thebranch with her free hand.
The branch was strong. It held her half free from the water. Anotherstruggle and she was astride the branch. At once the branch wassubmerged. But riding so, she was able to look about her and to catch afew fleeting thoughts as to how the affair would end.
The branch, she discovered, had swung in quite close to shore. There wasa rim of ice before her, but by working her way down the branch she couldreach a position close to other and stronger branches.
"I'll get hold of those and swing up," she said aloud.
To her surprise she caught an answering sound.
"Tico!" she called as she caught the dog's encouraging woof.
By the moonlight she made out his form, dancing on the shore. How had hemade it? She was astonished. But leave it to a dog!
Ten minutes of heart-breaking struggle and her hands gripped a strongerbranch. Even this dipped low, leaving her only abreast of the ridge ofice. With one hand she gripped the slippery surface. For a second sheheld on, then all but plunged head foremost into the tide.
"I must!" she told herself. "It's my chance. My strength is leaving me."
Once more she threw herself forward. This time as she felt herselfslipping back she was seized by the collar of her stout mackinaw andpulled like a rag doll, up, up, up until she lay flat on the ice,completely exhausted, but safe.
"Good old Tico!" she breathed faintly. "Good Tico!"
The dog licked her cold cheeks.
When strength returned, she crept forward until she found herself on abank of soft snow. There she stood up and looked about her. Matters didnot seem much improved. She was on a narrow island in the midst of theriver. The night was cold. It had been thawing during the day. Now it wasfreezing.
"Got--got to get these things off." Her teeth were chattering.
Struggling with her sodden garments, she got them off one by one and,after wringing them out, hung them on the willows. At last, quiteundressed, she danced about and beat off the dampness that still clung toher. Such garments as could be managed under the condition she drew onagain.
As her hand touched the pocket of her mackinaw she felt something hard.
"Matches," she laughed in spite of her despair. "And yet--"
It was a little wooden box of sulphur matches such as are used in theNorth. They had been wrapped in oiled cloth.
"Might be a chance," she told Tico solemnly. "Nothing like hoping."
After drying her hands on some dead willow leaves that still clung to thebranches, she carefully unwrapped the little box.
"Seems dry." Her heart beat faster.
With elaborate care she gathered willow leaves and small dry twigs, thenlaid on larger branches.
"If it works, Tico! If it only does!"
The first tiny match turned blue, sent up sulphurous fumes and went out.The second did the same. Hope was ebbing when the blue of the third matchturned to red and the dry leaves were kindled.
"Whoops! Whoopee!" the girl shouted, dancing up and down. "We win! Wewin!"
So they did. Fifteen minutes later a roaring flame was mounting towardthe sky. Dry leaves and green willows make a hot fire.
Before this fire, turning round and round like a top, was the girl, whileon willow branches, close as she dared have them, were her steaminggarments.
Johnny Longbow saw the light of that fire against the sky, but a hill laybetween him and the river. He believed the reflection to be a display ofNorthern Lights.
They were hunting, he and the hunchback, when he saw that light. A momentafter he saw it the hunchback showed him that which set his blood racingand drove all thoughts of the light out of his head.
It was strange, this hunting in the moonlight--strange and a bit uncanny.From over the silver crested hills, the moon shone upon them. Shadowsblack as ink were all about them. Every little depression in the snowseemed a deep well of mystery. Beneath their feet the snow, softened asit had been by the day's thaw, gave forth not the slightest sound.
So, with bows unstrung and quivers swinging at their sides, they advancedupon a low hill. Mounting this, they dropped down upon the other side.
They were half way down the slope when the hunchback, stopping dead inhis tracks, braced his bow and nocked an arrow. He stood there, agrotesque statue in the moonlight.
"What has he seen?" the boy asked himself. Then, without knowing thereason for it, he put the lower end of his bow against his instep andbent it. After that he selected a broadhead from his quiver. Still he sawnothing, heard nothing.
"It's strange," he thought, "Strange and--"
His thoughts broke short off. Down in the center of the valley, not fiftyyards before them where the shadow of the hill plunged all in midnightblackness, something had stirred. After that had come a grunt.
"Like a pig," Johnny thought. "But of course--"
Again his thoughts broke off. A head had risen above the shadow line, agreat grizzly head with a red, lolling tongue. This was no pig.
One instant it was there, the next it was gone. But the boy had seenenough to set his heart racing. Squatting down with one knee on the snow,he swung his bow into place and waited.
He had not long to wait. The creature, a great northern grizzly bear, wasmoving now. She was coming out of the shadows. Johnny's breath came hardas he saw the size of her. His heart stopped beating altogether when herealized that she was leading two half grown cubs.
"Bows and arrows," he thought. Never had they seemed such frail weaponsas now, yet he was prepared to do his best.
As these thoughts passed through his mind, the three bears moved out intothe field of light.
Johnny felt a light pressure on his arm. He understood. They were toshoot. Once more his heart raced. Yet his hand was steady as he drew hisbow. By instinct he seemed to understand that he was to shoot at thelarger of the two cubs. The hunchback would aim at the great beast'sheart.
"Here's hoping!" Johnny's whole body stiffened. His arrow flew, and withit another.
In an instant there was tumult in the bears' camp. Having neither seennor smelled their enemies, both the cubs and the old one blamed hiscompanion for the pain that had leaped upon them from the dark. At oncethey fell upon one another. Such growling and roaring, such cuffing andscratching Johnny had not known in his life.
It was all so ludicr
ous that he wanted to roll in the snow with laughter.Yet there was a more serious side. Neither of the bears had received amortal wound. Tumbling about as they were now, there was little chancefor a good shot. How long would it be before they discovered theirmistake and came charging up the hill? Nocking a second arrow, he awaitedthe next turn of events.
* * * * * * * *
From her island fastness Faye Duncan heard the noise of battle, andshuddered. Growling savagely, the dog marched back and forth in the snow.But neither girl nor dog knew what it was all about.
One thought was uppermost in the girl's mind. She must get off the islandand rejoin her companions. But how was this to be done? She had saved herIndian friends from a similar predicament, but now there was no yarn tobring a rawhide rope to her. Besides, the rope was now far back in thecamp of women and children.
A little ice was passing. Mere fragments, these would not support herweight. She was interested to note, however, that swinging round a sharpbend, the current brought these fragments very near the bank.
"If only they were large enough to support my weight!" she thought.
But the fire was burning low. The night chill was creeping in. Herclothing was not yet dry.
* * * * * * * *
"More wood," she thought as she twisted away at a tough willow branch.
In the meantime the battle of bears was slowing down. Seeing an opening,the hunchback sent a second arrow crashing into the ribs of the oldgrizzly. Was it this arrow that suggested a foe from without? As thebear's great head turned about, the bristle hair on her neck andshoulders began to rise.
Johnny saw it as in a dream. He woke from the dream with a start when thegrizzly, at a pace not exceeded by the fastest horse, charged straight upthe hill.
For this the hunchback was prepared. He had lain five of his best arrows,tipped with points of volcanic glass, side by side in the snow. Now, asif shot from some new form of repeating blowgun, one by one these arrowswent crashing into the charging monster.
As for Johnny, his usually alert mind seemed frozen. Only after thehunchback's third arrow had found its mark with the beast still plowingforward did he get into action. Then, realizing that his arrow, a goodbroadhead with razor edge, was in place, he wondered where to aim.
There was no time to be lost. Instinctively he picked the beast's lollingred mouth. Twang! The arrow sped. The next instant, to his vastastonishment, he saw the beast rear high, utter one wild roar and dropbackward dead.
Three shots from the hunchback's bow silenced the two younger bearsforever. Then it was time for investigation. The arrow that Johnny shothad entered the bear's mouth, had pierced the thin bone at the top andhad entered the brain.
As the hunchback realized this, he turned and looked at Johnny. A smileoverspread his face and he patted the boy clumsily on the shoulder.
After that, leaving the old bear where she lay, he partially skinned oneof the cubs and, after slinging a good hundred pounds of meat across hisshoulder, beckoned the boy to follow.