THE TUG OF WAR.
Jack Dudley, being some paces in advance of Fred Greenwood, and alarmed
for him because of his greater peril, had slightly slackened his speed,
for he was not the one to seek safety at the expense of his comrade. The
instant he saw him fall he stopped short, and, wheeling about, fired at
the grizzly, and pumping a second cartridge into the chamber of his
Winchester, let fly again, both shots striking the beast, who was so
close that a miss was impossible.
It need not be said that Fred, having pitched forward on his hands and
knees, did not remain thus. No hunter, even if a youth, gives up so long
as there is a fighting chance for life. He instantly leaped to his feet,
and a couple of bounds placed him beyond reach, for the moment, of his
terrible enemy.
The bear seemed to understand who had wounded him last, and, although
closer to Fred than to his companion, he swerved to the left and headed
for Jack Dudley. The latter did not stay on the order of his going, but
made off at his highest speed. Brief as was the halt, it wrought a
complete change of situation. Whereas Fred had been in the greatest
danger, Jack was now thus placed, because the grizzly was closer to him.
Not only that, but, ignoring the younger lad, he gave his whole
attention to Jack.
Events were going with such a rush that the boys were almost overwhelmed
before they could help themselves. Fred supposed the bear was at his
heels until, having run a couple of rods, he glanced over his shoulder
and saw the imminent peril of Jack. Then, with a thrill of alarm, he in
his turn checked his flight, and bringing his Winchester to a level
drove a bullet into the immense head of the brute, which by that time
had received a respectable amount of lead in his carcass.
But "old Ephraim" seemed to have determined to dispose of the fugitives
in the reverse order of their ages; that is to say, having changed his
attentions to Jack Dudley, he did not mean to be diverted therefrom,
even though the younger lad was showing disagreeable interest in him.
This peculiar turn of affairs gave Fred his favorable chance; and,
standing motionless, he continued his miniature bombardment as fast as
he could shove the cartridges into the chamber of his weapon, aim, and
fire. Surely the bullets, all of which found a lodgment somewhere in the
anatomy of the monster, must have produced an effect, but they could not
divert him from his main purpose. He bore down upon the apparently
doomed Jack Dudley as if he would not be denied.
This fact caused Fred to be thrown partly to the rear, so that the
remarkable combat took the form of the grizzly pursuing one of the boys,
while the other boy was pursuing the grizzly. The position of Fred,
however, thus became unfavorable, for he was unable to aim at any
vulnerable portion of the creature. He continued firing into his body,
but the bullets produced no perceptible effect in this fight for life.
Meanwhile the situation of Jack Dudley became perilous to the last
degree. To stop and fire insured his certain seizure by the grizzly, who
would require but a moment to tear the life from him. Jack saw him so
near, indeed, that he did that which no person would do except in the
last extremity. He flung away his rifle, that it might not impede his
flight, and concentrated all his energies into the one effort of
running.
He had no time to look where he was going. He could only strive with the
desperation of despair to preserve the distance between him and his
pursuer, in the faint hope that something would intervene to save him.
Fred was not only firing his gun as fast as he could, but he shouted to
the bear, in the hope of diverting his attention from Jack, who could
not keep up the unequal flight much longer.
The terrified fugitive leaped over boulders, dashed around interposing
rocks, and bounded across open spaces, hardly daring to look over his
shoulder, for he knew from the sounds of pursuit that the animal was at
his heels. It seemed every moment as if the prodigious paw of the
grizzly would smite him to the earth, when no human power could save
him.
Suddenly the fugitive, while dashing forward in this blind, headlong
fashion, found himself confronted by the canyon with which he and Fred
had already had a memorable experience. It yawned at right angles to the
course he was following, its width so great that it was impossible for
him to leap it at that point. But he knew there must be some such place,
and he continued his flight along the side of the chasm, hunting for a
spot that would permit him to reach the other bank.
He did not stop to think how this could benefit him, for it was to be
supposed that if the grizzly could outrun he could also outleap him, and
the moment the fugitive landed on the further bank the brute would do
the same, without losing an inch of the advantage already gained. In
fact, Jack Dudley had no time to think of anything except to run with
all the vigor which nature had given him.
All at once he saw a spot where the feat looked possible. There was no
time for him to turn off to gain the momentum, but, measuring the
interval with his eye, he gathered his muscles and leaped outward. The
jump was diagonal, and made under most difficult circumstances.
Who shall describe the awful thrill that shot through Jack Dudley when,
at the moment of leaving the rocky edge of the rocky wall, he was sure
he was about to fail in his last effort? The other margin of the canyon
wall appeared to recede, and he uttered a despairing cry, certain that
the next instant he would go spinning down the frightful abyss.
It is at such critical times that the question of life and death is
often decided by incidents so trifling that they are unnoticed. Had Jack
Dudley retained his Winchester in his grasp he would have been lost. It
would not have been alone the weight of the weapon, but its interference
with the free use of his hands. As it was, the latter were untrammeled,
and, though his feet missed a firm hold, he instinctively clutched the
craggy projections, and, with a supreme effort, drew himself over the
margin and beyond all danger of falling back into the canyon.
And where, all this time, was old Ephraim?
The remark just made concerning the effect of trifles was shown as
strikingly in his case as in that of the fugitive. Despite his enormous
weight and awkwardness of action, the grizzly without special exertion
could have made the leap that had just been exhibited before his eyes
had he been in his usual condition, but it has been shown that he had
been struck by several bullets. Though most of these inflicted little
more than flesh wounds, which under the circumstances were trifling, yet
others did effective work. This was especially the case with those that
found a lodgment in his head, which, big and tough as it was, lacked the
power of turning aside a rifle-ball, as the indurated back of an
alligator often does.
It is to be supposed that the enraged grizzly did not comprehend the
possible weakening of his colossal power through the effect of these
pellets, and it is quite likely that even with such weakening he would
have accomplished the leap of the canyon, but for the interference of an
incident which cannot be considered in any other light than
providential.
Fred Greenwood's anguish was for his companion, whom it seemed
impossible to help, despite the desperate effort he was making to do so.
He saw the grizzly lumbering after Jack, giving no heed to the shots he
sent after him, but steadily gaining upon the fugitive, whose fate hung
in the passing of the seconds. Fred knew what it meant when his friend
abruptly changed his course and began skirting the canyon in his frantic
hunt for a narrower place. The bear was so close upon him for several
paces that the terrified Fred stopped short, ceased shooting, and held
his breath, expecting the great beast to strike down his comrade. The
younger lad could do no more, and, staring at the two, he asked in agony
that heaven would not desert his friend.
Suddenly Jack Dudley rose like a bird in air. At the instant the monster
was upon him he made the leap, landing on the further edge, as has been
told, and quickly scrambling upon solid foundation. Had he been ten
seconds later nothing could have saved him, for the grizzly showed no
more hesitation than he in making the jump.
At the instant Fred read the brute's intention he brought his rifle to
his shoulder. Unsuspected by himself, the last cartridge in the magazine
of his Winchester was in the chamber of the weapon, so that, if it
failed to help, the service of the younger lad was at an end for the
time, for it would be all over before he could bring into use any
cartridges from his belt.
To make the leap to which we have referred the grizzly changed his
position. Until that moment he had been running straight away from Fred,
but now, of necessity, he turned partly toward him. Recalling the words
of Hank Hazletine, Fred aimed at a point just back of the foreleg, as it
reached forward. The ball sped true to its aim, and entering, perhaps,
the most vulnerable point of the body, did more than all the other
bullets that had found a lodging-place in the grizzly, for it inflicted
a mortal wound.
It was this fact that destroyed the effort of the bear at the crisis of
its inception. The attempt already put forth carried him well beyond the
side of the canyon, but it failed to land him firmly on the other
margin. His forepaws went over the top, precisely as the hands of Jack
Dudley had done, and began a furious scratching of the flinty surface,
while the hind feet clawed with equal fierceness the inner side of the
wall. The brute was striving to save himself, and it is to be presumed
would have done so but for the cause named.
That last shot told the story. The shot had seriously weakened the bear,
and his mighty strength was fast oozing away. His struggles grew less
vigorous, though they continued up to the last moment. Jack Dudley had
become aware of what was going on, and, stopping in his flight, shouted:
"Shoot him, Fred, before he can climb out!"
Fred attempted to do so, but discovered he had no more cartridges at
command. Since the bear at best could not harm the younger, he ran
forward to the side of the canyon, just behind the beast. Jack had
paused, so that both were looking at the grizzly, whose huge head and
massive shoulders protruded above the edge of the canyon. While they
looked the head dropped from sight, followed by the forefeet, whose
claws scratched over the flinty surface as they slipped backward.
Knowing what had occurred, Jack and Fred ran to the edge and looked
down. They were in time to see the mountainous bulk tumbling into the
vast chasm. The body maintained a horizontal posture, as in life, until
it struck a projecting point which sent it bounding against the other
side, where the impact added to the tendency of the first blow, and the
body turned over and over, like an immense log rolling down hill.
Despite the gloom of the abyss the sun was shining so brightly, and was
in such a favorable position, that everything was seen with
distinctness.
Peering downward, the awed and grateful boys saw the black mass suddenly
strike the foamy waters and send the spray flying in all directions. It
disappeared for a moment and then popped up like a rubber-ball, and went
dancing down the current toward the break in the walls which they had
visited a brief while before.
Still silent and watching, they observed it dancing up and down with the
violence of the stream until its motion was arrested by striking an
obstruction, which held it motionless. There it stayed for the remaining
minutes spent in peering into the abyss.
Jack and Fred looked up and across the canyon at the same instant. They
were directly opposite, and hardly twelve feet apart. The elder took off
his hat and called:
"Are you ready?"
"Yes," said Fred, removing his head-gear.
"All together!"
And then they swung their hats and hurrahed with the vim which, all
things considered, was justified by events. They were happy and
grateful, and neither forgot to thank, with all the fervency of his
nature, the One who had delivered them in safety from the very jaws of
death. No matter what other dangers might come to them, there could be
none narrower or more striking than that through which they had just
passed.
"Do you intend to stay on that side of the canyon?" asked Fred.
"I don't know that there is any choice between our places, but if you
feel lonely I'll come over to your help."
"I thought you might want to pick up the gun you threw away."
Jack looked at each of his hands in turn and laughed.
"Do you know I had forgotten all about that? I don't remember having
thrown it aside."
"I saw you do it, and it was a lucky thing you did."
The two walked beside the canyon until they came to a straight place,
where Jack easily made the leap and joined his friend. Then they set out
to recover the Winchester, which, as matters stood, was almost beyond
value to them.
"I can't recall the spot where I dropped it," remarked Jack, allowing
his companion to take the lead.
"I do; you and I were doing such tall running then, and for some minutes
afterward, that we covered more ground than would be supposed. That's
the spot, just ahead."
He indicated an open space, thirty or forty feet in width, lying between
a ridge of boulders, over which it was astonishing how the fugitive had
managed to make such good progress.
"We shall find it right there----"
Fred checked his words, for at that moment they came upon the spot he
had in mind and both swept their gaze over it. Their dismay may be
imagined when they saw nothing of the Winchester.
"You must be mistaken as to the place," said Jack.
"I can't be; it was just after you had leaped down from that low boulder
that you gave your right arm a swing and away the gun went."
"Did you notice where it landed?"
"I can put my hand on the very spot."
"Do so."
Fred led the way a few paces and said:
"It was there, and nowhere else."
Jack bent over and carefully studied the earth.
"My gracious! you are right; that dent in the ground was made by the
stock of my gun, and it couldn't have gone its own length further."
The space was clear for several yards, and they would have discerned a
small coin lying anywhere on it, but nothing suggesting a weapon was in
sight.
A momentary consternation took possession of them. Only one conclusion
was possible: some person had taken the Winchester.
"Do you suppose it was Hank, who wanted to have some fun with us?" asked
Fred.
Jack shook his head.
"At any other time I might believe it, but Hank isn't one to look for
fun when the lives of two persons are in danger. It wasn't he."
"Who, then, could it be?"
Again Jack shook his head.
"You know there are a number of Indians hunting in this neighborhood.
Some of them may have been near us, and, hearing our cries and the
reports of our guns, started to find out what it meant. Coming upon my
Winchester, they carried it off."
This was the most reasonable explanation they could think of, but it did
not lessen their disappointment at the loss of the indispensable weapon.
"I won't stand it!" exclaimed Jack, whose indignation was rising; "the
man who took that gun must give it back!"
It was impossible to know in what direction to look for the pilferer,
but the youth's long strides led him toward the break in the walls of
the canyon where they had seen the three Indians earlier in the
forenoon. Whether it was reasonable to expect to find them, or rather
the thief, there, would be hard to say, but Jack did find the one for
whom he was looking.
Half the intervening distance was passed, when he turned his head and
said in an excited undertone to his companion:
"He's just ahead, and as sure as I live the thief is Motoza!"
Before Fred, slightly at the rear, could gain sight of the Indian, Jack
broke into a lope and called:
"Hold on there, Motoza! You have something that belongs to me."
The dusky vagrant was alone and walking at a moderate pace from the
youth. Although he did not look around until hailed he must have known
he was followed, but he stopped short and wheeled about with a wondering
expression on his painted face.
There could be no mistake by Jack Dudley, for Motoza was carrying two
Winchesters, one in either hand, and a glance enabled the youth to
recognize his own property.
"Howdy, brother?" asked Motoza, with the old grin on his face.
Jack was too angry to be tactful. He continued his rapid strides, and as
he drew near reached out his hand.
"Never mind how I do; give me my rifle."
But with the fingers of Jack almost on the weapon, Motoza shifted his
hand backward, so that the gun was held behind his body. He did not
stir, but continued grinning.
"What do you mean?" demanded Jack, his face flushed, and his anger
greater than before; "didn't you hear me ask for my gun?"
"Whooh! brother frow way gun--me pick him up--he mine."
"I threw it down so as to have a better chance of getting away from the
grizzly bear; I intended to pick it up again. I know you are a great
thief, Motoza, but you can't steal that Winchester from me; hand it
over!"
And Jack extended his hand again; but the Sioux persisted in keeping the
weapon behind him, though his own was in front, where the lad might have
been tempted to snatch it from his grasp.
The youth was fast losing his self-command. He had learned the character
of this vagrant from Hazletine, and it was plain that he meant to retain
the valuable weapon, while Jack was equally determined he should not.
"I tell you for the last time to give me my gun! _Do you hear?_"
The demand was made in a loud voice and accompanied by a threatening
step toward the Indian, who showed no fear. The grin, however, had left
his face, and he recoiled a step with such a tigerish expression on his
ugly countenance that his assailant ought to have been warned of his
danger. Motoza, the Sioux, was ready to commit murder for the sake of
retaining that which did not belong to him.
"Stop!" commanded Fred Greenwood, whom both seemed to have forgotten in
the flurry of the moment.
The younger was standing a little to the rear and to one side, but his
Winchester, it will be remembered, was in his hand, and was now pointed
at the dusky scamp.
"Motoza, if you want to preserve that sweet countenance of yours, hand
that gun to my friend before I let daylight through you!"