WHAT BLUFF DID
"Why, it's a bear!" exclaimed Jerry, as the three boys came to a
standstill on the border of the camp.
"It sure is, and nothing less," admitted Frank, his face beginning to
pucker up with the advance stages of a laugh.
"Oh! if I can only get my camera on him--what glorious luck!" breathed
Will, as his trembling fingers worked to drag the little black box out of
its cover.
The bear was busy just then, in fact, exceedingly engaged. He had taken
to turning things over around the fire just as though some one had given
him a sheriff's search warrant, and he meant to use it to the limit.
"He's hungry, all right; look at him getting away with the corn Uncle
Toby was just going to cook for supper. Say, that must be the same old
critter I interviewed while I was caged in that tree," said Jerry,
tickled at the thought.
"What makes you think so?" demanded Frank.
"He's so curious and so persistent, you see. Besides, I don't believe
there's another bear within ten miles of here. Oh! it's my old
friend, you just bet. And that means I ought to have the privilege of
slaying him."
"Don't be piggish, Jerry. Let some of the rest of us do something or
other," remarked Frank, with a touch of satire in his voice.
He had his own gun handy, and meant to have a share in getting a supply
of bear meat for the camp larder.
"Do you see Uncle Toby? I'll be blessed if he hasn't gone and made a
ladder, and has used it to climb up in that tree yonder," declared Jerry,
snickering.
"Sensible old Toby. If I had to make shift to be a monkey as often as he
has, I think I'd have a ladder, too. Saves considerable trouble, you see,
and the wear and tear on his clothes counts, too. But didn't we leave
Bluff in camp--I don't see anything of our pard, do you, boys?"
A sharp "click" close to Frank's ear announced that Will was at his old
tricks again. He had snapped off a view of the shaggy visitor squatted
there with the open kettle between his paws, scooping up its juicy
contents with evident relish. Canned corn was a treat that did not come
his way every day, and Bruin meant to make the most of his opportunity.
"I thought I had a glimpse of something moving over there back of the
tent, and it might be Bluff. I hope he don't try to shoo the old varmint
off before we get a whack at him. I've only got bird-shot in my gun but
at close quarters that ought to do as well as a bullet, eh, Frank?" asked
Jerry, excited at the prospect.
"Wait I've a notion that you may be surprised yet. I've also a hunch, my
boy, that there will be another claimant for the honors of this
campaign. Sometimes surprises spring out of the very earth. Watch!" said
Frank, laying a hand on the gun of his chum, as though impelling him to
hold his fire.
Suddenly there was a loud bang!
The bear rolled over in a heap regardless of the congregated tinware that
was consequently sent scurrying to the right and to the left.
"Who fired?" shouted the amazed Jerry.
"Look out, fellows, the old rascal's up again, and I guess I'd better get
behind a tree with my camera!" exclaimed Will, suiting the action to the
words with commendable rapidity.
Bang! went a second discharge at this juncture, and the bear now turning
bit savagely at its hindquarters as though its wounds smarted severely.
Immediately a third discharge followed the others. Bruin had by this
time apparently sighted the party from whom all these stinging cuts must
have proceeded. He gave a roar of rage and lumbering awkwardly across
the space started to try and climb a little tree just alongside one of
the tents.
"It's Bluff, and he's up in that tree!" shouted Will, as he peeped around
his own shelter, and took in the picture with another "click."
"But--he's got a gun!" stammered Jerry.
"Of course he has. Didn't he bring one with him? Perhaps a good fairy may
have given him a tip as to where it could be found. There! he has fired
again, and that time he missed, for the range was too close."
Frank, as he was speaking, commenced to advance into the open.
"Looky out, Marse Frank, he chaw yuh up, clean suah!" bawled Uncle
Toby, from the crotch in the tree where his ladder had allowed him to
reach. "Git up heah, honey, whah he can't reach yuh. Dat b'ar am ma-ad
clar t'rough!"
"Four times he's shot--didn't I say he couldn't hit the side of a barn.
Think of him carrying a Gatling gun," said Jerry.
"But he _has_ hit him more than once. Look how the brute is bleeding, and
just to think, Jerry, he's got two more chances. Those pump-guns don't
seem so very bad in an emergency," laughed Frank, who seemed to be
enjoying the little affair very much indeed.
"There goes one more; and the bear still lives. Talk to me about that,
will you, if he didn't shoot its stub of a tail off that time! What next,
I wonder? Why not execute the poor beast scientifically, and not murder
him by inches?"
He moved his gun forward again as though bent on shooting. Frank,
however, would not let him raise the weapon.
"Wait, I say; give Bluff one more chance. Make allowance for his
excitement and his position while the bear is shaking that tree so. If he
misses again we will both fire together and put an end to the comedy
before it turns into a tragedy."
"That's what it will be if Bluff ever drops down into those claws. Why
don't the duffer shoot? I can't stand it much longer, I tell you."
"Hold hard. I've no doubt he's waiting to get a good show, when the bear
stops rocking that tree for a second. There now!"
A sixth roar drowned Frank's last words. This time Bluff must have
steeled his nerves, and covered the side of the bear, for with the report
the animal keeled over, made a vain attempt to get up again, gave a few
kicks, and then lay still.
"Hurrah! Bluff has killed his bear!" yelled Frank, rushing forward, and
swinging his hat excitedly.
"Come down here and stand over the fallen beast while I immortalize you
as the mightiest Nimrod of them all," called Will, rushing up with his
camera ready to do the business with neatness and dispatch.
Jerry said nothing. He looked a bit dejected as he stood there and
surveyed the dead bear. It was not envy that gripped his soul either, for
Jerry was generous by nature. Something else had seized upon him, and
Frank smiled as though satisfied with the way things had come out.
Bluff came scrambling down from his uncertain perch, looking wild.
"Is he really dead, fellows? Just to think that after all I did it with
my new repeating shotgun! Ain't it a dandy, though? If Jerry hadn't gone
to work and hid it away, I might have downed all the game that's come
into this camp," he said, looking upon the black, hairy beast with a
shudder, for he had had quite a severe fright while swaying to and fro
with an angry bear beneath waiting for him to drop, like a ripe
persimmon, as Jerry afterwards described it.
"Jerry?" shouted Will, in blank amazement.
"Yes, he stuck the gun in that long box over there. You remember his
falling over it and bruising his shins. That was what gave him the
miserable idea, I suppose. Anyway, he did it while the rest of us were
out in the brush hunting for the fellow who threw those rocks into our
camp," declared Bluff, scowling at the author of his woes.
Jerry laughed, a little forcedly it is true.
"I suppose I might as well own up, Bluff. I'm the guilty wretch, all
right. The temptation came to me, and I did the job without thinking what
it would mean to you. Honestly I've felt sore about it more than once
since, and had just about made up my mind to confess, when by some
accident, it seems, you found it. But you don't know it all. I hid the
gun and then, when I went to see if it was safe, it was gone. I didn't
know what to make of that, but fancied somebody else in camp had taken
it. Then I commenced a search, and I found the gun down near that hole. I
rather think some of the Lasher crowd came and took the gun, but I am not
sure. After I found the gun I brought it to camp and put it in the box
again. I take back some of the hard things I've been saying about that
weapon. She can shoot, all right, and in the hands of an expert might,
as I said, clean out all the game going."
"Frank told me to take another look around, just before you fellows
left camp. I didn't have the heart to until a little while back, and
was delighted to find the gun under those pieces of canvas in the box.
It wasn't wet a bit in that hot old storm we had, either," continued
Bluff again, as be contemplated his quarry, and then puffed out with
honest pride.
"Say, was it you shooting a little while back?" asked Will, just then;
"because we heard a lot of shots somewhere around."
"Why, yes, I got Uncle Toby to stand behind a tree, and throw up the wash
basin half a dozen times while I banged away."
"Yes," said Frank, picking up the article in question, "and to judge from
the holes you put through it we'll have to do without a basin during the
remainder of our stay in camp. But how do you suppose this bear wandered
into camp?"
"Reckons dat he jest smells de cawn, Marse Frank, w'en I opens up de can,
an' by gorry, dat b'ar he can't resist de temptations to hab some. I seen
him comin' foh me, an' I jest lets out a yell an' runs up dis yer safety
ladder," remarked Toby, as he patted the article in question
affectionately.
"We heard the yells, all right, and came running. Look here, Bluff, old
man, you got your bear in spite of my playing that mean trick on you;
are you going to call it quits, and be friends?" asked Jerry, holding
out his hand.
"I--er--I don't know," stammered Bluff.
"I am just as sorry as I can be, Bluff, really I am, and I'd give the
world if I hadn't played that trick. At first I was going to own up, but
when you went off after the Lasher crowd it--well, I didn't see how I
could do it. But after I got it back I hoped every hour that you would
look into the box and discover the gun. Oh, say you'll forgive me!" added
Jerry, pleadingly.
"Well, I feel a bit raw about it yet, but this is no time to show
resentment, with such a glorious trophy at my feet. Yes, we'll call it
quits, Jerry, only after this you might forget to sneer at a gun that
happens to be different from yours."
"I agree, and that ends it," said Jerry, as he squeezed the other's hand.