Pouchskin proceeded to describe the manner of his escape--his young
masters listening to him with great interest--although they already
guessed pretty nearly how it had been accomplished. Still there were
some points not so clear to them, which the old guardsman detailed.
In the first place, he had retreated from the bear, not because he
believed himself vanquished, but because he had lost his knife. Its
handle, wet with blood, had slipped from his grasp; and he could not
tell what had become of it! Finding himself unarmed, of course his next
thought was to get out of Bruin's way, for what could an unarmed man do
in the embrace of a bear--and such a bear?
He then turned and ran; but he had quite forgotten the dangerous
character of the snow-bed--the bridge that had refused to carry him
before; though, indeed, over it was the only direction he could have
taken. Had he attempted to run to the right or left, his course must
have been up-hill; and the bear would have been certain to overhaul him
in a couple of leaps. After all, he had taken the proper direction;
and, as it proved in the end, his breaking through was the most
fortunate accident that could possibly have happened to him. Had it not
chanced so, he would, in all probability, have fallen into the clutches
of the bear, and been torn to shreds by the infuriated animal.
Well, on touching bottom, he felt the water among his feet, and just
then remembered how it had been before. He remembered the hollow
archway under the snow, and, seeing the bear above, and in the act of
being precipitated on top of him, he suddenly ducked his head, and
pushed himself into the tunnel. He could feel the bear falling upon him
behind, and the weight of the animal's body, as it was precipitated
downwards, forced him still further under the snow-bridge.
Once in, he continued on down the stream, working both with head and
arms, and clearing a space that would allow his body to pass. The soft
snow was easily pressed out of the way; and, after going as far as he
deemed necessary, he turned to the right, and worked his way upward to
the surface.
It was while he was thus engaged that Alexis had been squaring accounts
with the bear. The fierce creature had not followed Pouchskin under the
snow. In all probability, his sudden "souse" into the water had
astonished Bruin himself;--from that moment all his thoughts were to
provide for his own safety, and, with this intention, he was
endeavouring to get back to the surface of the snowdrift, when Alexis
first caught sight of his snout.
At the moment that Alexis fired the final shot, or just a little after
it, Pouchskin had popped up his head through the congealed crust of the
snow, and elicited from Ivan those peals of laughter that had so much
astonished his brother. Pouchskin, however, had not come unscathed out
of the "scrimmage." On examining the old guardsman, it was found that
the bear had clawed him severely; and a piece of skin, of several inches
square was peeled from his left shoulder. The flesh, too, was rather
badly lacerated.
Alexis was not without some surgical skill; and, without suffering a
moment to be lost, he dressed the wound in the best manner possible
under the circumstances. A clean handkerchief, which Ivan chanced to
have, served as a covering for the scar; and this being tied on
securely, with a strip torn from the sleeve of Pouchskin's own shirt,
left the wounded guardsman in a condition to recover, as soon as it
might please nature to permit. Nothing more could have been done by the
most "skilful practitioner."
Their next business was to look after the bear. On going back to the
hole, and, gazing into it, the animal, as Alexis had anticipated, was
quite dead; and the water, partially dammed up by the huge carcass, was
flowing over it.
Ivan, who had hitherto done least of all to secure the prize, now became
the most active of the three; and, leaping down upon the body of the
great brute, he looped the rope around one of its hind legs, and then
stood on one side to help the rest in raising it upward.
Alexis and Pouchskin commenced hauling on the other end of the rope, and
the vast mass slowly ascended upward, Ivan pushing from below, and
guiding it past the inequalities of the snow. It would have been a
different sort of a task, to have hauled Bruin out of such a hole three
months earlier in the season; that is, about the time he had lain down
for his winter _siesta_. Then he would have turned six or seven hundred
pounds upon the scales, whereas at this time he was not more than half
the weight. His skin, however, was in just as good condition as if he
had been fat; and it was this, and not his carcass, that our hunters
cared for.
After some tough pulling, accompanied by a good deal of shouting from
Ivan at the bottom of the hole, the huge carcass was dragged forth, and
lay at full length along the frozen snow. It was still necessary to
raise it to the branch of a tree, in order that it might be skinned in a
proper manner. This however, could be easily accomplished by means of
the rope.
Up to this time Pouchskin had been puzzled about the loss of his knife.
Everywhere he looked for it; but it was nowhere to be found. All the
surface _over_ which he had danced with the bear was carefully examined,
and the snow scraped up to the depth of several inches. There was the
blood of the bear, and some of Pouchskin's own too, but no knife! Could
it have got into the water? No. Pouchskin declared that he had dropped
it near the edge of the snow-bed: for this accident, as already stated,
had been the cause of his retreat from the conflict.
It was only when the great carcass was being hauled up to the branch,
that the lost knife made its appearance. Then, to the astonishment of
the young hunters, as well as to Pouchskin himself, the knife was seen
sticking in the shoulder of the bear! There it had been when the haft
slipped from his hands, and there had it remained. No doubt that stab
would have given the bear his death-blow; but still more fatal had been
the bullet from the rifle of Alexis, which had passed through Bruin's
brain, crushing his skull like a shell!
The skinning of the animal was accomplished with great care; for the
coat was one of the finest, and the boys knew with what interest it
would be regarded on its arrival at the palace Grodonoff. They spared
no pains, therefore, in removing it from the carcass; and after the work
was finished, it was neatly folded up, tied with the rope, and placed
like a knapsack on Pouchskin's shoulders.
Of the carcass they took no heed; but leaving it to the wolves, the
gluttons, or any other carnivorous creatures that might chance to stray
that way, they turned back up the ravine; and, striking off on a path
that led towards the tent of the Laplander, reached their smoky quarters
in good time for dinner.