A PILLAR OF FIRE
"Can you build a fire with one match?" asked Thede, after a short
silence, during which the boys had been trying in vain to get a
shot at the bears.
"Of course I can!" answered Sandy. "What's the good of going
through all those Boy Scout examinations, if a fellow can't build a
fire with one match? Of course I can build a fire with one match!"
"Can you build a fire with one match up in a tree?" asked Thede,
with a suspicion of mirth in his voice.
"Of course I can!" answered Sandy.
"Up in a tree in the darkness, on a windy night?" asked Thede.
"If this thing is going to your head, you'd better drop down and
make a run for the camp!" advised Sandy.
"Honest, now," asked Thede, "can you make a fire with one match in
a green tree, in a high wind, on a dark night?"
"Cut it out!" roared Sandy.
"Because if you can," Thede explained, "I think I can show you a
way out of this mess!"
"Well, go on and show it, then!"
"All you've got to do," Thede went on, "is to build a fire and drop
the burning brands down on top of the bears. That will bring them
out into the light for a second or two, and perhaps we can drop
them with our automatics."
The boys heard the Indian moving softly about in the branches of
the tree he had selected as a refuge, but paid little attention to
what he was doing. Afterwards, they discovered that he had dropped
his rifle at the foot of the tree, and was trying to secure it.
"Why did you say build a fire with one match?" asked Sandy. "I
always carry a lot of matches," the boy added, feeling in his
pocket.
"Find any?" asked Thede.
"Not a match!"
"I knew you wouldn't!" Thede said.
"How'd you happen to know so much?" grunted Sandy.
"Because," Thede replied, "I saw you feeling in your pocket for a
match and bring your fingers out empty while at the cabin. Then
you went to a match box and laid a great heap of 'em on the table.
I thought of it while we stood there, but it never occurred to me
to tell you to stow them away."
"I remember now!" Sandy said regretfully.
"Well," Thede responded cheerfully, "I've got just one match. I
wonder if you can light a fire with that!"
"You just wait a minute and I'll tell you!" replied Sandy.
Thede heard him moving about over the limbs of the tree, his every
motion being punctuated by growls from below. Then came an
exclamation of satisfaction from the darkness, and Thede heard the
boy declaring that it was a dead tree they were in, and that there
was plenty of dry wood.
"All right, start your fire, then," suggested Thede, "and we'll see
if we can't burn the backs off some of those bears!"
"Perhaps we can break off enough dry limbs to make a rousing old
fire that will keep till morning," Sandy said in a moment. "If
this old tree is really dead to the heart, it'll make quite a
blaze."
Sandy gathered a great handful of twigs not more than a couple of
inches in length and placed them in a sheltered position in the lee
of the tree. Then he added dry boughs of larger size and made
ready to use the precious match.
"Now you know what'll happen if that match goes out!" said Thede.
"This match," said Sandy confidently, "is not the kind of a match
that goes out. I'd be a healthy old Boy Scout if I couldn't build
a fire in the top of a tree with one match!"
The boy waited until there came a brief lull in the wind, then with
the match protected as much as possible by his hat he struck it.
The flame spluttered for an instant, died down, crawled around to
the windward side of the stick, crawled back again, and then flared
up gloriously. At first the dry twigs refused to ignite, but
presently one caught the blaze, then another, and directly Sandy
was obliged to draw his face away from the growing heat.
"There!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you I could do
it?"
"You said you could," answered Thede, "but I didn't believe it!"
"Look here," Tommy said in a minute, sheltering his face from the
smoke. "First thing we know, we'll have this whole blooming tree
on fire."
"If it gets good and hot, we can fry fish after the bears go away,"
suggested Thede. "I'm hungry! By the way," he added with a grin,
"where are those fish?"
"Do you think I brought 'em up in the tree?" demanded Sandy.
"You never left 'em down there?" asked Thede.
"Didn't I?" exclaimed Sandy. "What did you do with the ones you
were carrying?"
"Why," replied Thede, "I guess I left 'em in the thicket where we
stood when we made a hop-skip-and-jump for the tree."
"We certainly are a bright mess!" cried Sandy.
"Say," Thede said in a moment, "I'll just bet that's what kept the
bears so still while we've been up here building the fire. They've
been eating our fish! That's why we couldn't get sight of them!"
"Can you see the bears now?" asked Sandy. "I'm sure I can't!"
"They're still back in there eating our trout!' wailed Thede.
"Unless you want a leg burned off," advised Sandy, "you'd better
work around on another limb!"
"Aw, this limb is all right!" argued Thede.
The light from the fire now illuminated quite a little circle
around the tree, and the boys saw 0je sliding cautiously down the
trunk of the tree where he had taken refuge.
"He's after his gun!" declared Sandy. "Just watch out and you'll
see him get one of those bears!"
Oje certainly was after his rifle, for he slid down cautiously,
keeping the bole of the tree between himself and the bears.
Much to the surprise of the lads, the Indian did not again climb
into the shelter of the branches. Instead, he stood peering around
the trunk of the tree as if waiting for the wild animals to make
their appearance. The flame blazed higher and higher and the boys
began to feel uncomfortable.
"I'll bet there ain't any bears here!" Sandy exclaimed after a
moment's silence. "I guess we run away from a rabbit!"
"I guess we didn't!" insisted Thede.
The boy's opinion was verified a moment later by the appearance of
three shambling figures in the lighted zone. The bear is noted for
his curiosity, and the boys realized, too, that the feast of fish
must have been devoured.
"We might have sneaked away while they were eating that fine
supper!" Sandy said, in a tone of disgust. "I think we ought to
have medals made out of a cow's ear! That would be a good medal,
wouldn't it, for boys who showed such courage in the face of the
enemy?"
"Never you mind!" Thede answered. "I guess the bears are next to
their job. We wouldn't have gone far before they'd been after us."
As the bears appeared in the light of the fire, now blazing
fiercely and fast climbing from one dry limb to another, the lads
saw the Indian raise his rifle to his shoulder and fire.
Instead of taking to their legs, the bears grouped themselves
around their fallen mate and snarled savagely up into the tree.
"Oje will get another one in a minute," Thede ventured, overjoyed
at the success of the first shot, "and then we can open fire with
our automatics."
"Holy Moses!" cried Sandy. "Here we've been sitting here watching
the panorama with our guns in our pockets! I guess we don't know
much about hunting bears, when it comes down to cases."
"Well, it isn't too late to shoot yet," Thede declared.
"It's getting pretty hot here, anyhow," said Sandy, "and we'll have
to drop in a minute, whether we shoot or not. This old tree seems
to be as dry as tinder!"
"Yes," Thede agreed, "I guess you started something when you made
such good use of that one match."
The boys moved about on the limb in order to get at their
automatics. They noted then, for the first time, that the perch
upon which they rested was burning close to the trunk. They called
out to each other, almost simultaneously, to shift to the trunk of
the tree.
But it was too late. They felt themselves swinging through, the
air, and the next moment there was such a mixture of boy and bear
at the bottom of the tree as has rarely been seen in the British
Territories.
Both boys landed squarely on the back of one of the animals. Of
course, they rolled to the ground instantly and grabbed for their
automatics, but their movements were no quicker than those of the
astonished bear.
"Woof!" he said. "Woof!"
Translated into boy-talk, this read "Good-night!" and a second
later they heard both bears tramping through the forest as if
pursued by a pack of hounds.
"What do you know about that?" demanded Tommy.
Without replying, Thede scrambled to his feet and dashed into the
thicket where he had left the fish. He returned in a moment with a
woeful face which set his chum into roars of laughter.
"They ate our fish!" he said,
"What'd you think they'd do with them?" demanded Sandy. "Did you
think they'd put 'em in cold storage and keep 'em for next summer?"
"What I'm sobbing about," Thede went on, "is that the bears
certainly made a monkey of me. They weren't after us. They were
after the fish!"
"Well, they got the fish, didn't they?" asked Sandy.
"And we might have been on our way while they were devouring them!"
wailed Thede.
The tree was now virtually a pillar of fire, and the boys moved out
from under it. They found the Indian standing, stolid and
indifferent, just out of the circle of light.
"Just think of all that funny thing happening and he never seeing
any humor in it!" exclaimed Sandy.
The Indian lifted his hand for silence, and pointed off toward the
hills. Then, motioning the boys to follow him, he led the way into
a thicket and crouched down.
Directly the panting and puffing of a man exhausted from a long
run, was heard, and the familiar figure of Antoine dashed into the
circle of light! He glared about for a moment and then dropped
down on the snow, evidently completely exhausted.