CLOSE QUARTERS WITH A BEAR.
It was not long after this that the camp moved eastward, and stopped
near the west end of the little group of mountains which rise out of the
rolling prairie, and which, Hugh told Jack, were known to to the Indians
as Bear's Hand. The summer was ended now and the nights were cool. From
the little prairie lakes and the infrequent streams, the travellers
often started flocks of ducks, and at night and in the early morning,
the fine thin music caused by the swiftly beating wings of migrating
water fowl, reached their ears. Once or twice, Hugh had said to Jack,
"Well, son, before long, we've got to be jogging. I reckon the best way
for you to get home, and maybe for me too, is to take a boat down the
Missouri River, if we can get one, until we strike a railroad, and then
you can go East and I'll go West."
"But, Hugh, what can we do with the horses? I don't want to leave Pawnee
up here in the Indian camp, nor the new horse, and we can't take them
with us on the boat, can we?"
"Well, I don't know," said Hugh, "we'll have to find out about that. I
reckon, unless they're pretty heavy loaded, they can find room for half
a dozen animals, and the way things look now, we've got money enough to
pay their passage. Anyhow, it's a different thing travelling over the
prairie now, from what it was when we came up here. There's more danger,
and I've been thinking we ought to cross over to Helena and go south
from there through the mountains, and try to keep in the settlements all
the way. I heard tell last winter, that they were building a railroad
from Salt Lake City up north to Helena, or somewhere near there, and if
we could strike that, it would save us a heap of time. Anyway, I don't
intend to go South over the prairie, the way we came; that country, now,
is likely full of Indians and we might get jumped 'most any time. We'll
have to wait till we get to Benton, to find out how things are, and I
reckon, pretty quick, we've got to pack up and go in there. I think the
camp is likely to move up on the Marias before long, and I'd rather stay
with them than ride off alone with you."
Since they had found it, their gold had caused Hugh and Jack much
anxiety. The sack which contained it, though apparently full of flour
was very much heavier than any of the other sacks of flour, and the
difference in weight would have caused any one who handled it, to wonder
what it contained. They were careful, therefore, always to pack their
own horses, and to leave an open sack of flour among their things, in
order that, if John Monroe's wife wished to use any, she would go to
that, rather than open a fresh sack. So far, no one had any suspicion of
the existence of the gold in the camp, and Hugh was anxious that no one
should know of it, because there were several white men living with the
Indians, about whom he knew very little.
It was now September. Jack had been in the camp more than two months,
and besides the old men that he had come to know, he had also made the
acquaintance of a number of young fellows of about his own age. From Joe
and Hugh, he had learned a few words of Piegan, so that, often, he could
understand what people were talking about, and sometimes mustered up
courage to speak a few words himself.
One day, not long after his conversation with Hugh about returning home,
the news was called out through the camp, that in three days the village
would move over to Willow Rounds, on the Marias River, and would stay
there a long time. When he heard this, Hugh told Jack that he thought it
best, that from there, they should go into Benton and try to go down the
river.
That evening Joe came to the lodge and proposed that the next day they
should go up into the Bear Paw Mountains, to hunt deer. "Three others
are going," he said, "Bull Calf, The Mink and Handsome Face. We ought to
go early and I think we can kill some deer."
"All right, Joe," said Jack, "I'll go, and be ready to start any time
you say."
"Well, then," said Joe, "let's go by the time the sun rises."
Bright and early next morning, the party started and rode up the
mountain. It was not very long before they reached the pine timber, and
soon after, they separated into two parties, Bull Calf and The Mink
going off on the south side of the hills, while Jack and Joe and
Handsome Face kept up on the western slope.
After riding through the timber for quite a long time, they came to some
little parks, quite surrounded by timber, with pretty little streams
flowing through them, making, as Jack thought, the best possible feeding
grounds for deer. After they had passed through several of these without
seeing any game, but finding plenty of tracks and old sign, Joe, who was
a little ahead, stopped his horse, raised his hand as a sign for the
others to wait, and slipped off on foot through the trees. In a very few
moments, he had returned, and signing them to dismount and follow him,
he led the way through the silent timber. All the boys wore moccasins,
and treading with hunter's care, went along like so many ghosts. No twig
snapped under their feet, nor did they allow the branches or bushes to
scrape against their legs. After a few moments quick walk, Joe turned,
and making a sign for caution, dropped to his knees and crept through
the low bushes to the edge of a little park. There, as they peered
through the leaves, they saw a pretty sight. Three yearling deer were
feeding slowly toward them, and were now not more than fifty yards away.
They acted as if they had finished their breakfast, and did not seem
hungry, but rather as if they were looking for a place to lie down. They
would walk along for a few steps, and then one stopping, would nibble at
the grass, while the others kept on, and then, perhaps one of these
would stop and be passed by the other two. In this careless fashion,
they came up to within twenty-five or thirty yards of where the boys
knelt, and then one of them suddenly folded his long, slender legs under
him and lay down. The others stood by him, one broadside to the
watchers, the other head on. Joe signed to Handsome Face, and then the
two boys with arrows on the string, rose to their knees, and shot
together. Each of the two deer sprang high in the air, and coming down,
looked about with raised head and alert ears. The deer that was lying
down, stretched his head up high and looked at them, and then about it,
but did not spring to its feet. The boys could see in each of the two
standing deer, the arrows buried nearly to the feathers. In a moment,
the deer at which Handsome Face had shot, fell on the ground, and Joe's
deer immediately afterward lay down.
Jack whispered to Joe, "Shall I kill the other?"
"Yes," said Joe, "kill him, sure." Jack took steady aim at the slender
neck showing above the grass, and fired, and the deer's head
disappeared.
"Well," said Jack, as the boys rose to their feet, and walked out toward
the animals, "that seems to me like butchering. Of course we can use the
meat, and we need the hides, but I don't think there's much fun in
killing game that's as tame as that."
"Pooh," said Joe, "if they'd heard us, or smelt us, you wouldn't think
they were tame; they'd have run off mighty fast, and we fellows that
have arrows wouldn't have got a shot at them at all."
While Joe and Jack were butchering, Handsome Face went off into the
timber, and soon returned with their horses. The deer were loaded on the
animals, and they started to return to camp.
After they had begun to descend the mountain, they passed into a long,
sloping valley, and here, as they were riding along, Jack discovered
that the ground was covered with low huckleberry bushes, abundantly
loaded with fruit. A halt was called, and the boys dismounted, and for
half an hour were busily engaged picking and eating the delicious
berries. While they were doing this, the sky clouded over and it began
to rain a little. They mounted again and kept on down the hill, and
presently, riding up onto a long-hog back, stopped there to look off to
the southward and see whether they could discover their companions. To
the south of this ridge was another valley, similar to the one that they
had been going down. By this time the rain had stopped, but the sky was
still overcast. The boys lay there on the ground, talking and waiting;
suddenly Handsome Face stretched out his hand and touching Jack's arm,
said, "_Aamo, Aamo, Kyiyu_,"--look, look, bears. The boys turned their
heads in the direction that he was looking, and saw, far off in the
valley to the south of them, three bears that had just come in sight
from behind a little ridge. One was large and two small, and they were
walking about in an aimless way that Jack did not understand.
"What are they?" he asked.
"Bears," said Joe; "old one and two cubs, pickin' berries." Jack
realised now, that the bears as they walked here and there, and stuck
out their noses, were gathering huckleberries, just as he had been doing
a little while before.
"How'll we get them, Joe?" he asked.
"I don't know," said Joe. "Got to wait." Then he spoke some words to
Handsome face, who answered him, and Joe went on speaking to Jack:
"Handsome Face says, wait a little while and they'll go behind a hill
and then we can get on our horses and ride down there and run them."
The boys lay there, a good deal excited, not daring to move, and fearing
constantly that the old bear would see the horses and run away. But if
she saw them, she must have thought they were buffalo, for she paid no
heed to them, but went on with the young ones, picking berries.
At length, both the smaller bears passed out of sight, and then a little
later, the old one. The boys crept on all fours to their horses, untied
the deer and threw them to the ground. Jack tightened his saddle girths,
and all three mounting passed down the hill towards the bears.
As they descended into the valley, the ridges, which from the height had
seemed so low, began to appear higher, and to assume the proportions of
quite respectable hills. Jack thought that he had marked the place where
the bears disappeared, with some care, but before long, made up his mind
that he had quite lost it. Joe and Handsome Face, however, rode steadily
forward, as if they knew just where the place was, as of course they
did. The advance was brisk, yet the boys did not gallop, and went as
carefully as possible. Pretty soon, Jack could see that they must be
getting near the place, for the boys used still greater caution, and at
length, Joe stopped, slipped off his horse and went ahead on foot, while
Handsome Face and Jack remained behind. When Joe looked over the ridge,
he saw nothing, and remounting, they passed on to the next one, where he
took another look. Coming back very cautiously, he whispered: "They are
just over the ridge; we can rush on them from there." From the top of
the ridge they could see the three bears, unsuspicious as yet, and no
more than fifty yards away, and as soon as they saw them, the three
dashed forward at top speed.
[Illustration: "HE HAD NO TIME TO THINK, HARDLY TO MOVE."--_Page 280_]
Jack expected that Pawnee would be able to run away from the other
horses, and he made up his mind that he would try for the old bear; but
he found that the horse that Handsome Face was riding, was as swift as
Pawnee, and the two kept along about even, both trying to overtake the
mother. It was a race as well as a chase. At first the way was down hill
and there, they did not in the least gain on the bear, but in a moment
she began to climb the hill, and then they closed up on her rapidly.
Handsome Face had his bow strung and a sheaf of arrows in his hand, and
was making ready to let fly. It was impossible for Jack to shoot, as
Handsome Face was directly between him and the bear, the boys riding
nearly side by side, and only a few feet apart. All the while they were
drawing up close to the bear; rather closer, as Jack thought, than was
safe; but he had no time to think about this. Suddenly, Handsome Face
drew an arrow to the head and shot, and almost as he did so, the bear
whirled and charged directly toward the two boys. Handsome Face's horse
turned at right angles, to rush away, and striking Pawnee with his chest
just behind the shoulders, knocked him off his feet, so that he fell
flat on his side. As the horse went down, Jack jumped, alighting on his
feet, but staggering three or four steps before he recovered his
balance. He had not let go his gun. He turned to look to see where the
bear was, and as he did so, he saw, almost upon him, a huge mass of hair
and gleaming white teeth, flying toward him. He had no time to think,
hardly to move. He threw up his gun, fired, tried to jump back out of
the way, but his heel caught; something struck him a violent blow, and
he knew nothing more.
All this time, Joe, whose horse was slower, had fallen behind the
others, whipping and kicking with his heels, trying to keep up. The
charge of the bear at right angles to her course, had enabled him to
gain quite a little bit, so that when the beast threw itself on Jack, he
was but a few yards off. He flung himself to the ground, and rushing up
close to the side of the bear, shot arrow after arrow into its heart,
until all his shafts were gone. It did not leave its prey, and throwing
away his bow, he drew his knife, sprang upon the bear and thrust the
blade again and again into its body behind the shoulder. Still it did
not move; there was no response, not even a quiver of the muscle, and
suddenly Joe realised that the bear was dead. He sprang to its head and
catching the beast by its great ears, dragged its head off Jack's face
and breast and called aloud to Handsome Face, who by this time had
returned, "Hurry, hurry, let us help him if we can." The boys managed to
drag the bear off Jack, who presented a shocking spectacle. His head,
breast and shoulders were covered with blood, but he was not quite dead,
for they could see the breath from his nostrils bubbling through the
blood. Pulling him up a little way from the bear, they began to feel of
him to see whether he was hurt, but in a minute they both broke down.
Joe cried bitterly, saying, "Oh! My friend, my friend. I have lost my
friend," while Handsome Face began to sing a very melancholy song. It
was a sad time for both boys.
Suddenly, as they were crying, Jack sat up and said, "What's the matter?
Oh! I know." Both Indian boys sprang to their feet and stared at him,
for a moment, and then Joe, throwing himself on his knees behind him,
put his arms around Jack, gave him a great hug. "Oh!" he said, "you're
not dead, I thought you were dead. Are you hurt? Did the bear strike
you?"
"No," said Jack, "I guess there's nothing the matter with me, except
that I feel stupid and my head aches."
Joe and Handsome Face now felt Jack all over and he seemed to be unhurt
anywhere except that on the back of his head, there was a great bruise
which was bleeding a little. The blood, on his head and breast, was that
of the bear, and when they went to the body and looked at it, they found
that by the merest accident in his shooting, Jack's life had been saved.
The ball had struck the bear in the end of the nose and had passed up
through the air passages into the brain, causing instant death. The
animal had been so close to Jack when he shot, that death did not stop
her advance, and the whole weight of her body thrown against Jack had
knocked him violently to the ground; his head had struck a small stone
and the blow had cut and stunned him. Except for a headache, he was as
well as he had ever been.
Jack, for a little while, sat on the ground and nursed his aching head,
while Handsome Face and Joe worked at the bear, taking off the skin. The
two were very merry, and chattered and sang. Joe, in the exuberance of
his spirits, made fun of Jack for having been thrown off his horse and
knocked down by the bear, and altogether, was a very different Joe from
the one who had been sobbing on the hillside only a few minutes before.
Before long the two boys had the bear skinned, and loaded on one of the
horses. Then Handsome Face and Joe went back to the ridge where they had
left the deer, put them on the horses and returning to Jack, the party
started for the village. No one seemed to know what had become of the
two bear cubs. During the excitement that attended the chase of the
mother, the little fellows had disappeared. Handsome Face said that
Pawnee had no sooner struck the ground than he had bounded to his feet
again and had done this so quickly that he had got out of the bear's
way.
Just as they reached the prairie, they heard shouts behind them, and
looking back, saw Bull Calf and The Mink galloping toward them, each
with a load behind him on his horse. When they came up, it was seen that
Bull Calf had a young bear and The Mink a deer and when their stories
had been told by both parties, it was learned that this little bear had
run over the ridge and down toward the Indian boys who were coming down
the mountain, and they had chased it and killed it with their arrows.
Certainly, this had been a lucky hunt; four deer and two bears for five
boys!
At a little brook, they crossed on their homeward way, Jack dismounted
and washed from himself as much blood of the bear as he could, and after
that felt much more comfortable, so that before camp was reached, though
his head still ached badly, he felt quite like himself again.
That night, in the lodge, when he told Hugh the story of the day, the
old man found fault with him for carelessness and bad judgment.
"You hadn't never ought to ride close beside any man that's trying to
kill on horse-back. If it's buffalo or bear, it's all the same. If he
has to turn off quick, he'll either ride into you or right ahead of you
and get in your way. Besides that, you can't shoot at anything if a man
is between you and the game, and yet you're riding along side of him
with a loaded gun, likely as not pointing right at him, and if you're
anyway careless, you're likely to pull it off and maybe kill him. There
ain't no game that it's worth taking them risks for. Just as soon as you
found that your horse was not good enough to pass the boy's, you ought
to have fell behind and waited; you might know that that bear wouldn't
be killed by an arrow, and that your chance would come. Of course, there
have been times when bears have been killed by arrows, old Pis'kun,
here, killed a big grizzly once that way, but a thing like that don't
happen once in a dog's age; that's one reason why Indians are so afraid
of bears.
"In the old times, when they had nothing but arrows, they couldn't kill
bears at all, and lots of men that tried it got killed off. It's only
since the Indians got some good guns, that they have killed any bears to
amount to anything."
"Well, Hugh, I see now, since you explained it to me, that I was pretty
stupid, but I didn't think about any of these things," said Jack.
"No, I don't reckon you did. You are a boy of course, and boys have a
kind of habit of not thinking, but just running in and doing things, and
not figuring on what may happen afterward. I'm mighty glad I wasn't with
you, for I reckon if I had been, I'd a been scared a plenty."
"Well, but then, if you had been with us I guess it wouldn't have
happened. You'd probably have called out to me and I'd have likely done
what you said."
"Well, yes, maybe so. I'll say this for you," he went on, "that you've
got a lot more sense than most boys I've seen."
"I ought to be learning something with all the things you tell me, and
all the different kinds of trouble I keep getting into all the time."
"Well, you won't have much chance to get into any more troubles,
because, now we are going to move back to the Marias, and then you and
me, and maybe Joe will go into Benton and tend to our little business
there, and then go down the river."
"Well," said Jack, "I'm mighty sorry to have the summer ended; I never
had such a good time in my life. I thought last year, when I went back,
that I never could have as good a time again, but this is better."