The three now started up the creek toward the barabbara, their steps
perhaps a little quicker than when they came down-stream. Rob was
scanning the mountain-side carefully, and looking as well at the sign
along the creek bank.
"That's where he lives, up in that canyon across the creek, very likely,"
he said, at length. "Here's where he crossed in the shallow water, and
last night he fished all along this bank. My! I'll bet he's full of
bones to-day. It's the first run of fish, and he was so hungry he ate
pretty near everything except the backbone." He pointed to a dozen
skeletons of salmon that lay half hidden in the grass. The latter was
trampled down as though cows had been in pasture there.
"I don't know," said Jesse, soberly. "I always wanted to kill a bear,
and there's three of us now and we've got guns; but I don't believe I
ever wanted to kill a bear quite as big as this one. Why, he could
smash in the door of our house in the night and eat us up if he wanted
to."
"We'll eat _him_, that's what we'll do," said John, decisively. "I only
wish we had a kettle or a frying-pan or something."
"Seems to me you'd better get the bear first," said Jesse. "But we might
look in among the traps in the back of the hut and see what we can find.
These hunters nearly always leave some kind of cooking things at their
camps."
Sure enough, when the boys entered the barabbara to look after their
rifles, and began to rummage among the piles of _klipsies_ which they
found thrown back under the eaves, they unearthed a broken cast-iron
frying-pan and, what caused them even greater delight, a little, dirty
sack, which contained perhaps three or four pounds of salt. They sat on
the grass of the floor and looked at one another with broad smiles. "If
everything keeps up as lucky as this," said Jesse, "we'll be ready to
keep house all right pretty soon. But ought we to use these things that
don't belong to us?"
"Surely we may," answered Rob. "It is always the custom in a wild
country for any one who is lost and in need to take food when he finds
it, and to use a camp as though it were his own. Of course we mustn't
waste anything or carry anything off, but while we're here we'll act as
though this place were ours, and if any one finds us here we'll pay for
what we use. That's the Alaska way, as you know."
"You're not going out after that big bear, are you?" asked Jesse,
anxiously, of Rob.
"Of course; we're all going! What are these new rifles for--just look,
brand-new high-power Winchesters, every one--and any one of these guns
will shoot as hard for us as for a grown man."
They sat for some time in the hut discussing various matters. At last
John crawled to the door and looked out. He was rather a matter-of-fact
boy in his way, and there seemed no special excitement in his voice as
he remarked: "Well, Rob, there comes your bear."
The others hurried to the door. Sure enough, upon the bare mountain
slope beyond the lagoon, nearly half a mile away, there showed plainly
enough the body of an enormous bear, large as a horse. It was one of the
great Kadiak bears, which are the biggest of all the world.
"Cracky!" said Jesse; "he looks pretty big to me. Do you suppose he'll
find us here in the house?"
Rob, the oldest of the three, who had been on one or two hunts with his
father, looked serious as he watched this giant animal advancing down
the hill-side with its long, reaching stride. Suddenly he uttered an
exclamation. "Look!" said he; "there's two more just come out of the
brush. It's an old she bear and her cubs coming down to fish!"
All could now see the three bears, the great, yellow-gray mother, huge
and shaggy, and the two cubs, darker in color and, of course, much
smaller, although each was as large as the ordinary black bear of the
United States. Certainly it was an exciting moment as the boys looked at
these great creatures now so close at hand.
Presently the old bear seemed to suspect something, for she stopped and
sat up on her haunches, swinging from side to side a head which was
fully as long as the arm of any one of the boys.
"She probably smells the smoke," whispered Rob. "Oh, I hope she won't
get scared and run away! No, there she comes; it's the first salmon run,
and they're all hungry for fish."
They watched the bears until at last they disappeared in the brush which
lined the creek on the farther side. Rob kept his eye intently fixed on
the place where they had disappeared, but made no motion to leave the
hut until finally all three of the bears once more appeared, this time
splashing across the creek.
"She knows the tide as well as we do," muttered he. "It won't be long
now before the fish begin to move up the creek again. Now, come on,
fellows, if you're not afraid!"
Rob looked around at John, who had his new rifle in his hand, but looked
none too eager, now that the opportunity had come to use it. Jesse's
lip, it must be confessed, trembled a little bit, and he was pale. The
first sight of a large bear has been known to unsettle the nerves of
many a grown man, and it was not to be wondered at that it should
disturb one of Jesse's years. There was, perhaps, in the wild and remote
situation in which they found themselves something which gave them
courage. They had escaped such dangers of the sea that now the danger of
the land seemed less by comparison. Moreover, they all had the hunting
instinct, and were accustomed to seeing big game brought in by their
relatives and friends. Had an older person been with them, no doubt they
would all have been frightened; but there is something strange in the
truth that when one is thrown on one's own resources courage comes when
needed--as it did now to these three castaways.
Without any further speech Rob passed out at the door and stood waiting
for the others to follow. Each was silent as he held his way down the
creek.
For some distance they did not need to conceal themselves; then their
leader took them along the edge of the creek, where their heads would
not show above the grass. Thus following down the stream, and carefully
peering over the banks at each bend, they worked along until they were
perhaps three or four hundred yards above the big salmon pool and near
to a flat piece of water which extended above it. Rob raised a warning
finger.
"Listen!" he hissed.
They could hear it now distinctly--heavy splashing in the water, broken
with low, grumbling whines in a deep, throaty voice, something like what
one may hear in a circus at feeding-time. Once in a while a squeak or a
bawl came from one of the cubs. Rob laughed. From his position near the
top of the bank he could now see the picture before him.
The old mother was sitting on her haunches out in the middle of the
stream, with a cub on either side of her. She was trying to teach them
to fish. Once in a while she would make a sudden, cat-like stroke with
her long forearm, and almost always would throw out a fine salmon on the
bank. Toward this the cubs would start in their hunger, but the old
lady, reproving them for their eagerness, would then cuff them soundly
on the head, knocking them sprawling over in the water, to their very
great disgust. Once in a while one of them, his ears tight to his head,
would sit down in the water, lift up his nose and complain bitterly at
this hard treatment. Then again he would make a half-hearted stroke at
some of the fish which he could see swimming about him; but his short
claws would not hold like the long, curved ones of his mother, and no
fish rewarded the efforts of either of the cubs. The boys lost all sense
of fear in watching this amusing scene, which they studied for some
minutes. They really lost their best opportunity for stalking their
game, because presently the old grizzly changed her mind and led the way
out to the bank where several fish were lying flapping. Upon these they
all fell eagerly, grunting and grumbling, and now and again fighting
among themselves.
Rob turned toward his friends. "Quick now!" he whispered, sternly, and
led the way, crawling into the high grass which would afford them cover
for a closer approach to their game. The hearts of all of them now were
throbbing wildly, and probably each one doubted his ability to do good
shooting. Something, however, led them on, and although Rob saw two pale
faces following him when he looked back, there was a glitter in the eyes
of each which told him that at least each of his friends would do his
best.
Passing now out of the grass to the cover of the bank again, Rob ran
along crouching, until he pulled up under cover of the bank at a point
not more than seventy-five yards from where they could now distinctly
hear the bears at their feeding.
"Get ready now!" he whispered.
Slowly the three crawled to the top of the bank. Rob laid a hand on
Jesse's rifle barrel, which he saw was unsteady. He made motions to both
of the others not to be excited. A strange sort of calm seemed to have
come upon him. Yet, plucky as he was, he was not prepared for the sight
which met him as he gazed through the parted grass at the top of the
bank.
The old grizzly, once more suspicious, had again sat up on her haunches,
and turning her head from side to side began to sniff as though she
scented danger. Her shaggy hair shone silvery now in the sun, and she
seemed enormously large. Rob's heart leaped to his mouth, but suddenly
dropping to his knee, and calling out to the others "Now!" he fired
without longer hesitation.
The sound of the other two rifles followed at once. The great bear gave
a hoarse roar which seemed to make the hair prickle on the boys' heads;
but even as she roared she dropped and floundered in the mud of the
bank, up which she strove to climb. Again and again the rifles spoke.
"Now the little ones--quick!" cried Rob, half springing to his feet, and
continuing to fire steadily. Some one's shot struck the first cub square
through the spine and killed it instantly. The second cub stood but a
moment longer. These boys had used rifles many times before, and
although not every shot went true, perhaps half of them struck their
mark; and it was as Rob had said--the rifles shot as hard for them as
for a grown man.
The great she bear, possessed of enormous vitality, was not easily
disposed of. The magazines of all the rifles were emptied the second
time before Rob would allow them to go a foot closer, and even so, the
great gray body retained life enough to roll half down the bank as they
approached. This time Rob finished the old bear with a shot through the
head, at a distance of not more than thirty yards.
The game was down and dead--three great bears, one of them huge beyond
the wildest dreams of any of them, and unbelievably large even for the
most widely experienced sportsman. Indeed, any sportsman might have been
proud of this record. Rob turned to look at his friends.
Suddenly he himself sat down, and to his surprise found that he was
trembling violently all over. Jesse and John were both doing the same.
He saw that their faces were deathly pale.
"I'm--I'm--I'm sort of--sort of sick at my stomach!" said Jesse.
X