Captain Joe, in his best manner, offered the most abject apologies for
his conduct, and ended by rubbing his wet muzzle against the boy’s hand
and receiving a forgiving pat on the head.
“If you’ll look after the boat, a little while,” Clay said, shivering,
“I’ll go out with the dog and look for the boys. There may be something
wrong with them. They should have returned an hour ago.”
“If they don’t get back right soon,” Case remarked, “they won’t get any
fish. The oven was hot when I put that big one in, and it won’t be long
before supper will be ready.”
“I’m uneasy about them,” Clay admitted.
“Then you go back to the boat,” Case advised, “and let me look after the
kids. You’re shivering with cold! I’ll take Captain Joe with me, and
we’ll dig ’em out in no time. Then we’ll bring the fish on board and
have a feast. I suppose you have the other things nearly ready?”
“Why, yes,” Day remembered, “I put the coffee and potatoes over, and
they’ll be spoiled if I don’t hurry back. You’ll have to hunt up the
boys after all. I’ll get right back to the boat and get dried out.”
“But look here,” Case cried out, as Clay started toward the primitive
canoe, “how are we to get on board if you take the boat back?”
“I’ll tie a cord to the line and throw it back,” Clay solved the puzzle,
picking up a stone. “I suppose I can throw a rock sixty feet?”
“All right,” laughed Case. “I didn’t think of that. Now you get back and
dry yourself. And get supper ready, and don’t throw the line to the
shore until you hear us calling.”
Clay paddled back to the _Rambler_, and Case, led on by the dog, started
off into the cedar thicket. At first Captain Joe trotted along calmly in
the white circle thrown by the electric candle in the boy’s hand, but as
he penetrated deeper into the forest, following a wide canyon running
between two precipitous ranges, he became excited and dashed on so
rapidly that it was with difficulty that Case kept pace with him.
It was dark as a pocket in the forest, and the underbrush made progress
difficult, but the boy and the dog kept resolutely on for nearly half an
hour before coming to a halt. Then Captain Joe bristled his back, showed
his teeth, and emitted a succession of threatening growls.
“What is it, old boy?” asked Case, hoping that the boys were not far
off, as he was becoming weary as well as fearful for their safety.
Captain Joe advanced through a thicket for a few paces and then backed
out, showing that, whatever it was that he was investigating, it was not
very far away. Case did not urge him on, for he did not know what peril
lurked in the darkness of the undergrowth. The dog continued to growl,
but did not again advance into the tangle from which he had just
emerged.
There was no wind whatever in that sheltered place, and there was only
the roar of the rapids below the _Rambler_ to break the silence, except
that now and then a night bird flew protestingly from a perch in a
nearby tree and winged to a more secluded position. Case stood with his
light on the thicket for a moment, listening.
Then he heard a giggle from a great cedar in the middle of the tangle of
bushes. It was not a laugh, but a positive giggle. The tree, only forty
or fifty feet away, was thick of bough, and Case could not see into its
top, but the giggle was repeated, and he walked forward.
There was no mistaking that giggle! Alex was hiding in the tree! Clay
supposed that the boy had seen the light coming and had climbed the
cedar for the purpose of playing a joke on his chum, so he walked on
into the tangle at its foot and called out:
“Alex! Come out of that, you crazy loon! What are you doing up there,
anyway? Come down or I’ll send a couple of bullets up there.”
The giggle came louder than ever, and Alex’s voice came down from the
lower boughs of the tree.
“You might keep your light going,” the lad up the tree said, in a casual
manner, “for if you let it switch off you’ll probably receive a visit
from the grizzly bear that has been keeping me up in this tree for a
couple of hours. And keep Captain Joe away. His Grizzlyship could kill
him with one poke.”
“A grizzly bear down here!” cried Case, and the next minute he was some
distance away, whirling the light swiftly around his head.
“The grizzly will like that, I know,” Alex said, calmly, from the tree.
“He’s a sociable kind of a bear, and has been inviting me to come down
and accept of a furnished room inside of him. Suppose you take a shot at
him, old man? I don’t think he intends going away until he sees my
finish. And, if I were you. I’d climb a tree before I shot. He tells me
that it annoys him to be shot at.”
“You everlasting, concentrated essence of cheek!” cried Case. “Why don’t
you shoot him yourself? He’s your bear! What?”
“I clipped one of his ears,” replied Alex, “and then my gun dropped to
the ground and he ate it. At least I heard a crunching that sounded like
eating a piece of steel. I haven’t got my searchlight, because I had to
throw it at him when I climbed the tree.”
Case took the hint about getting up in a tree, while Captain Joe looked
on in red-eyed wonder. He could not understand why the boys did not help
him capture or kill the big beast sitting at the foot of the tree.
The grizzly had set up a protest at the interruption of his silent wait
under the tree for the supper he had ordered, and was now sniffing
toward the bushes where Captain Joe stood. He kept out of the circle
thrown by the searchlight as much as possible, but was evidently
determined to make a stand right there for his stomach’s sake.
The light wavered and traveled about considerably while Case was worming
his way up to the branches of a tree, and so, in the uncertain light,
the bear kept going bravely nearer to the dog. Captain Joe did not
retreat. So far as Case could see from his place of safety, the dog was
getting ready to do battle.
“Here, Captain Joe!” Alex called, “you’ll get your dome of thought
dented if you go fooling with that grizzly. He’s been raised a pet, and
doesn’t like to have dogs seek his society.”
“‘Dome of thought dented’ is slang,” Case put in, from his tree, “and
you’ll wash dishes to pay for it.”
“All right,” Alex replied, submissively, “you just dent the grizzly a
few and I’ll wash the dishes. I’m hungry, and I’ve a notion that Gran
has deserted, and I want to get back to the cabin. If I should appear on
South Clark street in my present apparel, the police would pinch me for
neglecting to patronize the clothing stores. See?”
“The bear got you, did he?” asked Case, anxiously. “Did he hurt you?
Guess you got up the tree just ahead of him! What?”
“A thousandth part of an inch ahead of him,” Alex answered. “He got part
of my jacket and the most of my trousers. Hurry up and shoot.”
Case knew that the situation was serious, for, unless he could succeed
in killing the grizzly, the beast might remain on guard all through the
long night Clay might hear the shots and come to the rescue and he might
not. Alex’s shots had not been heard at the river. Still, in spite of
all, he could not resist the inclination to laugh at the boy’s
description of his attire.
“I can’t shoot him unless I can see him,” he replied. “He’s in the
thicket now, trying to look Captain Joe out of countenance. Whistle to
the dog, and when he gets under your tree the bear will follow. Then
I’ll turn on the flashlight and shoot.“
“Great wisdom, considering your lack of early training!” cried Alex.
“Here, Captain Joe!” he called, “Come away from that bear and look up
into this beautiful tree! Come on, old snooks!”
The dog sprang away from the grizzly and backed, snarling, to the very
trunk of the tree. Looking up, he saw his master among the branches, and
straightway tried to climb up to him, an undertaking which was as loyal
as it was impossible.
The grizzly sprang forward and lifted a huge paw to strike the dog, and
that would have been the finish of Captain Joe if Case had not acted
promptly. The circle of white light fluttered over the bushes for an
instant, struck the bole of the tree just above the bear’s head, and
then dropped to his neck, where it rested.
The bullet struck the bear where the spotlight rested, at the base of
the brain, and he dropped to the ground, dead to all intents and
purposes, though his huge body contorted on the underbrush for a moment,
and once or twice he endeavored to rise to his feet. The bullet had
broken the spinal column and entered the brain. As the motions were all
automatic, they soon ceased, and then Case and Alex after other shots
had been fired, came sliding down out of their trees, each grinning but
white of face.
“That was a good shot, kid!” Alex said. “You ought to have the hide for
a rug!”
“I’ll have it in the morning, all right,” Case answered. “Just now we’d
better get some steak and hustle back to the _Rambler_.”
“But you said you’d have fish for supper!” suggested the boy.
“How long do you think a fish will remain fit to eat if kept in an oven
after being cooked through?” demanded Case. “My fish was ready to take
up when I came out after you, and that’s more than half an hour ago. By
the time we get back it will be burned to cinders.”
Case threw the light over the boy and broke into a laugh, serious as the
danger had been. The clothing was almost torn from Alex’s back, and
drops of blood were trinkling down.
“He almost got you!” Case exclaimed.
Captain Joe approached his fallen enemy and then looked up at the lads
with a gleam of admiration in his red eyes.
“The dog knows,” was all Alex said on the subject. “But, come,” he went
on, “let’s get back. Gran’s eloped, and we needn’t wait for him.”
“Eloped!” repeated Case, turning the light on his friend’s face to see
if this was not a new joke. “Eloped with whom?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” replied the boy, determined not to tell anything
about the meeting of the morning; “I saw him in here, just up there at
the angle of the canyon, talking with a man, and then the bear came
along—and I entered into conversation with the bear!”
“Did Gran see you?” asked Case, wondering if the strange lad had
observed Alex’s peril and failed to protect him.
Alex shook his head and plunged forward through the trees. Captain Joe
barked at his heels a moment, and then ran back to the bear, where it
lay on the ground under the tree.
“Wait!” Case called. “You needn’t run away from me! Captain Joe is
asking you to come back and take the grizzly with you. He wants some of
that meat for his supper.”
Alex returned and the two boys skinned a shoulder and secured quite a
quantity of bear meat, after which they resumed their tramp to the
river. During this time Case had said nothing more to Alex about the
disappearance of Gran He did not like the abrupt manner in which his
questions had been answered, and resolved to let the boy tell what he
knew in his own way and at his own convenience.
It took them a long time to get back to the river, and even then they
found themselves some distance below the point where the _Rambler_ lay,
and where the fish had been cooking. The long, foaming rapids lay in
front of them, indistinct in the dim light of the stars.
It would be impossible for the _Rambler_ to drop down to them, for the
rapids would have drawn her in, even with her full power opposing, and,
besides, there was the fish, which might be worth uncovering. So the
tired boys trudged slowly along the rocky bank, sometimes turning into
the interior to avoid coves, and saw, in the darkness, danger rockets
ascending to the sky from the deck of the _Rambler_!