DICK AND THE BEAR
Dick wanted a bear and the outlaw showed him a near-by swamp where
several of the creatures lived. Day after day Dick waded, wandered
and watched in that swamp with the rifle, while Ned tramped in
another direction carrying the shotgun, making maps of the country,
and picking up occasionally a duck or Indian hen for dinner.
Sometimes Dick got sight of a bear, but Bruin was shy and kept well
out of range. One day, while sitting in some thick woods, hoping
that a bear would wander near him, Dick heard a loud tearing sound
that seemed to come from the top of a little group of young
palmettos. He crept as slowly and silently as possible near the
trees and saw a bear sitting in the top of a palmetto, tearing away
the outer husk of the bud of the tree which is the cabbage of the
Cracker and often serves as his bread. While Dick was creeping
nearer to get a surer shot, Bruin tore out the bud and, with the
cabbage in his mouth, dropped from the top of the tree to the
ground, alighting on its fore shoulder. Dick didn't know that this
was the way bears in that country usually came down a tree when in
a hurry, and supposed the bear had met with an accident and was
killed. He changed his mind the next instant when the creature came
racing toward him. Dick and the bear were about ten feet apart when
they saw one another. The bear had to turn quickly to keep from
running over Dick, and Dick had trouble to keep from punching the
bear in the ribs with his rifle when he fired at it.
No one was hurt on this first round and the bear thought it had
escaped and so did the boy. Dick churned a cartridge from the
magazine to the barrel of his rifle and watched closely the
undergrowth through which the bear was running, hoping for another
shot. Just as the splashing in the marsh grew indistinct and Dick
realized that his last chance had gone, he got one glimpse of the
bear as it sprang upon a log that lay across its path. Dick threw
his rifle to his shoulder with the quick motion of the sportsman who
takes a woodcock on the wing, and fired. The bear, which was distant
more than a hundred yards, disappeared and it seemed to the boy
scarcely worth while to follow it. It was only the notion to look
for the mark of his bullet on some tree near the log that induced
him to wallow through the swamp to where he had last seen the bear.
To his amazement he found a piece of bone and some fresh blood on
the log. He had no thought now of abandoning the trail. He followed
it through swamp and jungle, sometimes losing it where the ground
was hard or where it crossed the path of an alligator. Often when he
became fearful that he had lost the trail a smear of blood on root
or leaf told him that he was on the track. From former hunts and the
study of Ned's maps, he knew the general lay of the land, but he
stopped often and noted his course, for he meant to follow that
trail and camp on it if necessary until he lost it finally or found
the bear. The animal seemed to know all the bad stretches of marsh
and thorny bits of jungle and, as the hours passed and night drew
near, without his getting a sight of his quarry, he consoled himself
with the thought of what Mr. Streeter had told him:
"A man is never lost in the swamp so long as he knows where he is
himself."
Dick knew he wouldn't starve. There were always birds to be shot,
alligators which he could kill with a club, and palmetto cabbage
which he could dig out with his knife. He had his matches in a
watertight box, a little bag of salt in his pocket, the swamp water
was fresh, and what more could a hunter-boy ask for? He felt so
cheerful that he began to whistle, which brought him bad luck, for
he stumbled over a root which caught both feet and threw him
head-down into a deep pool of mud. He was half strangled before he
got out and was looking down shudderingly into the morass out of
which he had crawled, when he missed his rifle and knew he had got
to get back into the mudhole. It was so deep that he laid a branch
across it to cling to, before venturing in. A big moccasin crawled
from under a root beside the pool of mud as Dick stepped in it and
the boy shut his teeth tight as he forced himself to wallow through
the slimy, snaky mass from which his flesh recoiled.
He was waist-deep in that broth of mud when his feet found the rifle
and he stooped down into it and groped around among roots that felt
like living, squirming reptiles before he recovered the weapon. When
he had scraped the most of the mud off of himself and out of the
rifle it was too dark to follow the trail and Dick walked to a
near-by thicket where he hoped to find better ground for a camp. He
was peering into a dark recess in the thicket when a fierce growl
within a few feet startled him terribly, but told him that he had
found his bear--or another one. Dick was about to run, when a
picture of Ned facing the outlaw formed itself in his mind and after
that the bear couldn't have kicked him out of its path. As the boy's
eyes became accustomed to the gloom he saw the bear lying within six
feet, with jaws half open, and eyes fixed upon him. Dick believed
the bear was dying, since he failed to spring upon him, but he
thought a bullet would make things safer and he raised his rifle. He
pointed the weapon at the animal's head, but it was too dark to see
the sight of the rifle, the brain of the creature was small, and
Dick, remembering that a bear with a sore head is likely to be
cross, dropped the muzzle of his weapon to the fore shoulder of the
beast, and fired. The bear scarcely moved, but its eyes closed and
Dick was prudently waiting before touching it, when he heard the
distant report of a gun and knew that Ned was worried about him. He
fired an answering shot and then, finding a bit of dry ground beside
the body of the bear, decided to eat his supper the next morning and
lay down to sleep with his head on his new bear robe.
At daylight he heard the report of Ned's gun and fired his rifle in
reply. The bear was so heavy that Dick had trouble in handling it
and before he had finished skinning it the report of a gun within
two hundred yards showed that Ned was out hunting for him and had
taken the right course.
"Hope you didn't worry about me," was Dick's greeting as the boys
met.
"Nope, didn't worry after you answered my shot, but I was mighty
envious of you, for I knew you had got hold of something. I didn't
believe it was a bear. Were you scared, Dick?"
"Yes, I was, a heap, but I pulled through," and Dick told his chum
of the thought that braced him up.
Ned tried to speak roughly, but his voice trembled and he looked
affectionately at his companion as he said:
"See here, Dick, boy, you can cut out all that outlaw talk. The gun
business was all bluff and you know it as well as I."
"You looked pretty white, Neddy, for a fellow who didn't think he
was taking any risk. But if you'll tell me now, honest Injun, that
you didn't think there was any danger when you faced that convict
and called him a liar, a thief and a coward, why I'll never speak of
it again. I noticed that your pet outlaw, who said the fellow was a
murderer, three deep, didn't seem to think that you had done
anything so very amusing in giving that fellow the lie and all the
rest of it."
"I see you are round-skinning your bear for mounting. I'm glad of
that. Some day I'll see it in your house and we'll be talking about
last night."
"That skin is for you. I want you to have it stuffed and put where
it can watch your alligator."
"I'm not going to take all the trophies of this trip. You can bet
your life on that."
"Don't get slangy, Neddy. You aren't used to it and it isn't
becoming. Besides, we may never get these little souvenirs out of
the wilderness."
By which remark Dick proved himself to be a prophet.
The trail of the bear had been roundabout and had brought Dick
within less than a mile of the camp. The buzzards were gathering and
Dick remained to guard the meat while he finished removing the skin
and cleaning the skull. Ned made two trips with good loads and then,
taking all they could carry, the boys returned to camp, leaving a
big feast for the bird scavengers.