Bart was brought to his senses by Joses, who exclaimed sharply:
"Load, my lad, load; you never know when you may want your piece."
Bart obeyed mechanically as Joses shouted:
"Now then, how long are you going to sit there?"
Sam, who was seated astride the gnarled old limb, holding on tightly
with both hands, turned his head slightly and then turned it back,
staring straight down into the awful depths, as if fascinated by the
scene below.
"Here, hi! Don't sit staring there," cried Joses. "Get back, man."
Sam shook his head and seemed to cling the more tightly.
"Are you hurt, Sam?" cried Bart.
Sam shook his head.
"Why don't you speak?" roared Joses, angrily. "Did the beasts claw
you?"
Sam shook his head, but otherwise he remained motionless, and Bart and
Joses went round to where the tree clung to the rocky soil, and stood
gazing out at their companion and within some fifteen feet of where he
clung.
"What's the matter, Sam; why don't you come back?" asked Bart.
The man responded with a low groan.
"He must be badly hurt, Joses," exclaimed Bart. "What are we to do?"
"Wait a moment till I think," said Joses. "He's hurt in his head,
that's what's the matter with him."
"By the bears' claws?"
"No, my lad, they didn't hurt him. He's frit."
"Frightened?" said Bart.
"Yes! He's lost his nerve, and daren't move."
"Let's say a few encouraging words to him."
"You may say thousands, and they won't do no good," said Joses. "He's
got the fright and badly too."
"But the bears are gone?"
"Ay, that they are, my lad; but the fall's there, and that's what he's
afraid of. I've seen men look like that before now, when climbing up
mountains."
"But it would be so easy to get back, Joses. I could do it directly."
"So could he if he hadn't lost his nerve. Now what's to be done?"
"Shall I creep out to him?" said Bart eagerly.
"What, you? what good would it do? You don't think you could carry him
back like a baby?"
"No," said Bart, "but I might help him."
"You couldn't help him a bit," growled Joses, "nor more could I. All
the good you could do would be to make him clutch you and then down both
would go at once, and what's the use of that."
"If we had brought a lasso with us."
"Well, if we had," said Joses, "and could fasten it round him, I don't
believe we could haul him off, for he'd only cling all the tighter, and
perhaps drag us over the side."
"What is to be done then?" said Bart. "Here, Sam, make an effort, my
lad. Creep back; it's as easy as can be. Don't be afraid. Here, I
will come to you."
He threw down his gun, and before Joses could stop him, he climbed out
to the projecting limb, and letting his legs go down on either side,
worked himself along till he was close behind Sam, whom he slapped on
the back.
"There," cried Bart. "It's easy enough. Don't think of how deep down
it is. Now I'm going back. You do the same. Come along."
As he spoke and said encouraging things to Sam, Bart felt himself
impelled to gaze down into the depths beneath him, and as he did so, the
dashing bravery that had impelled him to risk his life that he might
encourage his follower to creep back, all seemed to forsake him, a cold
perspiration broke out on face and limbs, accompanied by a horrible
paralysing sense of fear, and in an instant he was suffering from the
same loss of nerve as the man whom he wished to help.
Bart's hands clutched at the rough branch, and he strove to drive his
finger nails into the bark in a spasmodic effort to save himself from
death. He was going to fall. He knew that he was. Nothing could save
him--nothing, and in imagination he saw himself lose his hold of the
branch, slip sidewise, and go down headlong as the bears had fallen, to
strike against the rocks, glance off, and then plunge down, down,
swifter and swifter into space.
The sensation was fearful, and for the time being he could make no
effort to master it. One overwhelming sense of terror had seized upon
him, and this regularly froze all action till he now crouched as
helpless and unnerved as the poor fellow before him who never even
turned his head, but clung to the branch as if insensible to everything
but the horrors of his position.
Joses shouted to him, and said something again and again, but Bart only
heard an indistinct murmur as he stared straight down at the tops of the
pines and other trees half a mile below him; and then came a dreamy,
wondering feeling, as to how much pain he should feel when he fell; how
long he would be going down all that distance; whether he should have to
fall on the tops of the pine-trees, or amongst the rough ravines of
rock.
And so on, thought after thought of this kind, till all at once, as if
out of a dream, a voice seemed to say to him:
"Well, I shouldn't have thought, Master Bart, as I'd taught all these
years, was such a coward!"
The words stung him, and seemed to bring him back to himself.
Coward! what would Maude think of him for being such a coward? Not that
it would much matter if he fell down there and were smashed to death.
What would the Doctor, who had given him so many lessons on presence of
mind, coolness in danger, and the like? And here was he completely
given up to the horror of his position, making no effort when it was
perhaps no harder to get back than it had been to get forward.
"I won't think of the depth," said Bart, setting his teeth, and, raising
himself upright, he hitched himself a few inches back.
Then the feeling of danger came upon him once more, and was mastering
him again rapidly, when the great rough voice of old Joses rang out
loudly in a half-mocking, half-angry tone:
"And I thought him such a brave un too."
"And so I will be," muttered Bart, as he made a fresh effort to recover
from his feeling of panic; and as he did so, he hitched himself along
the branch towards the main trunk with his back half turned, threw one
leg over so that he was in a sitting position, and the next minute he
was standing beside Joses, with his heart beating furiously, and a
feeling of wonderment coming over him as to why it was that he had been
so frightened over such a trifling matter.
"That's better, my lad," said Joses quietly; and as Bart gazed on the
rough fellow's face, expecting revilings and reproaches at his
cowardice, he saw that the man's bronzed and swarthy features looked
dirty and mottled, his eyes staring, and that he was dripping with
perspiration.
Just then Joses gripped him by the shoulder in a way that would have
made him wince, only he did not want to show the white feather again,
and he stood firm as his companion said:
"'Taint no use to talk like that to him. It won't touch him, Master
Bart. It's very horrid when that lays hold of you, and you can't help
it."
"No," said Bart, feeling relieved, "I could not help it."
"Course you couldn't, my lad. But now we must get old Sam back, or
he'll hang there till he faints, and then drop."
"O Joses!" cried Bart.
"I only wish we could get a bear on the bough beyond him there. That
would make him scuffle back."
"Frighten him back?" said Bart.
"Yes; one fright would be bigger than the other, and make him come,"
said Joses.
"Do you think that if we frightened him, he would try to get back then?"
whispered Bart.
"I'm sure of it," said Joses.
"Do as I do then," said Bart, as he picked up his rifle. Then speaking
loudly he exclaimed:
"Joses; we must not leave the poor fellow there to die of hunger. He
can't get back, so let's put him out of his misery at once. Where shall
I aim at? His heart?"
"No, no, Master Bart; his head. Send a bullet right through his skull,
and it'll be all over at once. You fire first."
Without a moment's hesitation, Bart rested the barrel of his rifle
against the trunk, took careful aim, and fired so that the bullet
whistled pretty closely by Sam's ear.
The man started and shuddered, seeming as if he were going to sit up,
but he relapsed into the former position. "I think I can do it, Master
Bart, this time," said Joses; and laying his piece in a notch formed by
the bark, he took careful aim, and fired, his bullet going through Sam's
hat, and carrying it off to go fluttering down into the abyss.
This time Sam did not move, and Bart gazed at Joses in despair.
"He's too artful, Master Bart," whispered the latter: "he knows we are
only doing it to frighten him. I don't know how to appeal to his
feelings, unless I was to say, `here's your old wife a-coming, Sam,' for
he run away from her ten years ago. But it wouldn't be no good. He
wouldn't believe it."
Bart hesitated for a few moments as he reloaded his rifle, and then he
shouted to Sam:
"Now, no nonsense, Sam. You must get back."
The man paid no heed to him, and Bart turned to Joses to say loudly:
"We can't leave him here like this. He must climb back or fall, so if
he won't climb back the sooner he is out of his misery the better."
"That's a true word," said Joses.
"Give me your axe then," said Bart, and Joses drew it from his belt,
when Bart took it, and after moistening his hands, drove it into the
branch just where it touched the tree, making a deep incision, and then
drove it in again, when a white, wedge-shaped chip flew out, for the boy
had been early in life taught the use of the axe.
Then cutting rapidly and well, he sent the chips flying, while every
stroke sent a quiver along the great branch.
Still Sam clung to the spot where he had been from the first, and made
no effort to move; and at last, when he was half-way through the branch,
Bart stopped short in despair, for the pretence of cutting it off had
not the slightest effect upon Sam.
"Tired, Master Bart?" cried Joses just then; and snatching away the axe,
he began to apply it with tremendous effect, the chips flying over the
precipice, and a great yawning opening appearing in the upper part of
the branch.
"Don't cut any farther, Joses," whispered Bart; "it will give way."
"I shall cut till it begins to, Master Bart," replied the man; and as he
spoke he went on making the chips fly, but still without effect, for Sam
did not move.
"I shall have to give up directly, my lad," whispered Joses, with a
peculiar look; "but I'll have one more chop."
He raised the axe, and delivered another sharp blow, when there was a
loud crack as if half a dozen rifles had gone off at once, and almost
before the fact could be realised the branch went down, to remain
hanging only by a few tough portions of its under part.
Bart and Joses looked over the precipice aghast at what they had done,
and gazed down at Sam's wild face, as, with his legs dislodged from
their position, he seemed to have been turned right over, and to be
clinging solely in a death grip with his arms.
Then, with cat-like alacrity, he seemed to wrench himself round, holding
on to the lower part of the bough with his legs; and the next moment he
was climbing steadily up, with the bough swinging to and fro beneath his
weight.
It was a question now of the toughness of the fibres by which the bough
hung; and the stress upon the minds of the watchers was terrible, as
they crouched there, gazing over the edge of the awful precipice,
momentarily expecting to see branch and man go headlong down as the
bears had fallen before them.
But Sam climbed steadily up during what seemed to be a long time, but
which was only a few moments, reaching at last the jagged points where
the branch was broken, when there came an ominous crack, and Sam paused,
as if irresolute.
"Keep it up," panted Bart, and his words seemed to electrify the man,
who made one or two more clutches at the branch, and then he was in
safety beside his companions, staring stupidly from one to the other.
"I didn't think I was going to get back," he said at last. "It was you
cutting the branch did it. I shouldn't have moved else."
There was no show of resentment--no annoyance at having been treated in
this terrible manner. Sam only seemed very thankful for his escape, and
trotting off to where he had dropped his rifle when pursued by the
bears, he rejoined his companions, and proceeded with them back towards
the camp; for they had not the least idea where to find a way down into
the plain, even if they had entertained any desire to try and get the
skins and some steaks off the bears.
As they journeyed on, Sam related how he had suddenly come upon one of
the bears feeding upon the fruit of a clump of bushes, and as the animal
seemed tame and little disposed to fly from him he had refrained from
firing, but had picked up a lump of rock and thrown it at the beast.
The stone hit its mark, and uttering a loud grunting yell, the bear
charged its assailant, Sam to his horror finding that the cry had
brought a second enemy into the field, when he dropped his rifle, fled
for his life, and took refuge from the following danger in the way and
with the result that we have seen.