CONCLUSION
Tad felt a sudden sense of impending peril. Bringing the full force
of his will to bear on the task, he pulled himself to a sitting
posture. Not twenty paces from him he saw the she-bear bearing down
upon him with jaws wide apart, and uttering growls of rage.
Tad groped for his rifle, but could not find it. As a matter of fact
it had fallen into a clump of bushes beyond him when he fell from the
horse. His predicament was a dire one and he knew it.
The boy staggered to his feet, tugging at his revolver. With the
seconds he was getting back his strength and his nerve.
"At her! At her!" he shouted to the dogs.
Encouraged by his words three of the hounds leaped on the haunches of
the bear. This retarded her forward progress for the moment. She
turned, snarling, on her assailants. This gave the dogs in front an
opportunity to snap at her legs, which they did, but were put to rout
with the sweep of a ferocious paw. The dogs seemed to realize that
the duty of protecting the Pony Rider Boy rested wholly on them, for
they went at the big she-bear with ferocious growls, their jaws
snapping like steel traps. Their efforts seemed to have no effect on
the big beast other than to retard her progress a little.
Again she started for Tad with the pack hanging to her heels. Young
Butler, revolver in hand, stood calmly awaiting the nearer approach
of the bear. When she had reached a point as close to him as he
thought prudent, Tad raised his revolver and fired. The bear
slackened her pace. She seemed to be surprised. Otherwise there was
no indication that the boy's bullet had reached her. Surely she had
not been wounded in a vital spot and Tad wondered if there were any
vital spots in this animal. He could see that his first shot with
the rifle had stirred the rage of the beast. Either he would have to
kill her or she would kill him. Butler understood this fully.
It was an inspiring sight to see the freckle-faced boy standing there,
bare-headed, revolver aimed at the bear as calmly as if it were an
inanimate mark he were shooting at for target practice, with the
yelping dogs assailing Mrs. Bruin, she almost neglectful of their
presence. Yet at any moment one of the faithful hounds might get in
a bite that would turn the tide in their favor.
One did get in an effective bite, but it was after Tad Butler had
emptied the contents of his revolver into the bear. She turned with
a roar as a chunk of flesh was torn from her flank. Thus encouraged,
the dogs attacked with renewed fury, and, regardless of their own
safety, threw themselves upon her. For the first time the old
she-bear really woke up. She seemed to realize that she must fight
and dispose of the dogs before she could go on and finish the
freckle-faced boy.
A dog, breathing its last, was flung at the feet of the Pony Rider
Boy.
"Oh, that's too bad," mourned the boy. "I've got to help them! But
how can I do it? Ah!"
A stick of cane that had been cut off near the base of the stalk he
saw standing against a tree not far from him. This gave the lad an
idea. He grabbed up the stick, which was about ten feet long, and
drawing near to the battling dogs, watched his opportunity. Then he
gave the beast a poke with it. This served to distract her attention
for the moment, giving the dogs a fresh hold all around.
[Illustration: The Bear Turned on Tad.]
Delighted with the success of his ruse, Tad kept on poking, leaping
back, dodging, thrusting, harrying the bear, assisting the dogs to
get fresh and effective holds. The boy sought to poke the animal in
the eye, but she was too wary for this. She managed to chew up the
end of the cane pole, tearing it into shreds, and would have jerked
it away from Tad entirely had she not been obliged to drop the pole
to attend to the dogs that had just bitten her in the side again.
But this battle could not go on indefinitely. The dogs, one by one,
were being either wounded or killed outright. Tad's chances for
winning were lessening with the moments. He was doing his best to
help and save the dogs and they were doing their desperate best to
protect him from the she-bear.
"I've got to put a stop to this or she'll kill them all," cried the
boy.
The bear seemed to have come to a decision at the same time. With
the hounds clinging to her, she ambled for Tad again. The boy stood
firm. He held his hunting knife in hand. As the bear reared before
him, towering higher than his head, the Pony Rider Boy made a swift
jab with the knife. But he was not quick enough. He had got within
reach of those powerful paws. One caught him on the left shoulder.
Tad was hurled fully a rod from the bear. He thought the blow had
broken his shoulder, but he was up instantly and at her again. This
time the lad was more cautious. Having once felt the strength of that
paw, he had no desire to feel it again. A blow like that one the
head or the neck would be likely to finish him, after which the
she-bear would have an easy time of disposing of the hounds.
Tad, as soon as he had recovered in a measure from the first blow,
began dancing about the beast like a boxer. The dogs were doing much
the same. Every one of them was bleeding, their jaws were dripping
with the blood of the bear, and their efforts were becoming less and
less effective. It appeared to be a matter of but a short time
before she would have killed them all.
Suddenly, as Mrs. Bruin's attention was attracted to the rear, Butler
leaped forward. He drove the point of his hunting knife fairly into
her body. The bear whirled. Tad leaped back, carrying his knife
with him.
This last act of his was the final straw that broke down the prudence
of the bear. With terrible growls she made straight for him. Tad
leaped aside just in time to avoid the sweep of a paw that, had it
landed, no doubt would have killed him. Then he sprang forward and
drove the knife home.
For the next few minutes it would have been hard to say which was
Pony Rider Boy, which dog and which bear. Tad's clothes were nearly
stripped from his body, his skin scratched, torn and bleeding. But
the boy was still strong and full of fight. On the other hand, Mrs.
Bruin was getting weaker from loss of blood. She had depended too
much on her strength and skill, but the boy and the wounded dogs had
proved too much for her. She was now fighting both, probably with a
full knowledge of this, which made her the more dangerous. Tad
Butler was wholly on the defensive; he was fighting for his life and
he knew it.
The bear suddenly reared on her haunches and staggered towards him.
Tad buried the knife in her side, and it stuck. In the brief seconds
that he was trying to recover it the great fore-legs closed about him.
Strangely enough the she-bear as suddenly released the grip that was
closing about Tad, and staggering backwards, collapsed and rolled
over on her back with all four feet in the air.
When the bear released him Tad Butler went down in a heap, and lay
where he had fallen, pale and motionless. The dogs, now realizing
that their prey had fallen, attacked her ferociously, to which she
returned only a feeble defense.
Bill Lilly and his party had heard the uproar, and were riding to the
scene with all speed. Lilly had heard the report of the rifle when
Tad took the first shot, and he knew that Tad Butler was in the thick
of the fray. He knew, too, from the continued baying and yelping of
the dogs, after the revolver shots, that the boy had not killed the
bear. Hearing no further shots the guide was genuinely alarmed, for
he read the meaning of these things aright.
When the leader of the party came galloping on the scene his eyes
quickly comprehended, and Lilly was off his horse in a twinkling.
Giving no heed to the bear, which he saw was nearly dead, he ran to
the fallen Pony Rider Boy. The others of his party came tearing in a
few moments later. They saw him down on his knees beside Tad Butler.
"Tad's dead!" wailed Stacy Brown.
Lilly shook his head. Professor Zepplin took Butler's pulse and
listened to his heart.
"I think he is badly hurt. Can't we get him somewhere where we can
treat him?"
"Wait till he comes around," advised Lilly.
It was a full half hour before they succeeded in bringing Tad back to
consciousness, during which time his young companions stood about
with faces almost as pale as his own. Stacy kept thrusting his hands
in his pockets, then withdrawing them, while the others showed their
nervousness by frequent shiftings from one foot to the other.
Suddenly Tad opened his eyes, and smiled weakly.
"I--I got her," he whispered, then swooned.
It was fully an hour later that the boy was able to talk. He told
them, briefly, while the Professor was making a careful diagnosis of
the patient, what had taken place. The Professor found that besides
the boy's flesh wounds he had sustained three broken ribs. The ugly
she-bear had crushed them in. Lilly immediately began constructing a
litter. Tad insisted that he would ride back to camp, but they would
not permit it. They forced him to ride to camp on the litter, which
was hung between two horses. Never did a boy get better attention
than did Tad during that never-to-be-forgotten ride, when every
movement gave him agonizing pain. He had insisted that the bear be
skinned and the pelt taken along. This consumed some little time,
but Lilly did the job as quickly as possible.
Late that night they rode into camp. Tad was in a fever. For three
days they watched over him, then the party started for Jackson with
their patient, who pluckily protested that he was all right. Tad
rode all the way in on the litter. Reaching Jackson, Major Clowney
insisted that he be taken to the Clowney home, which was done.
In spite of his suffering, the Pony Rider Boy felt that pleasure was
close akin to pain, for his hospitable hosts surrounded him quietly
with every thoughtful attention.
"I'm sorry to see you in this fix," remarked Lilly, dropping in on
Tad one afternoon.
"You needn't be," smiled the boy. "Really, I believe I'm having the
time of my life. What are the other fellows really doing, Mr. Lilly?"
"Nothing much," replied the guide. "That is, Mr. Stacy is doing
nothing."
"I might have guessed that," smiled Tad.
"And the others are helping him," finished the guide with a grin.
"And I had to be so unfortunate as to spoil our fine hunting trip in
the canebrake," cried Tad reproachfully.
"You didn't spoil anything," Lilly retorted. "I reckon that all the
young gentlemen had their fill of the canebrake."
"I don't believe it," declared Tad. "I know I wouldn't have had
enough, if it hadn't been for--this."
"Well," assented the guide slowly, "I suppose I could have shown you
youngsters quite a bit more if I had had the chance."
"I'll tell you what I wish you would do, Mr. Lilly."
"Well, I'm listening," observed the guide.
"It will take me a little time yet to get in the best of shape," Tad
pursued. "I suggest that while I am laid up here you take the fellows
back into the brake, and show 'em something they've missed so far."
"That might suit me," Lilly replied. "I wanted to show you people
all I could, and I wish it had been more. But I don't believe your
fellows will consent to go away and leave you here on the laid-up
shelf."
"Nonsense!" protested Tad. "It would make me feel a lot worse to
realize that I was a spoil-sport."
Lilly tried out his mission, but with no more success than he had
expected. Tad, his face flushing, sent for his companions. But all
his arguments failed to induce the Pony Rider Boys to leave him. Tad
pleaded, and at last commanded.
"I'm afraid we shall have to go back to the brake whether we like it
or not," urged Walter Perkins at last. "If Tad feels that he is
hindering sport he'll get worse instead of better."
Ned and Stacy still protested, so Tad went at the matter through his
physician, who advised the boys to go on or Tad would surely fret
himself into a relapse, and they consented reluctantly.
On the day following, Mr. Lilly and Professor Zepplin led the other
three Pony Rider Boys back into the brake.
Tad felt no regrets after they had left. In the sportsman's phrase
he had "filled his own bag," and now he was eager to see the other
lads do something to their own credit.
Before very long he was able to sit up and write in his own firm hand
to his mother. The receipt of his letter settled all of Mrs.
Butler's fears.
Then, at the end of two weeks, the boys returned. Hearing that they
were coming along the road Tad Butler, pallid yet clear-eyed and
steady, strolled down the road to meet them.
"Wow!" yelled Stacy, pointing to a furry object tied over his pony's
back in front of the saddle. It was bear.
"Fine!" grinned Tad. "Do you know who shot it, Chunky?"
"A young man of considerable importance, who just fits into my
garments," replied Stacy Brown, throwing out his chest once more.
"And I came near having a fearful fight with the critter, too."
It was a small bear, but Brown had really killed it unaided.
Ned, too, rode with a small bear tied to his saddle. Only Walter
Perkins returned bootless, but that was to be expected of Walter, who
was an indifferent sportsman. Professor Zepplin had had no intention
of bagging any game.
Two bears, however, did not represent all the fun that had been had
on this second trip into the canebrake. All three of the boys were
as brown as coffee berries and as "hard as nails." They were in
splendid shape.
Just a few days more and the Pony Rider Boys were obliged to bid
their hosts and Lilly good-bye. It seemed as though half the
inhabitants of the small town turned out to see the departing boys
off at the railway station.
"Come back again! Come back again--soon," was the chorus that went
up as the train began to move, while the Pony Rider Boys, their heads
at the open windows, waved back.
Before leaving they learned through Major Clowney that government
agents had arrested Alligator Pete Austen, who had tried to be their
guide, and several other men from that section. These men had been
part of a band of smugglers, smuggling German goods through Mexico.
A fishing smack had been bringing the goods across the Gulf of Mexico.
The stuff had been hidden on a remote deep bayou, and from there
disposed of for considerable sums of money. The government agents
recovered a heavy supply of goods of various sorts that, of course,
had come in duty free by way of the secret route. Austen, who was in
charge, attended to the work of getting the supplies into the brake
where it was cached in steel cribs in the bayou.
For this, he and others of the gang--ten men in all--were convicted
and sent to prison. The Pony Rider Boys had smoked them out without
realizing that they were doing their country a great service. And
now they were on their journey home. Not to remain there for long,
however, for the boys had other worlds to conquer, other startling
adventures before them. They will be heard from again, in the next
volume of this series, which will be published under the title, "THE
PONY RIDER BOYS IN ALASKA; Or, The Gold Diggers of Taku Pass." This
following volume will be found one of the most fascinating of the
entire series, with the Pony Riders in the saddle in new surroundings,
undergoing experiences different from anything that they had ever
met with.
THE END