WHAT FRIGHTENED NELLIE.
Nick Ribsam thought not of himself, in his anxiety for his sister. He
had left her but a few brief minutes before, sitting on the shore of the
lake, and now when he returned she was missing.
He had called to her repeatedly without receiving any answer, and when
he looked about him in the smoke and gloom, he could see nothing of her
loved figure.
He noticed that it was very hot where he stood, and there could be no
doubt that the flames were advancing in that direction. His dread was
that Nellie had lost her wits in the presence of the new danger, and had
run blindly into the burning woods where there could be no escape for
her.
"Nellie! Nellie!" he shouted in agonized tones; "Where are you? Why
don't you answer me?"
He thought he heard something like a faint response, but it was not
repeated, and poor Nick was half distracted. For the first time since
entering the burning forest he lost his self-control, and not doubting
that his sister was somewhere close at hand, he dashed among the trees,
still calling to her at the height of his voice.
He had gone but a short distance when he was brought face to face with
such a fierce blast of flame that he was forced to turn and run back to
the water's edge, where he stopped for a minute or two gasping for
breath.
This repulse served to give him time to collect his wits, and he tried
hard to decide what was best to do, for he was resolved never to leave
that place until he learned the fate of Nellie.
"She had good sense," he added to himself, "and she would not have done
such a foolish thing. She has gone to some other spot along the shore
and is waiting for me."
Possibly this was so, but it did not explain the curious fact that all
the calls of Nick remained unanswered. The space inclosing the pond was
so slight that his voice must have penetrated every portion of it, and
it did seem that if she were in any place safe for her to be, she could
not fail to hear him.
Nick found a long branch, which answered for a pole with which to guide
the raft, and stepping on it he began pushing it along shore as rapidly
as he could, looking into the gloom about him and often pronouncing the
name of his sister. His heart sank within him when this continued
several minutes, and half the circuit of the pond was completed without
bringing him the first evidence of the whereabouts of Nellie.
Finally he paused, wearied and distressed beyond description.
The darkness of night rested on Shark Pond and the surrounding woods.
The murky volumes of smoke seemed to shut out all light, excepting when
the tongues of fire shot through them. The wind blew a gale, stirring
the water into tiny waves, and the roaring of the fire through the
woods, the sound of trees crashing to the earth, and the millions of
sparks, with blazing bits of wood, were carried a great distance
through the air. Some of these flaming brands fell on the raft on which
Nick Ribsam stood, and they continually dropped hissing into the water
around him.
The problem was, how the children had escaped thus far; and as the
sturdy lad stood out on the pond with the long limb grasped in his hand,
staring around him, he could not but wonder how it was he had been
preserved after driving directly into the forest when it was literally
aflame from one end to the other.
But these thoughts were only for the moment; he had left Nellie, not
expecting to be out of her sight, much less beyond her hearing, and she
had vanished as mysteriously as if the earth had opened and swallowed
her up.
And yet he could not believe she was lost. She had proven that she was
not the weak girl to do anything rashly, or to sit down and fold her
hands and make no attempt to save herself. Something more than the
general danger which impended over both must have arisen, during that
brief period, to drive her from her post.
"Nellie! Nellie!" he called again, shoving the pole vigorously against
the bottom of the pond.
He was sure he heard the faint response this time, and so distinctly
that he caught the direction; it was from a point on the shore very
nearly opposite where he had left her.
"I hear you," he called back, working the unwieldy float toward the
spot; "I'll soon be there."
The distance was not great and it took but a few minutes to approach
quite close to the land, where, with a delight which can scarcely be
imagined, he saw Nellie standing close to the water's edge, beckoning
him to make all haste.
"Are you hurt?" he asked, as he forced the craft close to her.
"No," she answered, with a strange laugh, "but I thought my last moment
had come."
"Didn't you hear me call you?"
"Of course I did; any one within a mile could hear you."
"Why then didn't you answer me?"
"I was afraid to."
"Afraid of what?"
"Didn't you see him?" was the puzzling question of Nellie in return, as
she stepped carefully upon the raft, helped by the extended hand of her
brother.
"Nellie, stop talking in puzzles," said Nick; "I was so scared about you
that I won't get over it for a week; I called to, and hunted for you,
and you say you heard me; you must have known how frightened I was, and
yet you stood still and never made any answer, except a minute ago, when
I just managed to hear you. If you think it is right, I don't--that's
all."
He turned away offended, when she said:
"Forgive me, Nick; but I was afraid to answer you."
"Afraid of _what_?"
"Of that _bear_--you must have seen him," was the astonishing answer of
the girl.
Nellie then told her story: she was standing on the shore awaiting the
return of her brother, when she was terrified almost out of senses by
the appearance of a large black bear, which was evidently driven out of
the burning forest by the flames.
He did not seem to notice the girl, but when he began lumbering toward
her, as if seeking a good spot where he might enter the pond, Nellie did
not stay on the order of her going, but fled from the new peril, hardly
conscious of what direction she took. She knew better than to venture
among the blazing trees from which she and her brother had had such a
narrow escape, and she sped forward around the lake until she reached a
point nearly opposite. On the way she never looked behind her once,
certain as she was that the creature was ready to seize and devour her.
She was sure she heard him crashing almost upon her heels; but when she
paused, and finally turned her frightened looks backward, nothing of the
brute was to be seen, and she did not know what had become of him.
"That's the other bear which Mrs. Fowler saw, and which she told Sam
Harper, Herbert Watrous, and me, we would see some time or other."
"But that was almost two years ago."
"I know that; don't you suppose a bear will keep that long? This one has
known enough to stay out of sight until the fire has forced him from
his hiding-place."
After Nellie had heard her brother call to her, she was fearful that if
she answered she would betray herself to the brute, who would instantly
make for her; so she held her peace, even though she saw nothing of the
bear, and venturing on a rather feeble answer when the tones of Nick
told how much apprehension he was suffering over his failure to find
her.
Now that the two were on the raft, which was shoved out in the deep
water, something like confidence came back to her, and she was willing
to talk about the beast.
"I can't imagine what has become of him," said the brother, after her
story was told; "from what I have heard and read, the bear is not afraid
of water, and they often go in to bathe, just like us boys, for the fun
of the thing. I don't see why he should have waited when he had the fire
to urge him on."
"Maybe he is swimming around the lake now," whispered Nellie, looking
over as much of the surface as was visible through the hot smoke.
"I shouldn't be surprised, though it is odd that I did not see him,"
said Nick, pressing his pole against the bottom; "he is not far off, you
may depend."
"There! didn't you hear him?" asked Nellie, a moment later, as something
like the grunt of a huge hog alarmed both brother and sister.