WHICH ENDS IN A BATTLE
The morning after the three soldiers had pledged themselves to a life
of exile, like the (otherwise) practical young persons they were, they
proceeded resolutely to take stock of the provisions they had on hand
and to consider the means of adding to their food-supply. They had
already been nearly two months in camp, which was the period for which
their rations had been issued; but, what with the generous measure of
the government and the small game they had brought down with their
carbines, nearly half of the original supply remained on storage in the
hut of the old man of the mountain. It is true that there was but one
box left of the hard bread; but the salt beef, which had been covered
with brine in the cask found in the corner of the cabin, had scarcely
been touched. A few strips of the bacon still hung from the rafters.
Of the peas and beans, only a few scattering seeds lay here and there
on the floor. The precious salt formed but a small pile by itself, but
there was still a brave supply of coffee and sugar, and the best part
of the original package of rice. In another month they would have
green corn and potatoes of their own growing, and they already had
eggs, as, fortunately, they had killed none of their hens.
The tract of ground on the mountain was a half-hundred acres in extent,
with an abundance of wood and water, protected on the borders by trees
and bushes, and accessible only by the wooden ladder by which they
themselves had come up the ledge. Their camp was in the center of the
tract, where the smoke of their fires would never be seen from the
valleys. Overhanging the boulder face of the mountain, just back of
the ridge they had used for a signal-station, was a clump of black
oaks, through which something like an old trail led down to a narrow
tongue of land caught on a shelf of granite, which was dark with a tall
growth of pines, and the earth beneath was covered with a thick, gray
carpet of needles, clean and springy to the feet. Along the southern
cliff, and to the west of the spring which welled out from under the
rock, was a curtain of dogwoods and birches, and elsewhere the timber
was chestnut. At some points the trees of the latter variety were old
and gnarled, and clung to the rocks by fantastic twisted roots like the
claws of great birds, and at others they grew in thrifty young groves,
three and four lusty trunks springing from the sides of a decayed stump.
They were certainly in the heart of the Confederacy, but the plateau
was theirs by the right of possession, and over this, come what might,
they were determined that the old flag with its thirty-five stars
should continue to float. They at least would stubbornly refuse to
acknowledge that there had been any change in the number of States.
Owing to the danger of being seen, they agreed together that no one
should go down the ladder during the day. They were satisfied that
they had not been seen since they had occupied the mountain. They had
no reason to believe that any human being had crossed the bridge since
the night the captain and his troopers had ridden away into the
darkness; but still the bridge remained, the only menace to their
safety, and, with the military instinct of a small army retreating in
an enemy's country, they determined to destroy that means of reaching
them.
Accordingly, when night came, Lieutenant Coleman and George Bromley,
leaving Philip asleep in the hut, armed themselves with the ax and the
two carbines, and took their way across the lower field to the deep
gorge. They had not been there since the night they parted with the
captain and Andy, the guide. It was very still in this secluded
place--even stiller, they thought, for the ceaseless tinkling of the
branch in the bottom of the gorge. They had grown quite used to the
stillness and solitude of nature in that upper wilderness. Enough of
moonlight fell through the branches overhead so that they could see the
forms of the trees that grew in the gorge; and the moon itself was so
low in the west that its rays slanted under the bridge and touched with
a ghostly light the dead top of a great basswood which forked its giant
limbs upward like beckoning arms. Then there was one ray of light that
lanced its way to the very heart of the gorge, and touched a tiny patch
of sparkling water alongside a shining rock.
They had the smallest ends of the string-pieces to deal with, as the
trees had fallen from the other side. Bromley wielded the ax, which
fell at first with a muffled sound in the rotten log, and then, as he
reached the tougher heart, rang out clear and sharp, and echoed back
from down the gorge. Presently he felt a weakening in the old stick,
and, stepping back, he wiped his forehead on the sleeve of his jacket.
The stillness which followed the blows of the ax was almost startling;
and the night wind which was rising on the mountain sounded like the
rushing of wings in the tops of the pines on the opposite bank.
After another moment's rest, Corporal Bromley laid his ax to the other
string-piece. Lieutenant Coleman had taken position a few yards below
the bridge, with his arm around a young chestnut, where he could detect
the first movement of the swaying timbers. Fragments of bark and
rotten wood were shaken from the crazy structure at every stroke of the
ax, and a tiny chipmunk sprang out of his home in the stones,
frightened at the chopping, and fled with light leaps across the doomed
causeway. Now the blows fall more slowly, and after each stroke the
ax-man steps back to listen. At last he hears a measured crackling in
the resinous heart of the old log. He hears earth and small stones
dropping from the abutment into the branches of the trees below. The
structure lurches to one side; there is a sound like a dull explosion;
a few loose sticks dance in the yellow cloud of dust that rises thick
and stifling from the broken banks, and the toilsome work of thirty
years before is undone in as many minutes.
When the dust-cloud had drifted off, our two heroes, who had retreated
for safety, came cautiously back and looked over into the gorge. They
were startled at what they saw; for the frame of the old bridge was
poised in the moonlight like Mohammed's coffin, and swaying mockingly,
as if the soul of the old man of the mountain had taken refuge in its
timbers. Its slivered planks stood up like the fins of some
sea-monster, crisscrossed and trembling, and spread out like the broken
sticks of a fan.
"Good!" said Lieutenant Coleman; "it has lodged in the forked arms of
the dead basswood; and the mountain people will attach some mystery to
its going, as they did to its coming."
He said "Good!" because the more mystery there was between their
retreat and the enemy outside, the better. It would be many a long
year now before anybody would be likely to come to disturb them; and
with this thought in their hearts, they slung their carbines and took
the way back.
When they had come as far as the hollow tree into which the cartridges
had been thrown on the first night to keep them from the rain, they
halted; and George Bromley felt of the edge of the ax as he measured
the height of the opening above the ground with his eye. He was not
quite satisfied with this kind of measurement, and so, leaning against
the old trunk, he thrust his right arm to its full length into the
broad, black cavity. He was about to touch with his fingers the spot
outside, opposite to which his right hand reached, when something like
an exclamation of anger fell from his lips, and he lifted out of the
opening a bear cub as large as a woodchuck. Bromley's bare hand had
landed unexpectedly in the soft fur of the animal, and, with an absence
of fear peculiar to himself, he had closed his powerful grip on the
unknown object, and lifted out the young bear by the nape of its neck.
Strong as he was, he was unable to hold the squirming cub until he had
turned it over on its back and planted his knee on its chest.
Behind the tree there was a great, dark hole among the rocks, which was
the real entrance to the bears' den; and expecting an attack from that
quarter, Lieutenant Coleman stood quietly in the moonlight, with his
thumb on the lock of his carbine. As there was no movement anywhere,
he presently returned to the hole in the tree, and prudently thrust in
his short gun, which he worked about until the broad, flat end of the
hinged ramrod was entangled in the coarse meshes of the sack. The
cartridges were bone-dry after seven weeks in the bears' den, and the
young cub was thrust into the bag, where he growled and struggled
against the unknown power that was bearing him off.
They had neither chains nor cage nor strong boxes, and when they had
come safely back to the cabin with their prize they were greatly
puzzled as to how they should secure it for the night. Philip was
sleeping soundly on a bed of boughs in one corner, and showed no
disposition to wake. They were careful not to disturb him, wishing to
prepare a pleasant surprise for him when he should wake in the morning
and find the captured cub.
"I have it," said Bromley, when his eyes had traveled around the room
to the fireplace; "the cub can't climb up the smooth stones of the
chimney, and we will find a way to shut it in by blocking up the
fireplace."
They unslung the door of the cabin from its wooden hinges, and, after
slipping the young bear from the mouth of the sack into the soft ashes,
they quickly closed the opening, and secured the door in place, putting
the meat-cask against one end and a heavy stone against the other.
After a little disturbance in the ashes all was quiet in the fireplace.
Lieutenant Coleman went away to his tent, and in five minutes after he
lay down George Bromley was fast asleep beside Philip.
At this time the moon was shining in at the open door; but shortly
afterward it set behind the western ridges, and in the hour before
daybreak it was unusually dark on the mountain. Bromley was sleeping
more lightly than usual, and, following his experience of the night, he
was dreaming of desperate encounters with bears; or this may have
happened because the cub in the chimney from time to time put his small
nose to a hole in the door and whined, and then growled as he fell back
into the ashes.
[Illustration: THE MOTHER BEAR COMES FOR HER CUB.]
One of the light cracker-boxes stood on end just inside the door, and
it was the noise of this object thrown over on the floor that startled
Bromley in the midst of his dream, just at the point where he saw the
bear approaching. He was awake in an instant, but the spell of the
dream was still on him, and he wondered that, instead of the huge form
of the bear of his sleep, he saw only two glittering eyes in the
doorway. For an instant he was at a loss to tell where he was. He saw
the grayish opening of the window in the surrounding blackness, and a
peculiar hole in the roof not quite covered by the pieces of
shelter-tent; and just as he came to himself the cub in the chimney,
smelling its mother, whined joyfully at the hole in the door. With a
deep growl the old bear scrambled over the creaking floor to her young
one. Instinctively Bromley put out his hand for his carbine, and then
he remembered that both guns had been left lying on the stone hearth.
At the same time Philip awoke with a start, and the she-bear, scenting
her natural enemies, uttered a growl which was half a snarl, and was
about to charge into the corner where they lay, when Bromley snatched
the blankets and threw them so dexterously over the gleaming eyes that
in the momentary confusion of the brute he had time to drag and push
Philip through the open door and out of the cabin.
Furious as the beast was, she had no disposition to follow the boys
into the open air. Her natural instinct kept her in the neighborhood
of her imprisoned offspring, where she sat heavily on the two carbines
and growled fiercely. The bear now had full and undisputed possession
of the cabin, as well as of the entire stock of firearms, which absurd
advantage she held until daylight, while Bromley and Philip sat
impatiently in the lower limbs of an old chestnut, where they had
promptly taken refuge. Bromley had secured the ax in his retreat, and
while Philip sat securely above him, he guarded the approach along the
sloping trunk, and would have welcomed the bear right gladly. They
were near enough to throw sticks upon the "A" tent, and before daylight
Lieutenant Coleman was awakened and was lodged in the branches with
them.
"How very fortunate!" said Philip from the top of the tree. "We shall
have a supply of jerked bear's meat for the winter."
"Not so long as the bear sits on the carbines," said Bromley, with a
grim smile.
"If we could get that young cub out of the chimney--" said Lieutenant
Coleman.
"Or the old bear into it," suggested Philip.
"Either way," said the lieutenant, "would put us in possession of the
guns, and decide the battle in our favor."
By the time they had, in their imaginations, dressed the bear and
tanned her skin, it began to be light enough to enter upon a more
vigorous and offensive campaign. This idea seemed to strike the bear
at the same time, for she came out of the door, and, after sniffing the
morning air, shambled three times around the cabin, smelling and
clawing at the base of the chimney in each passage. Having made this
survey of her surroundings, she returned to her post and lay down on
the carbines.
These carbines were old smooth-bore muskets cut down for cavalry arms
and fitted with a short bar and sliding ring over the lock-plate, which
was stamped "Tower--London, 1862." They carried a ball fixed in front
of a paper cartridge, and were fired by means of a percussion-cap. The
pieces were loaded where they lay, with caps under the locks.
There was a crevice between the logs at that side of the chimney where
the door was held in position by the stone, and the wooden spade which
Philip had used in his planting could be seen from where the three
soldiers sat in the tree, lying across the grave of the old man of the
mountain. Lieutenant Coleman and Bromley slipped down to the ground
and ran around to the back of the hut. The end of the door could be
seen against the crevice, which was just above the level of the floor.
The men took care to keep close to the chimney, so as to be out of
sight of the bear, and when they had fixed their lever under the edge
of the door they easily raised it high enough to let out the cub.
When this was done they mounted to the roof of the cabin, Coleman armed
with the wooden spade and Bromley with the ax. The bear came out
presently, with the cub at her side, its thick fur gray with ashes.
The two were headed to pass between the tent and the chestnut-tree, and
when the old bear stopped at the foot of the trunk and raised her head
with a threatening growl, Bromley stood up on the roof and hurled the
ax, which slightly wounded the bear in the flank and caused her to
charge back toward the cabin, while the bewildered cub scrambled up the
tree in which Philip sat.
Philip only laughed and called loudly to his comrades to get the guns.
At the sound of his voice the she-bear turned about, and, seeing her
cub in the tree, began scrambling up after it. At this quite
unexpected turn in affairs Philip began to climb higher, no longer
disposed to laugh, while Bromley jumped down on the opposite side of
the cabin and secured the carbines, one of which he passed up to
Lieutenant Coleman on the roof. Now, Coleman had a clear eye and a
steady hand with a gun, and would have hit the heart of the bear with
his bullet like the handiest old sport of the woods, but as the animal
crouched in the crotch of the tree a great limb covered her side and
head. By this time Philip was as high as he dared to climb. The cub
from the ashes was hugging the same slender limb, breathing on his
naked feet, and the old bear, with bristling hair and erect ears, was
growling where she lay, and putting out her great claws to go aloft
after Philip. This was the critical moment, when Bromley ran under the
tree and shot the bear. His ball went crashing into her shoulder
instead of between the ribs behind, as he had meant it should. It was
just as well, he thought, when he saw her come rolling along the trunk
to the ground as if she were thrice dead. If he had only known bears a
little better, he would probably have exchanged carbines and kept a
safe distance from the animal; and even then, in the end, it might have
been worse for him.
He had only broken her big, shaggy shoulder, and as he came near to the
wounded brute she rose suddenly on her hind feet and dealt him such a
whack with her sound paw as nearly broke his ribs and sent him rolling
over and over on the ground. Bear and man were so mixed in the air
that even Coleman feared to risk a shot. Poor Bromley, crippled and
bleeding at the nose, lay almost helpless on his back under the tree,
and in this state the maddened bear charged furiously on him, her
foaming and bloody jaws extended. Half stunned and more than half
beaten, he had retained his cool nerve and a firm grip on his empty
carbine; and as the bear came over him, with all his remaining strength
he crushed the clumsy weapon into her open mouth like a huge bit. She
was so near that he felt her hot breath on his face, and saw her
flaming eyes through the blood which nearly blinded his own. Bromley
felt his strength going. The breath was nearly crushed out of his body
by the weight of the bear, baffled for an instant by the mass of iron
between her jaws. Philip, drawing up his toes from the cub, forgot his
own peril as he gazed down in terror at the struggle below. At the
moment which he believed was Bromley's last a quick report rang out
from the roof, and the great bear rolled heavily to one side, with
Lieutenant Coleman's bullet in her heart.
[Illustration: "SHE ROSE SUDDENLY ON HER HIND FEET AND DEALT HIM SUCH A
WHACK AS NEARLY BROKE HIS RIBS."]
It is not to be supposed that in the excitement of destroying bridges
and killing bears Lieutenant Coleman neglected the signal-station.
Morning after morning they waved their flag, and watched the summit of
Upper Bald through the glass. No one could be more eager than were the
three soldiers without a country to hear some further news of the old
government they had loved and lost. They even turned their attention
to Chestnut Knob. The entries in the diary show that this duty was
continued hopelessly through September, with no reply to their signals
from either mountain.
That disaster had overtaken the armies of the United States they
accepted as a fact, and busied themselves about their domestic affairs
that they might, being occupied, the more easily forget their great
disappointment. The flesh of the bear was cured in long strips by the
cool air and hot sun. To protect themselves from another unwelcome
surprise, they removed the short upper ladder from the ledge in the
cliff, and the bear cub, which had become a great pet under the name of
"Tumbler," was allowed the range of the plateau.
In this month of September the soldier exiles built a comfortable new
house on ground a little in front of the old hut. Its walls were
constructed of chestnut logs cut from the grove to the west, where they
could be easily rolled down the hill, after which they were scored with
the ax on the inner side, and notched so as to fit quite closely
together. The roof was made of rafters and flattened string-pieces,
and covered with shingles which they split from short sections of oak,
and which were held in place with the nails that had been provided for
the station. The floor was of pounded clay, raised a foot above the
ground outside. It was a prodigious labor to bring down on rollers the
great flat stone which they dug out of the hillside for the fireplace.
After this was laid firmly for a hearth, they built the chimney
outside, laying the stones in a mortar of clay until the throat was
sufficiently narrow; and after that they carried the flue above the
ridge-pole with sticks thickly plastered with mud. The house had two
windows under the eaves opposite to each other; and the doorway, which
was in the gable end facing the fireplace, was fitted with the door
from the old cabin, which they had no doubt had been framed down the
mountain, and brought up by Josiah after midnight, and most likely it
had been paid for with some of the strange gold pieces which had
excited the suspicion of the gossips in the valley.
It was a wonderfully comfortable house to look at, and almost made them
long for the fall rain to beat on the roof, and for the cold nights
when they could build a fire in the great chimney.