THE CLIMBER OF THE BEECH TREE
“Ginger! there _is_ something big and black up in that tree, as sure
as you live!” exclaimed Wee Willie, excitedly.
Both Elmer and Amos also stared. Apparently they found it necessary
to agree with what the tall chum had just said. It looked as though
humble Perk had scored again; somehow he seemed to be connected with
almost everything that had happened to them thus far; when as a
usual thing such events took delight in passing him by.
“There, didn’t you see him move?” he added, with a tinge of triumph
in his voice. “Just think of his nerve, climbing that tree to watch
what we do. If he’d been a signal-sender in the old Boy Scout days
at Chester, before the troop busted up, he couldn’t have picked out
a better location. I bet you he’s watching us right now. What ought
we do about it, Elmer?”
Considerably to the astonishment of the speaker, Elmer was heard to
give an unmistakable chuckle, as though something amused him.
“Well,” he went on to say, “we might walk out there and tell that
party we objected to his company; but the chances are he’d sniff at
us, and amble away; for you see it’s only _a bear_!”
“A bear!” gasped Perk, turning again to fasten his eyes on the
mysterious object perched high in the big beech tree.
“Yes, a black bear, and I reckon a half-grown cub at that, else he
wouldn’t be so fresh as to climb a tree so near our camp,” the other
continued; while Wee Willie nodded his head in affirmation, and
hastened to corroborate the statement by saying:
“No doubt about it, Perk, your hobo is a four-legged tramp, all
right. I c’n make him out plainly, now he’s moved a bit; though at
first I began to think it might be a man sitting astride a limb.”
“But what’s a bear doing up there, I’d like to know?” Perk objected,
hardly liking to give up his side of the case so easily.
“Why, from away back bears have been in the habit of climbing trees
whenever they felt like it,” the tall boy told him; “and there’s
nothing in the Constitution of the United States that’s going to
make ’em change their habits either—that is, black bears. It’s a
different thing with grizzlies out in the Rocky Mountain country, I
understand; they keep to the ground.”
Perk sighed with real relief as he hurriedly remarked, and quite
cheerfully at that:
“Well, I’m glad to know I was mistaken. It gave me a bad feeling to
think that ugly tramp was spying on us. Yes, now the thing shifts
again, and sure enough I can make him out plainly. It’s a real live
bear—not a monster, but pretty hefty for all that.”
Amos darted into the cabin.
“Now what’s he after, I want to know?” Perk quickly asked.
“Just as like as not, that camera of his,” Elmer explained. “Amos is
crazy on the subject of photography, and his first thought always
is, ‘Will it make a striking picture?’ I reckon he thinks he might
be able to creep up close enough to snap that chap off, up in the
beechnut tree.”
Sure enough out came Amos on the run, and gripping his ready camera.
“I’d like to get him the worst kind, fellows!” he told them. “Some
of the boys at home will laugh at us when we tell them we actually
saw a black bear up in a tree. I’d make them feel like thirty cents
if I could hold up a photo of the happening, taken at closer
quarters than this.”
“We’ll all go along, Amos,” suggested Elmer.
Possibly he fancied that the others might find their presence useful
in some way or other. It might be wise, Elmer even suspected, since
the rash photographer, in his burning desire to get a close view,
might run foul of the claws of Bruin, and need material assistance.
“Glad to have you,” agreed Amos, a faint smile coming on his usually
wan face; “but let’s hurry, please, because the bear might take a
notion to come down, and then my chance would be gone.”
“Follow me,” Elmer told him. “We’ve just got to swing around a bit
so as to come up to leeward, for he’d be apt to scent us if we kept
straight on down the wind.”
“Good boy, Elmer, you’re right!” commended Wee Willie.
“And now no talking except in whispers, with as little of that as
possible. We don’t want to have our walk for nothing, I imagine.”
With these words Elmer led off, the others trooping after him, Amos
coming next, then the tall chum, and fat Perk bringing up the rear,
as was ordinarily his custom.
They soon found themselves deep in the woods, with all sight of the
big beechnut tree on the knoll lost to them. But trust Elmer for
having fixed the location indelibly in his mind. Every step they
took was fetching them just that much closer to their goal; and
while Wee Willie also kept tabs on their progress, not once did he
find occasion to enter the slightest protest concerning the
leadership of Elmer.
After about ten minutes of this sort of thing, the one in the van
stopped, and held up his hand. They seemed to be at the foot of the
knoll, judging from the lay of the land. Elmer parted some bushes
that hemmed them in, and, looking up, the others saw the very beech
tree toward which they had started.
There could no longer be the least doubt concerning the nature of
that dark object, for it was a young black bear. Whatever had
tempted him to climb the tree they could only guess; for at the time
they discovered him afresh the clumsy little animal was thrusting
out his muzzle, and seemed to be sniffing the air suspiciously.
[Illustration: His method of descending the tree was exceedingly
clumsy.]
“He’s got a whiff of human presence near by, somehow or other,”
whispered Elmer; “do you think you could snap him off from here,
Amos?”
“To be sure I can,” came the ready response, as the camera owner
shifted his position; and a few seconds later a sharp click
announced that he had done the work.
“He heard even that little sound,” announced Wee Willie, in a low
tone, “because I saw him give a start. Hurry and duplicate, Amos,
for the rascal means to come down.”
Sure enough the bear seemed to have decided to change his location,
as if growing uneasy after getting that suspicious waft of a scent
his instinct told him was hostile to his species.
His method of descending the tree was exceedingly clumsy when
compared with the clever actions of a gray squirrel while skimming
the smooth trunk with ease. Indeed, the bear acted very much like a
boy would have done, coming down stern first, and being very careful
not to let go above until sure of his footing on a limb below.
Amos kept busy snapping him off in various postures. He evidently
meant to make sure of having some extra fine pictures to show.
Perk meanwhile began to grow a little uneasy, and even plucked at
the sleeve of Elmer as he managed to say excitedly:
“What if he’d feel mad and start to tackle the bunch? We haven’t got
even a club or a hatchet along, come to think of it. Are black bears
inclined to be vicious, Elmer; will they bite and scratch like a
wildcat?”
“Don’t worry about that, Perk,” chuckled the other. “They are most
harmless animals as a rule, hardly more dangerous than so many hogs
in the pasture. Besides, this is only a youngster; chances are he’ll
run for all that’s out as soon as he hits solid ground.”
“I’ll give a whoop, and help scare him off then,” suggested Perk,
picking up his courage again.
“Just as you please; and Amos here can snap him off while on the
gallop!” Elmer concluded.
The bear was now almost at the foot of the tree. Amos stepped out so
as to command a better position for covering the spot. He had just
one more exposure left, when the half dozen would be complete; and
he wanted to make sure this last would not be wasted.
Perk was waiting, getting redder than ever in the face with
suspended breath and no sooner did he discover that the young bear
had reached the ground than he let out a yell that might easily have
shamed a Comanche Indian. Of course, this started the timid beast
off at a wild pace, while Amos clicked his camera to prove that he
had taken advantage of the opportunity.
The last they heard of Bruin was the clatter amidst the brushes and
thickets as he scrambled madly through every obstacle to his
progress, only wild to get away from that point of danger.
Elmer and Wee Willie exchanged looks, and laughed good and hard.
“Never will stop short of three miles, believe me!” asserted the
latter. “I didn’t believe you had it in you to let out such a
fiendish whoop, Perk. But it paid us for coming over here, for now
we can say with truth we had an adventure with a wild bear, and that
Amos here had to ‘shoot’ six times before the fight was finished.”
Amos looked decidedly pleased.
“I’ll have to call this my bear roll of film,” he suggested, patting
his camera affectionately, after the manner of those who are seized
with the photographic craze. “And out of the lot there must be
several half-way decent pictures. I never believed I’d get such a
great chance as this.”
“Say, things are happening like hot cakes, seems to me,” Perk
remarked, as once more they turned their faces in the direction of
the camp. “Why, we hardly get through with one event before another
comes crowding along right at its heels. We’ve done considerable
camping this summer, ever since we started the Camp Fire Boys’ Club,
but nothing like this ever came along the pike.”
“Suits me all right!” Wee Willie declared, grinning. “I like
excitement, and just sitting around, loafing, never was my style of
enjoying myself. Why, I’m even hoping we’ll see something of this
chap who was hanging out in the cabin when we came along and
squatted here.”
“Oh, wouldn’t it be a tough joke on us now if, when we got back, we
found he’d been there in our absence, and helped himself to lots of
our stuff?”
Perk, as he spoke, looked as though this might not be a groundless
fear after all, but Elmer only laughed at him.
“I’m going back another way, you notice, Perk. Every now and then we
can get glimpses of the cabin, with our fire burning in front, and
so far I’ve seen no sign of any intruder. Don’t worry about it. In
three minutes we’ll be home again.”
His prophecy came true, and Perk was relieved to discover that
nothing had mysteriously vanished during their brief absence from
camp.