A CHARGING GRIZZLY
They were now getting high up in the mountain, and pretty near,
Jack thought, to where the sheep was. The horse was still with
them, and it astonished Jack to see that Hugh found a means of
getting him up or around every cliff or rock slide that they met.
At length they were so near the top that, after speaking with Joe
about it, Jack told Hugh that he thought they were pretty near the
game. One more high cliff should bring them to the little basin in
which the sheep lay.
"Well, boys, if you're sure of that," said Hugh, "we'll leave
the horse here, and maybe we can pack the meat down to him. It's
getting to be pretty steep and pretty rocky under foot, I don't
want to take him any further than we must."
"Well," said Joe, "I think we're right close now--that it's just
over this little bluff ahead of us."
Hugh twisted the horse's rope around a little bush that grew on the
hillside, and then turning to Joe said, "Well, Joe, go ahead, and
take us up to it." Joe started, and they were soon at the ridge;
but just before passing over it, Joe made a motion with his hand,
and sank back out of sight, and whispered to Hugh, "There's a bear
at the sheep."
"Sure?" said Hugh.
"Sure," said Joe.
"Well, how can we get at him?" asked Jack, who had pushed up beside
Hugh.
"The same way we did at the sheep, I guess," said Joe. "It don't
look very far from here. You take a look, Hugh." Hugh climbed
up, and cautiously raising his head, looked for a few seconds,
and lowering it again said, "Well, boys, we've got more than we
bargained for; there's two bears there, a big one and a little one.
Now, let's go 'round to the left here, and get behind those rocks
and a little above them, and then we'll have a chance to look at
them and see what we'll do."
They went back down the ravine, and then a little way around and
again climbing the rocks, found that they could see the basin in
which the sheep lay, and hurrying forward, they soon reached its
rim and looked down on the spot.
Sure enough, there were two bears, tearing away at the sheep's
carcass, and seeming greatly to enjoy themselves. They looked like
mother and cub, and to Jack the mother looked pretty big. They had
mauled and partly eaten the fore part of the sheep's carcass, and
had dug into its belly, gnawing the flanks.
The cub paid no attention to anything, and was eating greedily, but
the larger bear stopped feeding every few moments and looked in all
directions, and throwing up her head seemed to snuff the breeze.
Fortunately, the wind was blowing from the southeast, and so up the
stream, and there was no danger that the animal would detect the
presence of human beings; yet she seemed uneasy, and more or less
suspicious.
"Well, boys," said Hugh, "what do you want to do? I expect you want
to kill them bears."
"Yes, indeed, Hugh," said Jack, "of course we want to kill them."
"Hide's no good now," said Hugh, "they're in summer coat, and all
sunburned, and the winter coat isn't started."
"Oh, Hugh," said Jack, "you don't mean you want to let those bears
go. Why look how they've torn our sheep to pieces. Why they ought
to be killed for that, if for nothing else."
"Well, well, well," said Hugh, smiling, "you are an unreasonable
creature. Do you expect if you leave meat out on the mountain that
bears, or wolves, or Indians, or white people either, are going to
pass it by and not use it? How do you suppose those bears knew that
you were coming back?"
Jack saw that Hugh was making fun of him, and said, "Well, how
shall we take them, Hugh?"
"Fix it any way you like. Suppose you take the old bear and Joe the
cub; and I won't fire until I have to."
"All right," said Jack, "but wouldn't you rather fire? I've had
some hunting, and so has Joe since we've been out, and you haven't
had a shot. Wouldn't you like to kill the old bear?"
Hugh laughed again, as he said, "No, I'll give that up to you. You
take the old one, and Joe'll take the young one; but I tell you,
the young one's hide is better than the old one's."
"Oh, I don't care about that," said Jack. "What do you say, Joe,
does that suit you?"
"Yes," said Joe, "it suits me all right."
"All right then, let's shoot at the word; and you count, Hugh; when
you say three we'll both fire."
"All right," said Hugh, "get ready. Are you ready?"
Both boys grunted in assent. One, two, three! the two guns cracked
at the same instant. The smaller bear fell over, and then sprang
to its feet, screaming dismally, and ran along the hillside. The
larger one turned her head quickly and bit at the place at which
Jack had fired, and then, without a moment's waiting, came rushing
toward the spot over which the smoke of the two rifles still hung.
"Hurrah, boys!" said Hugh, with more interest than Jack had ever
seen him show. "Here she comes; get ready, and shoot again." The
two boys, having reloaded, fired, but both hurriedly, and the bear
made no pause, but kept galloping toward them at tremendous speed.
She was now within thirty or thirty-five yards, and Hugh, saying,
"Scatter out if she keeps a-coming, and keep shooting," raised
his rifle to his shoulder and fired; and as he did so, the bear
crumpled up and fell to the ground, and after a few struggles, lay
still; but for several moments all three stood with loaded guns,
waiting to see what she would do.
"She was a tough one," said Hugh, "but I reckon that neither of you
boys hit her a second time to do any harm to her. You were a little
excited, I guess, and shot before you got your sights rightly
drawed. I tell you when a bear is coming for you, that isn't the
time to get excited. If you get excited when a deer or antelope is
running away from you, that's all right, but when a bear is coming
to you, you want all your wits.
"But what became of your bear, Joe," he continued.
"I don't know," said Joe; "last I saw of him he was going over that
ridge, squealing a whole lot. I know just where he went over, and I
can go there and look for him."
"Well, you'd better," said Hugh. "But first let's see if there's
any life left in this old lady down here." They slowly approached
the bear, and threw stones at her, but she did not move. Moreover,
much blood was running from her mouth and nostrils, and she was
evidently dead. When they turned her over to skin her they saw that
she was not a very large bear, but a grizzly. Her coat, as Hugh had
said, was not in good order, being faded and sunburned, and with
many thin patches. Still, Jack thought it would be worth taking
home with him, and he and Hugh proceeded to skin her, while Joe
went off to look for the small one.
"Keep your eyes about you, son," said Hugh, as the boy started.
"Even a little bear can scratch and bite a whole lot, if he gets
hold of you. If you find the bear lying down, don't go up to him
until you're sure either that it is dead or alive; and if it is
alive, kill it."