the bear found not one, but two boys, who would serve equally well as substitutes for the one that had just escaped him. will stood less than fifty feet away, hastily ramming a bullet into his rifle, while george was a little farther to the right, busy at the same thing. bruin decided that the lad who was the nearer of the two would serve him best, so he straightway went after him.
no one could hold the hug of a bear in greater dread than did will burton. had he coolly stood still, and kept on re-loading his gun, it is likely he would have had it ready to fire before the beast reached him; but, as the boy expressed it, he was taking no such chances. he whirled on his heel, and followed the example of jack, with a suppleness fully equal to his.
one of the hardest things for a man or boy to do is to climb a tree with a gun in hand. much as will wanted to keep his weapon, so as to use it when perched above the reach of his enemy, he did not dare to try to do so. he threw it from him, and even then the pursuit was so close that he escaped by a chance as narrow as that of jack himself.
from his perch in the sapling the latter saw all this, which, you must remember, took place in a very brief time. the two elder boys of the little company had been treed by a huge bear, and neither of them had his gun with which to defend himself. it was clear that much now depended on george, the youngest of the company.
"don't let him see you," called jack. "keep out of sight until your gun is loaded, and then make your aim sure."
george did not reply, through fear of attracting the notice of the bear, but he was doing his duty like a hero. during the fracas between bruin and will he had dodged behind the trunk of a tree large enough to screen his body, and then gave his whole attention to re-loading his weapon.
now and then he peeped forth, taking care to show as little of himself as possible. what he saw encouraged him to hope that he would be able to do all that was expected of him.
for the second time the bear found his victim slipping away from him after he was within reach. you cannot wonder that he was in the angriest possible mood. he must have called to mind, too, that a third boy was somewhere near, for he could not have failed to see him when he started after the bigger lad.
but where was the third of the party?
the bear looked here, there, everywhere, but saw nothing of him.
ah! if the brute had gazed a little closer at that big oak trunk, off to his left, he would have seen a short, sturdy-looking boy, who had just finished pouring the priming into the pan of his rifle, and drawing back the hammer, was stealthily peering around the trunk, so as to decide how best to aim at the creature.
it so happened that the latter was in the best position to receive such a charge, and george took but a few seconds to make his aim sure. when he let fly, the little sphere of lead that whistled from his rifle tore its way through the heart of the beast, which rolled over on his side and died immediately, almost without a struggle.
you remember there were two other bears. they were lumbering along the trail some distance behind the leader, but quite close together. they did not become aware that anything unusual was going on until jack fired his first shot. then they looked up in their stupid way, and stood still while the first part of the stirring incidents took place.
before the crisis was reached, the couple seemed to conclude that there was no necessity to stay where they were likely to get hurt. so, without turning aside from the trail, they pushed on in the direction they were following when first seen.
jack and will quickly slid down from the saplings in which they had taken refuge, and, catching up their guns, ran towards the carcase of the bear, reached it almost at the same time with george, the three converging from different directions.
"he's dead sure enough," said jack, kicking the bulky body.
"he ought to be, with three or four bullets in him," said will; "george and i struck him the first time we fired, and you must have hit him. how was it, jack, that you didn't kill him?"
"i'll find out," replied jack, stooping down and examining the skull of the brute.
"i see how it is," he said, straightening up again; "i fired for his eye, but there was a stick across my line of aim--just enough to turn the ball aside, so that it didn't hurt him much."
"but it made him mad," suggested george.
"i should say it did; and then the other two balls made him so mad that he couldn't get any madder."
"he stood just right for me," said george; "and since he couldn't see me, i had all the time i wanted to take aim."
"and you did it well," added jack; "and it was fortunate for us, for we couldn't use our guns. but what's become of the other two bears?" he asked, looking around.
"they didn't see any fun in staying here," replied will, "and so they went off."
"let's follow them."
but will was not inclined to do so.
"you know we started out for a hunt," said he, "and i am in favour of making it as varied as we can. you found a couple of painters last night, and an indian or two this morning. awhile ago, you had a little fun with a bull buffalo, and he had more fun with you. we are just through with the bears, and i'm in favour of trying something else."
"what shall it be?" asked his brother.
"whatever comes along--wolves, deer, or anything that turns up."
while the three stood near the carcase they were busy re-loading their guns, for the brothers, as well as jack, had been taught that that was the first duty after discharging their weapons.
naturally the boys were in high spirits over their adventure, which had ended without harm to any one of the company.
"it seems to me," said george, "that we can find all the fun we want by following this path to the lick."
"it looks to me," added jack, "as though we may find more than we want."
"not unless we meet more buffaloes," remarked will, with a sly glance at jack, whose face flushed.
"i wouldn't mind having one of them, for it will soon be dinner time, and their meat is good at this season."
"there may be others along the path, and then you can run out and scare one to death."
"to do that," retorted jack, "i would have to run as fast as you did when the bear was at your heels."
"but hardly as fast as you ran when you missed your shot and got up the tree just in time."
"any boy that will run from a wounded bear will run from a buffalo bull when he has his head down and is coming for him: i think one is as bad as the other."
"that may be, which is a good reason why you shouldn't try to drive him off as though he were a rooster scratching up your corn."
george grinned over this bit of conversation, which took place with the best nature on both sides. when it had gone on for a few minutes more, will stopped, laughed, and reached out his hand.
"shake," said he; "i have laughed until i can't laugh any more, and now we'll drop it."
"i notice one thing that you may not know," said will, looking up as he spoke, through the tree tops, "and that is that the sky is not anything like as clear as it was a little while ago."
"and it is colder," added jack, with a shiver; "it looks to me very much as though a storm is coming."
"if there is, it's likely to be a snow-storm, i feel sure."
"it's well i brought this blanket along with me," said george; "will didn't think we needed it at all."
"i didn't think so as long as i believed mother meant that i should carry it. when i found that you were to take charge of it, why i concluded it well to bring it."
"i almost wish i had mine," said jack; "but there are plenty of places where we can build a good roaring fire and the wind won't reach us, and so after all we will be comfortable, and that's everything."
"yes," said will, looking around as though he half expected to see what they were talking about; "there are spots where we could sleep without a blanket, after we had kindled a good fire, and it won't take us very long to find one of them."
at that moment, when all three were about to move toward the trail, they heard the report of a rifle. it sounded perhaps a quarter of a mile off, and directly to the south.
now, there was nothing in this to cause any excitement on the part of the boys, but they looked in each other's faces with a half scared and half wondering expression, as though in doubt whether there was ground for fear or whether there was not.
"i believe that gun was fired by an indian," said george in a whisper.
"how can you know that?" asked his brother, impatiently.
"i don't know it," answered the younger, "but i only think so."
"i don't know that it makes any difference to us whether it was an indian or white man who fired it."
"of course; and we can't know until we find out for ourselves," was the sensible but not altogether necessary remark of master jack.
