"Seems to me you"d better get the bear first," said Jesse. "But we might look in among the traps in the back of the hut and see what we can find.
These hunters nearly always leave some kind of cooking things at their camps."
Sure enough, when the boys entered the barabbara to look after their rifles, and began to rummage among the piles of _klipsies_ which they found thrown back under the eaves, they unearthed a broken cast-iron frying-pan and, what caused them even greater delight, a little, dirty sack, which contained perhaps three or four pounds of salt. They sat on the gra.s.s of the floor and looked at one another with broad smiles. "If everything keeps up as lucky as this," said Jesse, "we"ll be ready to keep house all right pretty soon. But ought we to use these things that don"t belong to us?"
"Surely we may," answered Rob. "It is always the custom in a wild country for any one who is lost and in need to take food when he finds it, and to use a camp as though it were his own. Of course we mustn"t waste anything or carry anything off, but while we"re here we"ll act as though this place were ours, and if any one finds us here we"ll pay for what we use. That"s the Alaska way, as you know."
"You"re not going out after that big bear, are you?" asked Jesse, anxiously, of Rob.
"Of course; we"re all going! What are these new rifles for--just look, brand-new high-power Winchesters, every one--and any one of these guns will shoot as hard for us as for a grown man."
They sat for some time in the hut discussing various matters. At last John crawled to the door and looked out. He was rather a matter-of-fact boy in his way, and there seemed no special excitement in his voice as he remarked: "Well, Rob, there comes your bear."
The others hurried to the door. Sure enough, upon the bare mountain slope beyond the lagoon, nearly half a mile away, there showed plainly enough the body of an enormous bear, large as a horse. It was one of the great Kadiak bears, which are the biggest of all the world.
"Cracky!" said Jesse; "he looks pretty big to me. Do you suppose he"ll find us here in the house?"
Rob, the oldest of the three, who had been on one or two hunts with his father, looked serious as he watched this giant animal advancing down the hill-side with its long, reaching stride. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. "Look!" said he; "there"s two more just come out of the brush. It"s an old she bear and her cubs coming down to fish!"
All could now see the three bears, the great, yellow-gray mother, huge and s.h.a.ggy, and the two cubs, darker in color and, of course, much smaller, although each was as large as the ordinary black bear of the United States. Certainly it was an exciting moment as the boys looked at these great creatures now so close at hand.
Presently the old bear seemed to suspect something, for she stopped and sat up on her haunches, swinging from side to side a head which was fully as long as the arm of any one of the boys.
"She probably smells the smoke," whispered Rob. "Oh, I hope she won"t get scared and run away! No, there she comes; it"s the first salmon run, and they"re all hungry for fish."
They watched the bears until at last they disappeared in the brush which lined the creek on the farther side. Rob kept his eye intently fixed on the place where they had disappeared, but made no motion to leave the hut until finally all three of the bears once more appeared, this time splashing across the creek.
"She knows the tide as well as we do," muttered he. "It won"t be long now before the fish begin to move up the creek again. Now, come on, fellows, if you"re not afraid!"
Rob looked around at John, who had his new rifle in his hand, but looked none too eager, now that the opportunity had come to use it. Jesse"s lip, it must be confessed, trembled a little bit, and he was pale. The first sight of a large bear has been known to unsettle the nerves of many a grown man, and it was not to be wondered at that it should disturb one of Jesse"s years. There was, perhaps, in the wild and remote situation in which they found themselves something which gave them courage. They had escaped such dangers of the sea that now the danger of the land seemed less by comparison. Moreover, they all had the hunting instinct, and were accustomed to seeing big game brought in by their relatives and friends. Had an older person been with them, no doubt they would all have been frightened; but there is something strange in the truth that when one is thrown on one"s own resources courage comes when needed--as it did now to these three castaways.
Without any further speech Rob pa.s.sed out at the door and stood waiting for the others to follow. Each was silent as he held his way down the creek.
For some distance they did not need to conceal themselves; then their leader took them along the edge of the creek, where their heads would not show above the gra.s.s. Thus following down the stream, and carefully peering over the banks at each bend, they worked along until they were perhaps three or four hundred yards above the big salmon pool and near to a flat piece of water which extended above it. Rob raised a warning finger.
"Listen!" he hissed.
They could hear it now distinctly--heavy splashing in the water, broken with low, grumbling whines in a deep, throaty voice, something like what one may hear in a circus at feeding-time. Once in a while a squeak or a bawl came from one of the cubs. Rob laughed. From his position near the top of the bank he could now see the picture before him.
The old mother was sitting on her haunches out in the middle of the stream, with a cub on either side of her. She was trying to teach them to fish. Once in a while she would make a sudden, cat-like stroke with her long forearm, and almost always would throw out a fine salmon on the bank. Toward this the cubs would start in their hunger, but the old lady, reproving them for their eagerness, would then cuff them soundly on the head, knocking them sprawling over in the water, to their very great disgust. Once in a while one of them, his ears tight to his head, would sit down in the water, lift up his nose and complain bitterly at this hard treatment. Then again he would make a half-hearted stroke at some of the fish which he could see swimming about him; but his short claws would not hold like the long, curved ones of his mother, and no fish rewarded the efforts of either of the cubs. The boys lost all sense of fear in watching this amusing scene, which they studied for some minutes. They really lost their best opportunity for stalking their game, because presently the old grizzly changed her mind and led the way out to the bank where several fish were lying flapping. Upon these they all fell eagerly, grunting and grumbling, and now and again fighting among themselves.
Rob turned toward his friends. "Quick now!" he whispered, sternly, and led the way, crawling into the high gra.s.s which would afford them cover for a closer approach to their game. The hearts of all of them now were throbbing wildly, and probably each one doubted his ability to do good shooting. Something, however, led them on, and although Rob saw two pale faces following him when he looked back, there was a glitter in the eyes of each which told him that at least each of his friends would do his best.
Pa.s.sing now out of the gra.s.s to the cover of the bank again, Rob ran along crouching, until he pulled up under cover of the bank at a point not more than seventy-five yards from where they could now distinctly hear the bears at their feeding.
"Get ready now!" he whispered.
Slowly the three crawled to the top of the bank. Rob laid a hand on Jesse"s rifle barrel, which he saw was unsteady. He made motions to both of the others not to be excited. A strange sort of calm seemed to have come upon him. Yet, plucky as he was, he was not prepared for the sight which met him as he gazed through the parted gra.s.s at the top of the bank.
The old grizzly, once more suspicious, had again sat up on her haunches, and turning her head from side to side began to sniff as though she scented danger. Her s.h.a.ggy hair shone silvery now in the sun, and she seemed enormously large. Rob"s heart leaped to his mouth, but suddenly dropping to his knee, and calling out to the others "Now!" he fired without longer hesitation.
The sound of the other two rifles followed at once. The great bear gave a hoa.r.s.e roar which seemed to make the hair p.r.i.c.kle on the boys" heads; but even as she roared she dropped and floundered in the mud of the bank, up which she strove to climb. Again and again the rifles spoke.
"Now the little ones--quick!" cried Rob, half springing to his feet, and continuing to fire steadily. Some one"s shot struck the first cub square through the spine and killed it instantly. The second cub stood but a moment longer. These boys had used rifles many times before, and although not every shot went true, perhaps half of them struck their mark; and it was as Rob had said--the rifles shot as hard for them as for a grown man.
The great she bear, possessed of enormous vitality, was not easily disposed of. The magazines of all the rifles were emptied the second time before Rob would allow them to go a foot closer, and even so, the great gray body retained life enough to roll half down the bank as they approached. This time Rob finished the old bear with a shot through the head, at a distance of not more than thirty yards.
The game was down and dead--three great bears, one of them huge beyond the wildest dreams of any of them, and unbelievably large even for the most widely experienced sportsman. Indeed, any sportsman might have been proud of this record. Rob turned to look at his friends.
Suddenly he himself sat down, and to his surprise found that he was trembling violently all over. Jesse and John were both doing the same.
He saw that their faces were deathly pale.
"I"m--I"m--I"m sort of--sort of sick at my stomach!" said Jesse.
X
THE SAVAGE REFUGEE
"Well," said Rob, finally, looking around at his friends and grinning, "I don"t know which of us is the worst scared; but, anyhow, we"ve got our game, and a lot of it. Do you suppose we can skin these big fellows?"
"We"ll have to," said John. "There"s meat enough to last us a year. That old bear is bigger than any horse in Valdez."
"And tough as any horse, too," said Rob. "The cubs may be better to eat.
I have heard my father say that bear liver isn"t bad; and certainly we can get all the fat we want to fry our fish. Lucky we"ve all got our hunting-knives along; so here goes!"
They now arose and began the difficult task of skinning out the great bear--slow work for even an experienced hunter. They kept at it, however, and had made a good beginning when all at once a slight sound at the edge of the creek bank attracted Rob"s attention.
As he turned the others noticed him, and all three of them stood staring an instant later at the same object: a round, dark face gazing at them motionless through the gra.s.s--a face with cunning little eyes set slantwise, like those of a j.a.panese, and long, stringy locks of dark hair hanging down about the cheeks. Instinctively each boy reached for his rifle, which he had left leaning against the carca.s.s of the great bear. Apparently not alarmed, the face kept its place, staring steadily at them. Rob now guessed the truth, which was that this Aleut savage had heard the shots and had entered the mouth of the creek in his boat. Not knowing whether he was friend or foe, Rob motioned the others to follow him, and approached him with his rifle at a ready.
Seeing that they were not afraid, nor disposed to be driven from their place, the Aleut savage--for such it proved to be--arose, and with what he meant to be a smile stretched out his hand as though in friendship.
His gun, a rusty old affair, he left lying on the ground at his side.
Rob kicked it away as he approached.
They now saw how the Aleut had reached them. His boat, a long, native bidarka, lay in the creek, up which the native had paddled silently on his own errand of discovery. This boat interested the boys very much.
It was nearly twenty feet long and not more than two feet wide, covered entirely with tightly stretched skin. In the deck were two round holes, around each of which there was a mantle, or hood, of oiled hide or membrane, which could be drawn up about the waist of a man sitting in the hatch. On the narrow and sloping deck there was lashed a long spear and an extra paddle. The boys also noticed sticking to the deck a stringy-looking ma.s.s of grayish white, which at first they could not identify, though later they found it to be a collection of devil-fish, or octopi, which the native had gathered among the rocks for later use as food. Peering into the hatches they saw a copper kettle partly filled with a whitish-looking meat, which later they found to be whale flesh.
There was a ragged blanket of fur thrust under the deck between the hatches.
"He"s been cruising along the coast," said Rob; "but this is a two-hatch bidarka, so probably he"s got a partner somewhere around."
"Maybe he"s up at our house now stealing everything we left there,"
suggested Jesse.
"Yes, and maybe it"s his house that we"ve moved into," added John.
Rob, the older of the boys, and the one on whose judgment they had come to rely, remained silent a moment.