The Greatest Works of Emerson Hough – 19 Books in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Emerson Hough
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XXVI
TRAILING THE BEAR
“I’ll tell you what,” said John, in the morning, as they still lingered at their pleasant camp; “we’re not apt to have a much nicer stopping place than this, so why not make a little hunt, and come back here to-night?”
“Not a bad idea,” said Alex.
“What’s the best way to plan it out?” asked John. “Ought we to go by boats down the river, and then come back here?”
“I would suggest that Moise and Rob take the dugout and go down the river a little way,” replied Alex, “and that you and I and Jess climb to the top of the bank, taking our time, to see if we could find any moose sign, or maybe a bear trail in the country back from the river. In that way we could cover both the top and bottom of the valley. We might find a grizzly higher up, although we are out of the grizzly country here by rights.”
This plan suggested by Alex was followed out, and at no very late hour in the morning camp was deserted by our travelers, whose hunting spirit seemed still unabated. They did not meet again until almost dusk. Alex and his companions found no fresh game trails on the heights above, and, in short, concluded their hunt rather early in the afternoon and returned to camp, where they remained for some hours before at length they saw the dugout, which the boys had christened The Plug, slowly making its way up the river.
John and Jesse, themselves pretty tired from their long walk, summoned up energy enough to go down to the beach and peer into the dugout. They saw no sign of any game. They did not, however, ask any questions, for they were learning the dignity of Indian hunters. Alex looked at Moise, but asked him no question. He noticed that Moise was whistling, and apparently not very unhappy, as after a time he went about making his evening fire.
“So you didn’t get any bear, Mr. Rob?” said Alex at last.
“No, not quite,” said Rob, “but I ought to have got one — I had a pretty fair shot, although it was rather dark where the bear was standing.”
Alex spoke a few words to Moise in the Cree language.
“Never mind,” said he to Rob at length. “We’ll get him to-morrow very easily.”
“So Moise said to me; but I don’t see how he knows. The bear started off as though he weren’t hit at all. He came down to the edge of the wood at a high bank and looked right at us when we were pulling the boat up the stream. You know, the canoe is rather teetery, but I shot as well as I could, and thought I hit him. He turned around, and I shot at him again. But he didn’t stop. Moise thought we had better come on in because it was so late.”
“Sure,” said Moise, “I’ll tol’ those boy he’ll shoot those bear two tam, once in the front an’ once in the back. With those rifle, he’ll not go far. To-morrow we’ll catch heem easy.”
“He was a big bear, too,” said Rob, “although not as big as our grizzly — just a black bear, that’s all. I don’t like to cripple any animal and then lose it.”
“I don’t think we’ll lose this one,” said Alex, reassuringly.
The judgment of the old hunters proved to be correct, for on the next day, when all hands dropped down the river to the point where Rob had shot at the bear, it was not five minutes before they found the trail where a considerable amount of blood showed that the bear had been badly wounded. At once they began to follow this trail back into the high country away from the river.
Alex did not ask any questions, and there was little talk between him and Moise. Moise, however, took the lead on the trail. Alex did not even carry his rifle, but loitered along, picking berries and enjoying himself, after his own fashion.
“Keep close up to Moise, young gentlemen,” he said. “This bear, although only a black bear, is apt to be very ugly if you find him still alive. If he comes for you, kill him quick. I doubt, however, very much whether he will be alive when we come up with him.”
“How do you know about that, Alex?” demanded John.
“It’s our business to know about such things,” answered Alex, smiling.
All the boys now could see where the bear had scrambled up the bank, and where it had gone through the bushes on its way to the forest, leaving a plain blood trail on the ground.
“Moise will lead on the trail,” said Alex. “He’s more Injun than I am. In some ways I can beat him, in others he can beat me. He is one of the best trailers on the river.”
Moise now was a different man from the talkative companion of the camp. He was very silent, and advanced cautiously along the trail, his eyes studying every record of the ground and cover which had been left by the wounded animal. Once in a while he pointed silently to a broken bush or to a drop of blood. After a while he stopped and pointed to a tree whose bark was ripped off.
“Heem awful mad,” whispered Moise. “S’pose you’ll seen heem here, he’ll fight sure. He’ll bite all the tree an’ fight the bush.”
After a while Alex showed them a deep excavation in the soft dirt.
“He’ll dig hole here an’ lie down,” said Moise. “Plenty mad now, sure!”
They kept on after the trail, following it deeper into the forest and higher up the slope, minute after minute, for a time which seemed short, but which really was over an hour and a half in extent. Moise still remained silent and not in the least excited, and Alex still continued to pick his berries and eat them leisurely as he followed along in the rear. Once they lost the trail on an open hillside covered with wintergreen plants, and the boys thought the hunt was over. Moise however, swung around like a hound on the trail, clear to the other side of the hill, and in the course of a few minutes picked up the spoor again when it struck softer ground beyond. They passed on then, moving upward deeper into the forest for some minutes, until at length Moise turned about.
“About five minute now, we’ll found heem,” said he, quietly.
“How does he know, Alex?” demanded Jesse, who was farther to the rear.
“Easy enough,” answered Alex. “He says the bear has lain down ten times now, and he would not do that unless he was very weak. He would travel as far as he could. Now he is lying down very often. I’m sorry, but I don’t think we’ll get any fight out of this bear. Moise thinks you’ll find him dead.”
Surely enough, they had hardly gone another hundred yards before Moise, stepping back quietly, pointed through an opening in the bushes. There, lying before them in a little glade, lay a vast, black body, motionless.
Rob grounded his rifle-butt, almost in disappointment, but later expressed his satisfaction.
“Now, boys, I got him,” said he, “and I guess it’s just as well he didn’t have to wait till now for us to come. But speaking of trailing, Moise, you certainly know your business.”
“Oh yes,” said Moise, “every man in this country he’ll mus’ know how to trail, else he’ll go hongree some tam. My onkle she’ll taught me how for follow trail.”
“Well,” said Alex, “here’s some more meat to get down to the boat, I suppose, and we need meat badly, too. We ought not to waste it, but if we take it all on board we’ll have to hurry to get down to Peace River Landing with it, because it is more than we can possibly eat.”
The two older hunters now drew their big buffalo knives and fell to work skinning and dismembering the carcass of the bear, the boys helping as they could. It was plainly the intention of Alex and Moise to make one trip with meat and hide.
In order to carry the green bear hide — always a slippery and awkward thing to pack — Moise now showed a little device often practised, as he said, among