The Young Alaskans in the Rockies - Emerson Hough (best ereader under 100 .TXT) 📗

The second bear, perhaps more wary than its mate or perhaps warmer from its digging, had left the open space and taken shelter in a little clump of green bushes close to the point where the two hunters approached the slide. When the sound of firing began above, this bear, much excited, began to plunge wildly this way and that inside the clump of bushes. At last it broke cover almost upon Jesse, who was standing in front.

“Shoot!” called Uncle Dick, in quick command; and Jesse fired, almost without aim, into what seemed a great gray mass which ran as though directly over him. Almost at the same instant Uncle Dick fired also and then, like their companions above, they both fired rapidly as they could until their bear also at last lay quiet, but dangerously close at hand.

Uncle Dick pushed back his hat and wiped his forehead, looking at Jesse half quizzically. “Son,” said he, “it’s lucky we both were here. That bear was either badly scared or good and angry. It meant business, I believe, and it’s a lucky thing we stopped it when we did.”

Jesse put his rifle to the ground and stood trembling all over. “Well, Uncle Dick,” said he, “I don’t know whether or not the bear was scared, but I know I am right now.”

“It’s just as well to be honest,” said his uncle, putting a hand kindly on his shoulder. “Any man has a right to be anxious in as close a corner as this.”

They heard the loud hallo of John now, a little way above them; and presently Leo came slipping down toward them, smiling broadly.

“Kill ’um two bear!” said he. “Plenty good hunt, eh?” He looked at the little heap of empty shells lying so close to the dead bear.

“Two grizzlum, both fight,” said he. “Bad bear. Heap shoot ’um.”

“And I’m mighty glad we’re no worse off,” said Uncle Dick, when in turn they had passed from one of the great grizzlies to the other. “And, speaking of luck, you boys certainly have had it in every way. Leo, it looks to me as though you put us up almost too close on these bears.”

“No see ’um from trees,” said Leo. “I like shoot ’um bear close up. Heap shoot ’um. This boy he heap shoot ’um too.”

“All is well that ends well,” said their leader. “Now here we are again, with two big bear-hides to get down out of these mountains. Are you satisfied, boys—good and plenty satisfied?”

“I should say so,” said Jesse, smiling; and they all laughed at him.

“I don’t know that I ever knew of a better hunt,” said Uncle Dick, at last, looking approvingly at the two bears. They had rolled and pulled the upper bear down to the lower, so that they now lay side by side. “Three bears like this in two days is certainly considerable hunting. These are big as Rob’s bear. The robes are prime, too, and not rubbed to amount to anything—one dark silver tip and one gray fellow. You can’t ever tell what color a grizzly is going to have or what he is going to do.”

They fell to work now, each party skinning out its own bear, a task which kept them employed for some time.

“We’d better kill the next bears closer to the foot of the slide,” said Jesse, laughing. “Then we won’t have to carry the skins so far.”

“A good idea,” assented his uncle. “I’m telling you, a full-sized grizzly-hide, green, is all a strong man can pack.”

“We’ll not try to carry them down to the main camp, will we?” inquired Jesse.

“Indeed, no. We’ll be lucky if we make it back to last night’s camp down the valley. There’s a bare chance that we may meet Moise and George there. They won’t know where we are, unless they heard us shooting.”

Leo came up to them at about this time, and stood looking at Jesse’s bear for some time. “S’pose me get ’um two twenty dollar, now?” said he, looking at Uncle Dick. The latter looked at him quizzically for a time, rubbing his chin with a finger.

“Well, Leo,” said he, “you’re a pretty good business man as well as a good grizzly-hunter. So you want to cash in on our bear, do you? All right; I feel so good about it that I’ll just go you—you shall have twenty dollars a head for these bears—and sixty dollars in two days, besides your wages, ought to leave you and your cousin George pretty well satisfied, eh?”

“Yes, feel heap good,” said Leo, grinning. “Buy plenty flour now. Plenty grub on Fort George.”

“You’re no better satisfied than we are, my friend,” rejoined the white hunter. Leo extended his hand, and they shook hands all around.

“I’m willing to go on down the river now,” said John; and Jesse smiled his assent.

With some labor they squared the two hides into a portable pack, one for each of the men, binding them into place with bits of thongs which each carried at his belt. Then, using their belts as tump-straps, Leo and Uncle Dick shouldered their heavy loads and started down the mountain.

XXIII ONWARD BOUND

They had gone down the valley only about half a mile, now and then splashing through the shallow fords of the meandering little stream which spread all over the flat, gravelly floor of the valley, when they heard a shout and saw Moise advancing rapidly toward them. That worthy came up smiling, as usual, and beginning to talk before he came within good ear-range.

“Hollo!” he cried. “Some more bear? Plenty bear now, this tam?”

Uncle Dick halted and dropped his pack to the ground. “Welcome! Moise,” said he. “I don’t know that I ever was gladder to see you in my life—this load is heavy.”

“I’ll take heem,” said Moise. “My faith, she’s big bear, heem, too, eh? Two beeg bear”—and he lifted also the other pack which Leo had dropped down. “I hear you shoot when I come on the camp here, and I say to myself, ‘Moise, those boy he kill more bear, sure.’ Bime-by I come up, help you get load down the hill. George, he’s make cup tea on the camp; Rob, he’s down below on the big camp, on the boat.

“Didn’t I told you, Leo,” continued Moise, exultantly, “those boy, she’s the most best grizzly-hunter ever come on the Tête Jaune Cache, heem?” And Leo this time grinned his assent and approval.

They now made their way back to the bivouac camp where they had passed the night, and where they were much refreshed by a lunch and a cup of tea all around, after which they made ready to get back down to the valley of the Canoe as rapidly as possible. All the men had particularly heavy loads to carry, and even the boys took on light packs of blankets or camp equipment.

They made the journey around the point of the mountain and down into the Creek Valley which ran into the Canoe without much incident, except that on the side-hill snowdrifts George, carrying one of the bear-hides, slipped by reason of a broken foothold in the thawing snow, and had a considerable roll downhill with his load before he brought up against a little tree. To the others this seemed a dangerous experience; but Leo, like any other Indian, found it only laughable, and he derided George for some time in their own language. George seemed very much chagrined, for no Indian likes to make a mistake or be humiliated in the presence of others.

As may be supposed, Rob greeted them, on their arrival at the main camp, with the greatest delight in the world.

“Well, what luck!” exclaimed he. “Two more hides—that’s one apiece! Did each of you get one, fellows?”

The three boys now shook hands all around, and for a long time they chatted gaily together, telling one another the many exciting incidents of their hunt. They all agreed that certainly they were the luckiest young hunters that ever had gone after grizzlies.

“I don’t know how you all feel about it now,” said Rob, finally, “but for my part I would be content to run straight on down and not stop for any more hunting. I’ve been watching my water-mark here, and this river has risen almost a foot in the last twenty-four hours. That means that the snows are beginning to go on the upper snow-fields. We’ve had a big hunt, so let’s take out the rest of it in a big run on the old Columbia—they say that’s worse than grizzlies.”

The others assented to this readily enough, for, wet, tired, and successful as they were, they welcomed the thought of a night’s rest and a journey in the boats, which, taking one thing with another, they knew would be easier than climbing after grizzlies in the mountains.

They all slept soundly that night in their mosquito-proof tent, and in the morning were much refreshed. All bore a hand in breaking the camp and loading the boats, and early in the day they were once more off in their swift journey down the mountain river. The river itself seemed to have changed almost overnight. From being mild and inoffensive it now brawled over its reefs and surged madly through its cañons. Many times they were obliged to go ashore and line down some of the bad water, and all the time, when running, the paddlers were silent and eager, looking ahead for danger, and obliged constantly to use care with the paddles to dodge this rock or to avoid that stretch of roaring water. There was no accident, however, to mar their progress, and they kept on until in the afternoon they reached a place where the valley seemed to flatten and spread, a wide and beautiful mountain prospect opening out before them. After a time, at the head of a long stretch of water, as both boats were running along side by side, they saw suddenly unfold before them the spectacle of a wide, green flood, beyond which rose a wedgelike range of lofty mountains, the inner peaks of which were topped with snow.

“La Grande Rivière!” exclaimed Moise; and Leo turned his head to shout: “Ketch ’um Columby!”

“Yes, there’s the Columbia, boys,” said Uncle Dick. And the three young hunters in the boat waved their hats with a shout at seeing at last this great river of which they had heard so much, and which had had so large a place in their youthful dreams.

Steadily the boat swept on down the stained and tawny current of their smaller river, until they felt beneath them the lift of the green flood of the great Columbia, here broken into waves by the force of an up-stream wind. Uncle Dick called out an order to the lead-boat. Soon they all were ashore on a little beach near the mouth of the Canoe River, each feeling that now at last a great stage of their journey had been completed, and that another yet as great still lay before them.

XXIV THE BOAT ENCAMPMENT

Our party of adventurers were now in one of the wildest and most remote regions to be found in all the northern mountains, and one perhaps as little known as any to the average wilderness goer—the head of the Big Bend of the Columbia River; that wild gorge, bent in a half circle, two hundred miles in extent, which separates the Selkirks from the Rockies. There are few spots on this continent farther from settlements of civilized human beings.

To the left, up the great river, lay a series of mighty rapids, impossible of ascent by any boat. Nearly a hundred miles that