On a Torn-Away World Part 21

"Behind Wash--quick!"

No need to tell the hunter to be quick. He was on his knees and the gun was at his shoulder in the twinkling of an eye.

"Come here, Wash--quick!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Jack, with sudden inspiration, and the darkey, used to obeying orders without question, scrambled up and started toward the boy.

With a roar that brought every other person save the old hunter to his feet, the huge bear swung both front paws to grab the negro. Wash escaped the embrace by the breadth of a hair.

Bang! spoke Andy Sudds' rifle.

"Gollyation! I'se done shot!" bawled the darkey, and sprang into Jack's arms.

The boy hung on to him or perhaps Wash would still be running, he was so scared. Nor were the other members of the party much less startled.

But Andy Sudds was as steady as a rock. His first ball had hit the huge beast in the breast, but the latter had plunged forward after the escaping darkey as the ball struck him. Therefore the wound was too high up to do serious damage.

A grizzly, or Kodiak, bear has never yet been settled by a single shot--unless the bullet entering the beast's carca.s.s was explosive.

With a mighty roar the bear plunged forward, right through the fire, scattering it far and wide and aiming directly for the place from which the rifle ball had come. It had stung him, and he was after the old hunter on the instant.

He half fell over the coop which contained the Shanghai rooster.

Irritable as he could be, the bear delayed long enough to strike at this coop. He smashed one end of it flat, but the Shanghai miraculously escaped injury.

The bird had undoubtedly been disturbed and frightened by the secret approach of Bruin; but once free, the feathered creature felt his dignity disturbed, and finding himself free of the coop, he flew with a loud squawk at the charging bear.

Andy had pumped two more bullets after his first one. Both had found their billet in the body of the bear; but neither had struck a vital spot. The scattering fire, as the beast plowed through the embers, drove the rest of the party out of range in a hurry. Jack dragged Wash to one side; but the darkey yelled:

"Gollyation! I wanter save b.u.t.tsy! Oh, lawsy-ma.s.sy! Dat Shanghai suahly is a reckless bird!"

In the flaring light of the flames the rooster was seen to pounce upon the shoulders of the huge bear as the latter came down to "all-fours"

and dived at the old hunter. Andy sprang back, collided with a tree-trunk, and went head over heels. In an instant the bear would have been upon him and one stroke of his sabre-like claws would have finished Andy Sudds.

But the rooster certainly did delay the bear's charge. The brute struck at his feathered tormentor with first one fore paw, and then the other.

He failed to dislodge his enemy by such means.

And then a big ember behind him snapped and a part of the flaming branch fell upon the ground just where Bruin put his hind paw upon it.

Plowing through the blaze in a hurry was one thing--_this_ was an entirely different proposition.

Bruin uttered a roar of pain and turned to bite at the stung paw. As he swung his huge body about, the blood now spouting from his jaws--for one of the bullets had punctured a lung--Andy came into position again, with the muzzle of his rifle less than ten feet from the hairy side.

Bang!

An answering roar of rage and pain followed the shot. The beast tried to whirl again, but fell instead. The rooster fled, squawking, into the bush.

The huge bear struggled on the ground for some moments before anybody dared approach. It was Wash who first dashed in and planted a foot upon the dead beast's neck.

"See wot dat Shanghai done?" he cried. "Wot you gotter say now ter Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abraham Lincoln Ulysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo Marconi b.u.t.ts?"

"I got to take off my hat to the rooster," Andy Sudds said, quietly.

"If it hadn't been for him that bear would have had me as sure as shootin'!"

"b.u.t.ts is a hero--no doubt of that," gasped Jack Darrow, when he could get his breath.

The others--even Professor Henderson--were greatly excited by the incident and delighted by its outcome. Here was fresh meat in abundance, to say nothing of a fine blanket-robe, if they could take the time to stretch and "work" the hide. Andy promised to do that the next day if they would camp where they were long enough.

Meanwhile the bear was skinned and certain steaks cut off for immediate consumption, while the bulk of the carca.s.s was cached under some blocks of ice on the glacier. Andy was for smoking some strips of meat over the rebuilt fire.

"You see, Professor, it's so hot in the daytime here, and so cold at night, that pemmican is about the only kind of meat that will keep--unless it's canned. We'll eat what we can of the fresh bear steaks; but these strips will be all right smoked a long time after the fresh meat has become too strong for anything but a buzzard," quoth the hunter.

CHAPTER XXI

MARK ON GUARD

After the hearty supper, and the excitement of the bear-killing, they were all more or less ready for bed. The professor figured that the sun would not appear again to the Crusoes on this island in the air for quite fourteen hours. They all ought to get sufficient sleep before that time. The havoc wrought by the rays of the torrid sun upon the glacier had been apparent as they came over it to this fringe of trees at the base of the cliff. It might be necessary for them to move quickly from the ice to save their lives.

"We can afford to spend some hours in rest, and will start with bodies refreshed, at least. Now we will divide the watches," suggested the scientist.

But the others would not hear of the professor going on guard. Andy declared for the first watch, for he had to 'tend his "jerked" bear meat. And following him the die fell to Mark. The old hunter awoke the youth some four hours after the camp had become quiet for the night.

The earth was then hanging low on their horizon, while the moon was climbing up from the east, the reflected light of both orbs flooding the surface of the ice-field.

Mark came out of his warm nest yawning like a good fellow, and the old hunter said to him:

"Take that axe yonder and cut some wood for the fire. Keep up a good blaze and that will keep us comfortable as well as keep you awake. I don't want you to go to sleep, Mark."

"Who's going to sleep?" cried Mark, much abused.

But he had to confess to himself that he _was_ mighty drowsy when he had finished cutting up the wood a little way from the camp. He took a turn or two, replenished the fire, and then backed up against a sheltering tree-bole and blinked at the dancing flames.

Sleep overtakes one suddenly and strangely at times. Without intending to even close one eye, Mark was off into dreamland with a promptness that was surprising. He settled back against the tree and slept standing up. But his neglected duty troubled his subconscious mind. He was uneasy. In his dreams he was troubled by nameless dread. He awoke at last seemingly with a scream of human agony in his ears.

Had something happened to his comrades during his brief defection?

Mark sprang erect and looked over the sleeping camp. Every person was in his place, but the fire was low. It had been, perhaps, an imagined sound that aroused him so suddenly.

He threw more wood on the fire and stepped out upon the ice to get more of the fuel he had previously cut into handy lengths. This morainial deposit which offered rootage for the trees and bushes was but a narrow streak--a sort of an island on the glacier. They had carried the bear meat out to a small sink in the ice where there were great slabs of the hard crystal which were easily packed over the meat.

As Mark started for the wood he heard a noise out on the ice in the direction of their cache. He picked up his rifle again quickly and started for the spot. Something was disturbing the meat, and Mark did not lack courage. His rifle was loaded and, thanks to Andy, he was a good shot. The old hunter took pride in training the boys to shoot well.

The youth did not stop to ask what manner of enemy it was disturbing their cache. And it never entered his head to disturb the camp. He ran right out upon the glacier and had advanced to within a few yards of the spot before he learned what he was up against, for a huge block of ice hid the cache from his view.

Around this ice-block, from either side, as though they had been waiting purposely to ambuscade him, shot several animals, who charged him without as much as a whine.

"Dogs!" thought Mark, remembering the Alaskans that Phineas Roebach had been forced to abandon. "They have gone mad."

But the next moment he saw his mistake. They were wolves--huge, gaunt, s.h.a.ggy fellows, with gaping jaws displaying rows of ferocious teeth.

They charged him in awful silence, their great claws scratching over the ice.

There were eight or ten of them in sight and they were only a few yards away from the youth when he first saw them. But instantly Mark dropped to one knee to steady himself, put the rifle to his shoulder, and opened fire.