Rocky Mountain Boys Part 18

"And why didn't you tell me about it, so I could look up too?" asked Felix.

"Well, I had several reasons," answered the other, readily enough. "In the first place, I didn't dare sing out because, if you slipped just then, you stood a pretty good chance of being killed. And by the time we both got to where the climbing was safer, he had pulled his nose in out of sight. So I just marked that place, and thought I'd keep the news until tonight."

"All right; and when you're good and ready, not before, Tom, why, we'll pay our respects to Mr. Grizzly Bear."

"H'm! how about the day after tomorrow?" asked Tom.

"Suits me fine; do you really mean it?" asked his chum, eagerly.

"Wind and weather permitting, I think we might chance it, Felix. And I'll try and not let him know we're coming. Sort of a surprise party, you understand. I only hope the old chap's at home when we knock."

Felix came over, and clapped a hand affectionately on the shoulder of his cousin.

"You're the finest chum a fellow ever could have, and that goes," he said; "always thinking of doing something to make things move along for me. Once I get my grizzly, and after that I'm going to turn around, so as to try and fix things for your liking, see if I don't."

"Just as if you ain't always picking out the best flapjack in the lot for me; the juiciest piece of meat; the clearest cup of coffee. I guess when they started to making chums, they lost the pattern after they had you built up, Felix. And it makes me sick to think what a gap there'll be in my life after you go back East again."

"But you promised to make me a good long visit soon; and I'm going to hold you to your word. After this we've just got to see more or less of each other right along. I'm coming out here again, make your mind easy to that. Perhaps I'll take a notion to invest in a ranch near you, because, you know, my mother left me some money, more than I'll ever know what to do with."

"That would be the greatest thing I know of!" cried Tom; "and I'll see that you have chances enough, mark me."

And so they chatted on, as each carried his chosen work along; for Tom was busy with some of his best pelts, which did not quite look well enough to suit his eye, and he thought needed a little further manipulation before being tied up.

On the following day Tom cleaned up all work possible with the traps, visiting every one that was set, and bringing home quite a bundle of fresh skins, which he of course immediately stretched after their kind, some cased, and others split open, with the fur side out.

They were acc.u.mulating quite a collection of pelts by this time, and somehow both boys enjoyed the work very much. If they had had to do it for a living, possibly some of the pleasure would soon evaporate; but as long as it was just carried on as fun, it did not seem to pall upon them.

And sitting there by the fire evenings, they had easily settled what they meant to do with the main part of the skins. After picking out what they wanted to keep as a reminder of their great time in the foothills of the Rockies, they agreed that the balance should be turned over to Mrs. Crow, for the benefit of herself and family. As old friends of Sol Ten Eyck, they seemed to have first claim on any surplus; and then there was something so fine about the way the old halfbreed had kept strictly away from that part of the region which he looked on as Sol's preserves, that both lads believed he deserved to be rewarded.

"And," Tom Tucker had said, in conclusion, after one of these talks; "as Sol will never come up here again, I'm going to make over all he has, except the traps he values, and which we're to take home for him, to Charley Crow. He can call this shack one of his homes, and trap along the little stream where we've found the mink so plentiful."

Felix, on his part, had already thought about those Marlin guns he meant to send west as soon as he got home again; and his companion applauded the idea when he learned of it.

Tom worked hard that night trying to get everything in shipshape around the shack, so that they could take a day off with clear consciences; and Felix gave him a helping hand in stretching the many pelts; for with two days catch to be taken care of, and all in the faultless manner that marked Tom's work, it took considerable time to clean the slate.

But in due time Tom admitted that he could not think of anything else that needed attention; so during the balance of the evening they just rested.

In the morning they made a few simple preparations looking to the great event of the day. What one needs most of all, when about to start out after a grizzly, consists of a cool head, steady nerves, and a gun on which he can always depend. The harder this latter shoots the better; and if he can carry sixteen cartridges in the magazine, it will not be too many, for they are about the toughest beasts to kill on the face of the earth, barring none. And there have been hunters willing to declare that some grizzlies can carry off as much lead, and still live right along, as would wind up the earthly career of a dozen lions or tigers.

So about the only thing the boys did was to look their guns over carefully, and make sure they had an abundance of ammunition along, together with such other things, like matches, hunting knives, and the like, as they were accustomed to carrying with them.

The day was everything they could wish; indeed, the weather seemed to be doing its best to behave. Felix used to say that it was trying to coax him into making another lone trip, so that it could suddenly veer around, and show him the other side of the picture. But he was not at all anxious to go wandering off again; and while Tom did not joke him about the matter, he was of the opinion that the events of that previous experience had sunk deeply into the mind of his chum.

Having made all preparations, therefore looking to pushing a vigorous campaign against the grizzly, if they were lucky enough to find him home, the boys shut the door of the dugout, and departed.

Felix looked back toward the old shack with something like affection.

"We haven't been here very long, Tom," he remarked, "but do you know, I've begun to just love that old place. And when I'm far away, perhaps at home in the East, let me tell you, many a time I'll just shut my eyes, and see it as we do now. Yes, and I'll never hear the crackle of a fire but what I'll be sure to picture the two of us sitting there, busy at our work."

Tom looked pleased.

"I'm right glad to hear you talk that way, partner," he remarked, earnestly, as he too glanced fondly back over his shoulder. "She's a homely little old shack, and sure not much to look at; but somehow or other she seems to suit me O. K. And when you say you'll always remember our days and nights up here in the Rocky Mountain country, you're just echoing what's in my mind. I never had a chum like you; and I never expect to again. It was a bully good idea that brought you out to visit our ranch, the luckiest day in my whole life."

Tom was usually not given very much to sentiment, as his cousin knew; and hence, when he did speak his mind after this fashion, it might be set down that he meant every word of it.

The subject turned to other points of the compa.s.s as they walked st.u.r.dily on in the direction of the mountain pa.s.s. With such glorious surroundings there need never be any want of things to talk about. Even the grand air that greeted them with the rising of the sun was invigorating enough to deserve frequent mention; while the impressive scenery by which they were surrounded was surely of a character to evoke admiration.

In this manner, then, they presently reached the rougher country that lay along the foot of the uplifts. Having come this way before, when going upon their bighorn hunt, and also returning from the same, it was in a measure familiar to both boys; still, they saw it now under new conditions, and discovered many features in the landscape that had eluded them on the previous occasion.

"Here we are at the canyon where we came out," said Felix, as they found high rocky walls beginning to shut them in on both sides.

CHAPTER XVI

THE TERROR OF THE ROCKIES

"You must know," said Tom, as they climbed over some of the many rocky obstacles in the canyon, left there by the last flood, when some cloud-burst had perhaps filled it dozens of feet high with a raging flood, "that this grizzly bear hunting is different sport from bagging an ordinary black."

"I'd always understood that," Felix answered. "You see, I've read a lot about the thing, and I'm pretty well posted on that subject. I know that the grizzly is the toughest animal in existence, barring none, and that many hunters who have shot big game in other parts of the world give him the palm, when it comes to being difficult to down."

"And that's why," continued the Western boy, "men who would hardly hesitate to openly face a panther, or a pack of wolves, and meet them on the level; will even climb a tree when expecting an attack from a full grown grizzly; because it is well known that the old fellow can't climb worth a cent."

"Yes, I've read even that about him," remarked Felix. "He's sure the terror of the Rockies; and the Indians used to always reckon a brave the greatest ever, when he could show the claws of a grizzly, and prove that he killed the beast in a square stand-up fight."

"Whew! I should say so, Felix. Why, nothing could tempt me to try such a fool game as that. When you see what awful claws the old fellow has, and the frightful muscle back of them, you'll understand why it's never looked on as a piece of cowardice to get up in a tree, and then dare him to come on. Chances are even then, that if the tree is only a sapling, the bear'll drag it down, and get his man."

"Are you trying to throw a scare into me, Tom?" laughed the other.

"Oh! not at all," replied his cousin; "only I wanted you to know that as we're only a couple of boys after all, we had ought to take as much precaution as most old hunters would, when out to stalk a grizzly bear."

"That means climb a tree, I take it, eh, Tom?"

"Well, it would be wise; and my father would say it was the right thing to do," went on the ranch owner's son, firmly.

Felix frowned, as though there was something in the proposition that somehow went against his proud soul. And seeing this, his cousin was only the more urgent in his appeal.

"Remember, you promised me that you'd do anything I said in this game, Felix!"

"That's right, I did, and I will, Tom; but you don't know how mean it makes me feel to think of getting up in a tree, and then daring the bear to come on; only to fill him full of lead as he accepts the challenge."

"Oh! I can understand all that, my boy, and it does you credit; but after you see that monster at the foot of the tree, stretching himself, and shaking it in his mad effort to get at you, after being wounded a dozen times, you'll agree with me that anybody would be a fool to try and meet such an enemy on equal terms, when, if his rifle missed fire it would all be over with him."

"But this rifle never misses fire!" declared Felix. "All the same, I suppose I'll have to do it, though under protest. But see here, Tom, weren't you telling me just the other night about seeing some of your dad's cow punchers having a bully old time throwing ropes over a grizzly that was caught on the open, and badgering the old fellow every which way, before they pumped him full of lead? How does that agree with what you're saying now? Are cowboys braver than old hunters, that they take such chances?"

"Well, you must know that every one of us was mounted on a fleet pony; and that though the bear chased after us in every direction, he couldn't catch up. Then they got their ropes to flying, and he was rattled, so that before you could count fifty he had as many as four lariats holding him. When he tried to go one way he was dragged over by the other three ropes. And when they had had all the fun they wanted, they shot the old Mountain Charlie. Oh! no, a cowboy on his bronco is a different sort of a fellow from the time he's afoot. You just bet he couldn't climb up in a tree any too fast, if ever he met with a grizzly, and wounded him, when in the mountains."