With Trapper Jim in the North Woods Part 25

"I hope you've only got one hammer raised," continued Max. "It'd be pretty tough if you fired both barrels again, and lamed your left shoulder, too."

"Cracky! I guess you're right, Max. Wait a few seconds till I set one hammer down. I ain't going to take the chances. Shooting left-handed's bad enough, but what'd I do if I lamed that arm, too!"

"Try it w-w-with your l-l-legs!" observed Toby.

"All ready!" called out Max.

"Q-q-quick! He's m-m-moving off!" shouted Toby.

"All the better," said Max, coolly. "We can get a good aim at his side now; just back of the shoulder, remember, Bandy-legs!"

"C-c-count!" begged Toby, who hated to think of the bold fish robber getting off scot-free after his recent raid.

The bear was ambling off. Perhaps he had come to the wise conclusion that too much fish at one time was bad for a bear's digestion. And then, again, he did not altogether like the looks of all these queer two-legged creatures with those crooked black sticks which they kept poking out at him.

He would not run away, because, of course, he was not really afraid; but even a bear might be allowed to conduct a masterly retreat.

"One!" called out Max.

The three guns were leveled.

"Two!"

Then cheeks pressed the stocks and eyes glanced along the tubes, while itching fingers began to play with waiting triggers.

"Three!"

It was almost the roar of a cannon that followed. Three guns had spoken almost in the same breath.

"H-h-he's g-g-gone!" yelped Toby, who could see better than any of the others, because no little puff of white powder smoke obscured his vision.

A tremendous thrashing in the water told them that the wounded bear must have toppled over into the partly frozen pond.

"Look out for him!" cried Max.

He had ejected the used cartridge from his magazine rifle with one quick motion. Another sent a fresh one into the firing chamber.

Steve had drawn back the second hammer of his gun, and in this fashion then the two chums advanced straight toward the spot where they had last seen the bear.

Bandy-legs, more cautious, kept farther off, though he, too, aimed to reach the border of the little lake, in order to see what was going on.

"Got him!" whooped Steve, when he discovered that the bear was evidently fatally wounded, and fell back into the water every time he tried to climb the bank.

It was Max who thought to mercifully put an end to the stricken beast's sufferings by another well-directed shot from his rifle.

The bear was now dead. Even Toby put in his claim to a partnership in bringing about its demise. The right of first discovery rested with him, and he was ready to take up a defense of his claim at any time.

So, in order to avoid all bad feelings, and insure peace in the family hereafter, Max declared that the honor should be jointly shared by tie whole four of them.

"Whenever we speak of 'our' bear, you'll know which one we mean," he remarked; "and, now, the next thing is to get the old chap up on dry land."

Securing some rope and a couple of blocks he had seen at the cabin, doubtless used when Trapper Jim wanted to haul logs, or with one man's power do a three-man job, Max fashioned a block and tackle.

With this they easily got the bear up the bank.

Then Max tried his hand at removing the skin, after which he cut up the bear, with Steve's a.s.sistance. And before Trapper Jim and Owen got back from setting a dozen more muskrat traps, as well as attending to those that had been neglected on the preceding day, everything needful had been done.

Great indeed was the surprise of Trapper Jim when he finally arrived, tired and likewise hungry, to smell cooking bear steaks, and discover not one bear skin stretched out properly to cure, but two.

The last one had been somewhat torn where the various leaden missiles had pa.s.sed through. But the trapper a.s.sured the boys that if placed in the hands of a good fur dealer it could be easily sewed up, and would make them an elegant rug for their club room,

"Every time you walk on it you'll remember this delightful little vacation spent with Trapper Jim in the North Woods," he declared.

"And it will always have just a faint fishy smell to me, because the rascal ate up all Toby's morning catch before we got him," remarked Max.

"S-s-say, we had f-f-fish for s-s-supper last night, didn't we?" demanded Toby.

"That's right, we did," spoke up Steve, "and right sweet pickerel, too, thanks to the one who stuck it out all afternoon watching his poles and keeping one eye on the woods for the mate of our bear to appear. Oh, they were nice, all right! And I just dote on pickerel, all but the boot-jack bones."

It can be safely a.s.sumed that they were a merry crowd that night.

The boys, realizing that their period for fun up in those glorious North Woods had been extended another week, were bubbling over with joy.

Trapper Jim had everything to make him contented, and even happy. Every time he touched that elegant fox skin he felt like shaking hands with himself because of the satisfaction it gave him--not so much the value of the pelt as the proud consciousness that he had finally been enabled to capture another of those rare and almost priceless prizes which every fur taker dreams about.

And then, again, doubtless Uncle Jim found great reason for thankfulness every time he glanced toward Ed Whitcomb. What had been a vague, half-formed dream in his mind bade fair to become a reality. He was Susie's boy, and circ.u.mstances had thrown them together in a way so strange that it was surely intended that they should part no more.

As for the wounded man, although he might often deep down in his heart deplore the weakness that had taken possession of him at sight of the captured silver fox, still, since it had brought Jim and him together, and revealed a new and entirely unsuspected bond between them, why should he regret it.

Besides, Trapper Jim declared he owed the fox skin to Ed, anyhow. He had discovered that the animal had gnawed its foot almost off, and long before Jim and the boys came along would have gone limping off on three legs only that Ed appeared just in time to knock it on the head.

With nearly two weeks ahead of them, it was only natural that Max and his four chums should antic.i.p.ate other glorious times. And that they met with no disappointment in this respect the reader who has followed them thus far with interest will discover when he reads the next volume of the series:

"CAUGHT IN A FOREST FIRE."

THE END.