_ CHAPTER ELEVEN. BEARS AND FOR BEARS
Bart was sufficiently observing to notice, even amidst the many calls he had upon his attention, that Dr Lascelles grew more and more absorbed and dreamy every day. When they first started he was always on the alert about the management of the expedition, the proportioning of the supplies and matters of that kind; but as he found in a short time that Bart devoted himself eagerly to everything connected with the successful carrying out of their progress, that Joses was sternly exacting over the other men, and that Maude took ample care of the stores, he very soon ceased troubling himself about anything but the main object which he had in view.
Hence it was then that he used to sling a sort of game-bag over his shoulder directly after the early morning meal, place a sharp, wedge-like hammer in his belt, shoulder his double rifle, and go off "rock-chipping," as Joses called it.
"I don't see what's the good of his loading one barrel with shot, Master Bart, for he never brings in no game; and as for the stones--well, I haven't seen a single likely bit yet."
"Do you think he ever will hit upon a good mine of gold or silver, Joses?" said Bart, as they were out hunting one day.
"Well, Master Bart, you know what sort of a fellow I am. If I'd got five hundred cows, I should never reckon as they'd have five hundred calves next year, but just calculate as they wouldn't have one. Then all that come would be so many to the good. Looking at it fairly, I don't want to dishearten you, my lad, but speaking from sperience, I should say he wouldn't."
"And this will all be labour in vain, Joses?"
"Nay, I don't say that, Master Bart. He might find a big vein of gold or silver; but I never knew a man yet who went out in the mountains looking for one as did."
"But up northward there, men have discovered mines and made themselves enormously rich."
"To be sure they have, my lad, but not by going and looking for the gold or silver. It was always found by accident like, and you and me is much more like to come upon a big lead where we're trying after sheep or deer than he is with all his regular trying."
"You think there are mineral riches up in the mountains then?"
"Think, Master Bart! Oh, I'm sure of it. But where is it to be found? P'r'aps we're walking over it now, but there's no means of telling."
"No," said Bart thoughtfully, "for everything about is so vast."
"That's about it, my lad, and all the harm I wish master is that he may find as much as he wants."
"I wish he may, Joses," said Bart, "or that I could find a mine for him and Miss Maude."
"Well, my lad, we'll keep our eyes open while we are out, only we have so many other things to push, and want to push on farther so as to get among better pasture for the horses. They don't look in such good condition as they did."
There was good reason for this remark, their halting-places during the past few days having been in very sterile spots, where the tall forbidding rocks were relieved by very little that was green, and patches of grass were few.
But these were the regions most affected by the Doctor, who believed that they were the most likely ones for discovering treasure belonging to nature's great storehouse, untouched as yet by man. In these barren wilds he would tramp about, now climbing to the top of some chine, now letting himself down into some gloomy forbidding ravine, but always without success, there being nothing to tempt him to say, "Here is the beginning of a very wealthy mine."
Every time they journeyed on the toil became greater, for they were in most inaccessible parts of the mountain range, and they knew by the coolness of the air that they must now be far above the plains.
Bart and Joses worked hard to supply the larder, the principal food they obtained being the sage grouse and dusky grouse, which birds they found to be pretty plentiful high up in the mountains wherever there was a flat or a slope with plenty of cover; but just as they were getting terribly tired of the sameness of this diet, Bart made one morning a lucky find.
They had reached a fresh halting-place after sundown on the previous night--one that was extremely attractive from the variety of the high ground, the depths of the chasms around, and the beauty of the cedars that spread their flat, frond-like branches over the mountain-sides, which were diversified by the presence of endless dense thickets.
"It looks like a deer country," Joses had said as they were tethering the horses amongst some magnificent grass.
These words had haunted Bart the night through, and hence, at the first sight of morning on the peaks up far above where they were, he had taken his rifle and gone off to see what he could find.
Three hours' tramp produced nothing but a glimpse of some mountain sheep far away and at a very great height.
He was too weary and hungry to think of following them, and was reluctantly making for the camp, when all at once a magnificent deer sprang up from amongst a thicket of young pines, and bounded off at an astounding rate.
It seemed madness to fire, but, aiming well in front, Bart drew trigger, and then leaped aside to get free of the smoke. As he did so, he just caught a glimpse of the deer as it bounded up a steep slope and the next moment it was gone.
Bart felt that he had not hit it, but curiosity prompted him to follow in the animal's track, in the hope of getting a second shot, and as he proceeded, he could not help wishing for the muscular strength of these deer, for the ground, full of rifts and chasms, over which he toiled painfully in a regular climb, the deer had bounded over at full speed.
It took him some time to get to the spot where he had last seen the deer, when, to his intense surprise and delight, he found traces of blood upon the stones, and upon climbing higher, he found his way blocked by a chasm.
Feeling sure that the animal would have cleared this at a bound, he lowered himself down by holding on by a young pine which bent beneath his weight. Then he slipped for a few feet, made a leap, and came down amongst some bushes, where, lying perfectly dead, was the most beautiful deer he had ever seen.
Unfortunately hunger and the knowledge that others are hungry interfere with romantic admiration, and after feasting his eyes, Bart began to feast his imagination on the delight of those in the camp with the prospect of venison steaks. So, in regular hunter's fashion, he proceeded to partially skin and dress the deer, cutting off sufficient for their meal, and leaving the other parts to be fetched by the men.
There were rejoicings in camp that morning, and soon after breakfast Bart started off once more, taking with him Joses, Juan, and Sam, all of whom were exceedingly willing to become the bearers of the meat in which they stood in such great need.
The Doctor had gone off in another direction, taking with him Maude as his companion, and after the little party had returned to the camp, Bart was standing thoughtfully gazing at a magnificent eminence, clothed almost to the top with cedars, while in its rifts and ravines were dark-foliaged pines.
"I wonder whether we should find anything up there, Joses," said Bart.
"Not much," said the frontier man. "There'd be deer, I daresay, if the sound of your rifle and the coming of the sheep hadn't sent them away."
"Why should the sheep send them away?" asked Bart.
"I don't know why they should," said Joses; "all I know is that they do. You never find black-tailed deer like you shot and mountain sheep living together as neighbours. It arn't their nature."
"Well, what do you say to taking our rifles and exploring?"
"Don't mind," said Joses, looking round. "Horses are all right, and there's no fear of being overhauled by Injuns up here, so let's go and take Sam with us, but you won't get no more deer."
"Well, we don't want any for a day or two. But why shouldn't I get another?"
"Because they lie close in the thickest part of the cover in the middle of the day, and you might pretty well tread upon them before they'd move."
They started directly after, and for about two hours did nothing but climb up amidst cedar and pine forest. Sometimes amongst the trunks of big trees, sometimes down in gashes or gullies in the mountain-side, which were full of younger growths, as if the rich soil and pine seeds had been swept there by the storms and then taken root.
"I tell you what it is, Master Bart," said Joses, suddenly coming to a halt, to roll up and light his _cigarito_, a practice he never gave up, "it strikes me that we've nearly got to the end of it."
"End of what?" asked Bart.
"This clump of hills. You see if when we get to the top here, it don't all go down full swoop like a house wall right bang to the plain."
"What, like the place where the mountain sheep went down?"
"That's it, my lad, only without any go up on the other side. It strikes me that we shall find it all plain on this side, and that if we can't find a break in the wall with a regular gulch, we shall have to go back with our horses and waggon and try some other way."
"Well, come along and let's see," said Bart; and once more they climbed on for quite half-an-hour, when they emerged from the trees on to a rugged piece of open rocky plain, with scattered pines gnarled and twisted and swept bare by the mighty winds, and as far as eye could reach nothing but one vast, well-watered plain.
"Told you so," said Joses; "now we shall either have to keep up here in the mountain or go down among the Injuns again, just as the master likes."
"Let's come and sit down near the edge here and rest," said Bart, who was fascinated by the beauty of the scene, and, going right out upon a jutting promontory of stone, they could look to right and left at the great wall of rock that spread as far as they could see. In places it seemed to go sheer down to the plain, in others it was broken into ledges by slips and falls of rock; but everywhere it seemed to shut the great plain in from the west, and Bart fully realised that they would have to find some great rift or gulch by which to descend, if their journey was to be continued in this direction.
"How far is it down to the plain?" said Bart, after he had been feasting his eyes for some time.
"Four to five thousand feet," said Joses. "Can't tell for certain. Chap would fall a long way before he found bottom, and then he'd bounce off, and go on again and again. I don't think the mountain sheep would jump here."
As they sat resting and inhaling the fresh breeze that blew over the widespreading plain, Bart could not help noticing the remains of a grand old pine that had once grown right at the edge of the stupendous precipice, but had gradually been storm-beaten and split in its old age till the trunk and a few jagged branches only remained.
One of these projected from its stunted trunk close down by the roots, and seemed thrust out at right angles over the precipice in a way that somehow seemed to tempt Bart.
He turned his eyes from it again and again, but that branch fascinated him, and he found himself considering how dangerous it would be, and yet how delightful, to climb right out on that branch till it bent and bent, and would bear him no further, and then sitting astride, dance up and down in mid air, right over the awful depths below.
So strange was the attraction that Bart found his hands wet with perspiration, and a peculiar feeling of horror attacked him; but what was more strange, the desire to risk his life kept growing upon him, and as he afterwards told himself, he would no doubt have made the mad venture if something had not happened to take his attention.
Joses was leaning back with half-closed eyes, enjoying his _cigarito_, and Bart was half rising to his knees to go back and round to where the branch projected, just to try it, he told himself, when they heard a shout away to the left, and that shout acted like magic upon Bart.
"Why, that's Sam," he said, drawing a breath full of relief, just as if he had awakened from some terrible nightmare.
"I'd 'bout forgotten him," said Joses lazily. "Ahoy! Oho!--eh!" he shouted back. Then there was another shout and a rustling of bushes, a grunting noise, and Bart seized his rifle.
"He has found game," he said.
Then he nearly let fall his piece, and knelt there as if turned to stone, for, to his horror, he suddenly saw Sam down upon his hands and knees crawling straight out on the great gnarled branch that overhung the precipice, keeping to this mode of progression for a time, and then letting his legs go down one on each side of the branch, and hitching himself along, yelling lustily the while for help.
"He has gone mad," cried Bart, and as he spoke he thought of his own sensations a few minutes before, and how he had felt tempted to do this very thing.
"No, he arn't," said Joses, throwing the remains of his _cigarito_ over the precipice, and lifting his rifle; "he's got bears after him."
Almost as he spoke the great rough furry body of an enormous black bear came into sight, and without a moment's hesitation walked right out along the branch after the man.
"There's another," cried Bart, "shoot, Joses, shoot. I dare not."
It seemed that Joses dare not either, or else the excitement paralysed him, for he only remained like Bart, staring stupidly at the unwonted scene before them as a second bear followed the first, which, in spite of Sam's efforts to get into safety, had overtaken him, crept right upon him, and throwing its forepaws round him and the branches as well, hugged him fast, while the second came close up and stood there growling and grunting and patting at its companion, who, fortunately for Sam, was driving the claws at the ends of its paws deeply into the gnarled branch.
"If I don't fire they'll kill him," muttered Joses, as the huge branch visibly bent with the weight of the three bodies now upon it. "If I kill him instead it would be a mercy, so here goes."
He raised his rifle, took careful aim, and was about to draw the trigger, but forbore, as just then the report of Bart's piece rang out, and the second bear raised itself up on its hind legs, while the foremost backed a couple of feet, and stood growling savagely with its head turned towards where it could see the smoke.
That was Bart's opportunity, and throwing himself upon his breast, and steadying his rifle upon a piece of rock, he fired again, making the foremost bear utter a savage growl and begin tearing furiously at its flank.
Then Joses' rifle spoke, and the first bear reared up and fell over backwards, a second shot striking the hindmost full in the head, and one after the other the two monsters fell headlong, the first seeming to dive down, making a swimming motion with its massive paws, the second turning over back downwards.
They both struck the rock about fifty feet below the branch, and this seemed to make them glance off and fly through the air at a fearful rate, spinning over and over till they struck again at an enormous distance below, and then plunged out of sight, leaving Bart sick with horror to gaze upon the unfortunate Sam. _