The Red Man's Revenge, Robert Michael Ballantyne [if you liked this book txt] 📗

brows melted, the glare of his eyes abated, the tension of his muscles was relaxed, and his highly-wrought feelings escaped in a long-drawn sigh.

"Pshaw 'twas nothing. No bear in its senses would roam about at such an hour, considering the row I have been kicking up with hacking and crashing. Come, I'll go to the top of that crag, and have a look round."

He put on his coat and belt, stuck his axe and knife into the latter, shouldered his gun, and went nimbly up the rocky ascent on his left.

Coming out on a clear spot at the crag which had attracted him, he could see the whole pass beneath him, except the spot where his trap had been laid. That portion was vexatiously hidden by an intervening clump of bushes. Next moment he was petrified, so to speak, by the sight of a grizzly bear sauntering slowly down the pass as if in the enjoyment of an afternoon stroll.

No power on earth--except, perhaps, a glance from Elsie--could have unpetrified Ian Macdonald at that moment. He stood in the half-crouching attitude of one about to spring over the cliff-- absolutely motionless--with eyes, mouth, and nostrils wide open, as if to afford free egress to his spirit.

Not until the bear had passed slowly out of sight behind the intervening bushes was he disenchanted. Then, indeed, he leaped up like a startled deer, turned sharp round, and bounded back the way he had come, with as much caution and as little noise as was compatible with such vigorous action.

Before he had retraced his steps ten yards, however, he heard a crash! Well did he know what had caused it. His heart got into his threat somehow. Swallowing it with much difficulty, he ran on, but a roar such as was never uttered by human lungs almost stopped his circulation. A few seconds brought Ian within view of his trap, and what a sight presented itself!

A grizzly bear, which seemed to him the hugest, as it certainly was at that moment the fiercest, that ever roamed the Rocky Mountains, was struggling furiously under the weight of the ponderous tree, with its superincumbent load of logs. The monster had been caught by the small of the back--if such a back can be said to have possessed a small of any kind--and its rage, mingled as it must have been with surprise, was awful to witness.

The whole framework of the ponderous trap trembled and shook under the influence of the animal's writhings. Heavy though it was, the bear shook it so powerfully at each spasm of rage, that it was plainly too weak to hold him long. In the event of his breaking out, death to the trapper was inevitable.

Ian did not hesitate an instant. His chief fear at the moment was that his comrades at the camp might have heard the roaring--distant though they were from the spot--and might arrive in time to spoil, by sharing, his victory.

Victory? Another struggle such as that, and victory would have rested with the bear! Ian resolved to make sure work. He would put missing out of the question. The tremendous claws that had already worked a small pit in the earth reminded him of the collar and of Elsie. Leaping forward, he thrust the point of his gun into the ear of the infuriated animal and pulled the trigger. He was almost stunned by the report and roar, together with an unwonted shock that sent him reeling backward.

We know not how a good twist-barrelled gun would behave if its muzzle were thus stopped, but the common Indian gun used on this occasion was not meant to be thus treated. It was blown to pieces, and Ian stood gazing in speechless surprise at the fragment of wood remaining in his hand. How far it had injured the bear he could not tell, but the shot had not apparently abated its power one jot, for it still heaved upwards in a paroxysm of rage, and with such force as nearly to overthrow the complex erection that held it down. Evidently there was no time to lose.

Ian drew his axe, grasped it with both hands, raised himself on tiptoe, and brought it down with all his might on the bear's neck.

The grizzly bear is noted for tenacity of life. Ian had not hit the neck-bone. Instead of succumbing to the tremendous blow, it gave the handle of the axe a vicious twist with its paw, which jerked the hunter violently to the ground. Before he could recover himself, the claws which he coveted so much were deep in his right thigh. His presence of mind did not forsake him even then. Drawing his scalping-knife, he wrenched himself round, and twice buried the keen weapon to the haft in the bear's side.

Just then an unwonted swimming sensation came over Ian; his great strength seemed suddenly to dissipate, and the bear, the claw collar, even Elsie, faded utterly from his mind.

The stars were shining brightly in the calm sky, and twinkling with pleasant tranquillity down upon his upturned countenance when consciousness returned to Ian Macdonald.

"Ah, Vic!" he murmured, with a long sad sigh; "I've had such a splendid dream!"

"Come, that's right, old boy. Here, have another mouthful," said Victor, holding a tin can to his friend's lips. "It's only tea, hot and strong--the best thing in the world to refresh a wounded man; and after such a fight--"

"What!" exclaimed Ian, starting and sitting bolt upright, while he gazed in the faces of his two comrades. "Is it true? _Have_ I killed the-- the--grizzly?"

"Killed him!" exclaimed Victor, rising; "I should think you have."

"Killed 'im!" echoed Rollin. "You's killed 'im two or tree time over; vy, you's axed 'im, stabbed 'im, shotted 'im, busted 'im, squashed 'im-- ho!--"

"Am I much damaged?" inquired Ian, interrupting, for he felt weak.

"Oh! no--noting whatsocomever. Only few leetil holes in you's legs. Be bedder in a veek."

"Look here," said Victor, kneeling beside the wounded man and presenting to him a piece of wood on which were neatly arranged a row of formidable claws. "I knew you would like to see them."

"How good of you, Vic! It was thoughtful of you, and kind. Put them down before me--a little nearer--there,--so."

Ian gazed in speechless admiration. It was not that he was vain of the achievement; he was too sensible and unselfish for that; but it was _such_ a pleasure to think of being able, after all, and in spite of his bad shooting, to present Elsie with a set of claws that were greatly superior to those given to her mother by Louis Lambert--the finest, in short, that he had ever seen.


CHAPTER THIRTEEN.


A CUNNING DEVICE ENDS IN FAILURE FOLLOWED BY DESTRUCTION.

In a previous chapter it has been told how the long hard winter of that year, (1826), had passed away, after an unwontedly severe tussle with the spring. The prophets of the land now began to hold up their heads and look owlishly wise, for their predictions were evidently about to be fulfilled.

Had not old Sam Ravenshaw said all through the winter that "something would come of it"? Was it not the daily remark of Angus Macdonald that such a state of things, "could not go on for ever--whatever"? Had not Peegwish glared prophecy with a degree of solemnity that rendered words not only impossible, but unnecessary? and had not Miss Trim asserted that dreadful consequences of some sort were _sure_ to follow?

Dreadful consequences did follow, and they began with a fine warm day. For a considerable time the fields of snow had been subjected to the influence of the blazing sun, and had been greatly diminished in depth. The day in question, however, was so very warm that Louis Lambert was induced to take his horse and gun with a view to wolf-hunting on the plains. The hard crust formed on the snow's surface by the partial meltings of early spring is sufficiently strong to bear the weight of a wolf, but will not support a horse. Wolves, therefore, roam about with ease and at will at that period, while horses are obliged to keep to beaten tracks. When, however, the thaws set in, the case is reversed. The wolf, with his short limbs, flounders laboriously in the drifts of soft snow, while the horse, with his long and powerful legs, can gallop in spite of these. Thus wolf-hunting becomes, for a time, possible.

Louis Lambert was fond of the chase. He was also fond of courting, and, resolving to combine the two, galloped away to the abode of old Ravenshaw. He had been there so often of late that he felt half ashamed of this early morning visit. Lovers easily find excuses for visits. He resolved to ask if Herr Winklemann had been seen passing that morning, as he wished his companionship on the plains--the shallow deceiver!

"Good-morning, Cora," he said, on entering the hall.

Elsie, who stood at the window with her back to the door, turned quickly round.

"Oh, I beg pardon," he said, with a slightly confused air; "I thought you were Cora, and--"

"Well," interrupted Elsie, with a hurt look that accorded ill with a twinkle in her eyes; "I think you might know the difference between me and Cora by this time, though you only saw my back."

"Ah, Elsie!" returned the youth, as he shook hands, "you ought in fairness to make allowance for the effects of spring. You know full well that the glare of the sun on the snow half blinds a fellow, so that even when, when--"

"Come, now, don't search about in your empty brain for one of your unmeaning compliments, but say at once what brings you here at so early an hour. Has a war party of Sioux come down on us, or is the river about to break up?"

"War-parties of Sioux are no doubt prowling about the plains somewhere," returned Lambert, with a smile, "and the ice will go soon if this heat continues; but neither of these things brought me here. The truth is, I came to ask if Winklemann has been seen to pass your windows this morning?"

"The truth?" repeated Elsie, with a searching look.

"Well," replied the youth, with a laugh, "I came also to see you and-- and--Cora."

"And father also, I suppose?"

"Why, Elsie, you are unusually sharp this morning; but I really do wish to know if Winklemann has been seen, because he had left home when I passed his house, and I want him to hunt with me."

"Then I may tell you that he passed our window not ten minutes before your arrival, going in the direction of the Lower Fort. He rides fast, as you know, so if you would catch him up you must follow quickly."

The young man stood for a moment undecided, then, perceiving that Elsie gave him no encouragement to remain, he bade her adieu and rode away.

"Louis is remarkably fond of coming here," said Elsie to Cora, who entered the room a few minutes later, "but he did not come to see _us_ this morning. He only came to ask after Herr Winklemann."

Cora laughed, but