CHAPTER XI
THE ELK AND THE YOUNG HUNTER
"Hey! Hold on, there! That isn't in the game!"
The elk did not seem to care whether it were so or not, but came rushingstraight on. Like many another, more experienced in the ways of thewoods than himself, Bluff almost forgot that he had other charges in hisgun. He was so amazed to see the animal he had fully believed to be deadshow such surprising signs of life, that he stood there for a fewprecious seconds, gaping as if in a dream.
Then he made a wild spring to one side and gained the shelter of a tree.
"Oh! What a socker!" he exclaimed, as the enraged and bleeding animalcame full tilt against the trunk of the tree.
Before he could say more, or try to form any plan of action, he foundhimself obliged to spin around that same trunk with all the rapidity hecould command, for the elk was apparently determined to overtake him,and those towering antlers seemed pointed with spikes, in the eyes ofthe startled lad as he strained every effort to keep beyond their reach.
Bluff was really alarmed by this time. He knew that any unfortunate slipon his part would precipitate a tragedy.
"I laughed at Jerry and the wild dogs that chased him around and around,but never again for me!" he gasped, as he kept up the weary circle,hugging the trunk as closely as possible.
This, however, caused him to remember that on the other occasion hischum had finally managed to gain the victory through his own gun, andBluff suddenly came to a knowledge of the fact that he did have a gungripped in his hand, and which also contained five more shots.
"Hold on! Give me a breathing spell, hang you! I'll fix you yet!" hemanaged to exclaim, though he would better have husbanded his breath tobetter purpose.
The elk was not a bit accommodating. Perhaps the animal understood thatso long as it kept Bluff in rapid motion the human enemy could not finda chance to use that fire-stick again, that shot out such burningmissiles. At any rate, it persevered, and poor Bluff's tongue fairlyhung out with fatigue.
In desperation, he was about to turn around, trusting to luck to get ina shot that would put an end to this awful chase in a circle, when theelk tripped and fell.
"Now!" gasped Bluff.
You would have thought he must have leveled his gun and fired. Jerryor Frank would, in all probability, have done that very thing. ButBluff seemed to go back to the first law of Nature, which isself-preservation.
He dropped his gun, and seizing a limb that happened to be within reach,climbed into the tree with the agility of a monkey. Fear spurred him onto do his best work just then.
"Don't you wish you could?" he shouted derisively down at the elk, whichwas jumping up, and making all manner of threatening movements with itsantlered head, much after the fashion of an enraged goat, Bluff thought.
He was safe enough, but somehow Bluff did not like the idea of having towait in the tree until his chums, drawn by his calls, came to therescue. Why, he would never hear the end of the thing! It was toohorrible to contemplate, and in some fashion he must secure possessionof his gun to end the career of that pugnacious old bull elk.
"DON'T YOU WISH YOU COULD?" HE SHOUTED DERISIVELY DOWN AT THE ELK.--_Page 98_. _The Outdoor Chums After Big Game_.]
Bluff had read more or less about the strange adventures that befallhunters of big game. He also remembered how one man had fished for hisgun, and successfully, under similar conditions.
Having no cord in his pocket, he deliberately tore his handkerchief intostrips and knotted them together. When this failed to reach the ground,he fastened it to the end of a long and stout "sucker," or sprout, whichhe cut from the body of the tree.
A running loop was made at the other end, for he could see that his gunlay in such a position that the barrel was tilted.
Bluff then began to angle. Many times he came near accomplishing hispurpose, when something occurred to break up his plans.
"I'll never give up," he declared, when the elk moved forward, as ifsuspecting something, and endeavored to catch the dangling noose in itsantlers, which Bluff would not have happen for anything.
"If I was trying to catch you, I'd want something stronger than thisrag. Now please wander away again, and let me have another try," hesaid; and then, as the animal did walk off a dozen paces, as ifencouraging him to descend, he courteously added, "Thank you."
A minute later he was thrilled to find that his erratic loop hadactually dropped over the end of the gun barrel. A quick jerk at theproper instant tightened the clutch, and after that it was the easiestthing in the world to pull the weapon up within reach of his tremblinghands.
"Now, we'll see if you're going to have the laugh on me, you old scamp!Hi! Hold on, there! Who said you could walk away? Come back here, andhave it out! I dare you!"
The elk, as if suspecting that all was not well, had indeed started tomove off. But when Bluff made a great feint of coming down, he succeededin exciting the animal's anger again, and caution was flung to thewinds.
Bluff watched for his chance, and when it came he made sure work of itby sending a bullet through the heart of the fighting elk.
Even then he waited a little while.
"Going to try getting up again? This time I'm ready for you, oldfellow!" he said to the fallen beast; but presently it became patent,even to his inexperienced eyes, that the elk had breathed its last.
"Now, if Will were only here," Bluff remarked enviously, as he put onefoot on his prize and tried to look very unconcerned, as if knockingdown such big game might be a matter of almost daily occurrence withhim.
Not knowing how to go about cutting the elk up, Bluff headed back towardthe camp. Before leaving the spot he thought to bleed the quarry, aftera fashion, for he understood that such a thing was always done to makethe meat taste better.
Half an hour later he showed up in the camp. It was next to impossibleto get lost in that valley, which might account for Bluff finding hisway back with comparative ease.
Jerry was lounging alongside one of the tents, engaged in getting hisfishing tackle in order, for a try in the pool below the falls.
"Shall we send the horses out to tote it in?" he asked, after the usualfashion of greeting greenhorns when they come back from a huntapparently unattended by success.
"Did you hear me shoot?" asked Bluff carelessly.
"Why, yes, twice; and some time apart. What was it--a crow or ajack-rabbit?"
Bluff only smiled as Mr. Mabie came out of the tent and glanced at him.
"What would you say that was, sir?" he asked, thrusting something infront of the old stockman.
Starting back, Mr. Mabie looked hastily at the hairy object.
"An elk's tail, as sure as you live!" he remarked, his face relaxing ina smile.
"What's that?" roared Jerry, springing to his feet.
"Oh, you needn't get excited about it. Do you see the dull spots on myknife? Well, I bled my game, all right, just as I wanted to do with thatbully good blade that was left behind; and if Reddy will only go backwith me, we can bring the old fellow in on a horse," said Bluff coolly.
"Count me in on that!" exclaimed Will, rushing out of his impromptudark-room, and waving the bottle in which he was making a solution ofhypo.
"I think I'll go along, too," remarked Frank, appearing from some otherplace.
When the party started forth presently, there were six of them with thehorse--the chums, Reddy, and Mr. Mabie himself.
"I am beginning to believe you boys will corral everything in sight ifyou keep on the way you've started. A grizzly, a sheep, and now an elk;and only thirty hours with me! H'm! Perhaps I may not be able to showyou as much about big-game hunting as I expected," said the stockman,who seemed vastly amused at the energy shown by his young guests at theranch.
"Oh, we can pull a trigger, all right, sir, but there are a thousandthings we want to know about these natives that books never teach. I'mlike a sponge, and can keep on soaking up information all the time,"laughed Frank.
Incau
tiously, Bluff let fall certain words that gave Jerry a clue as tothe true situation.
"A tree! Shot him downward from a tree, eh? Now, since you've so franklyconfessed that much, why not tell the whole blooming story, Bluff?" hecried.
"There isn't much to it. I saw the elk. Then I shot him, and he fellover. After that the elk saw me. He chased me about a tree. I rememberedhow fast Jerry said he ran around when those wild dogs were after him,and I wanted to go him just one better. Then I found a chance to climbwhen the wounded elk stumbled. After that I made a rope out of myhandkerchief and fished with a loop until I caught the barrel of my gun.That's all."
"A whole history in a nutshell. But we must be getting near the place,according to what you said at the start. There are the three oaksgrowing in a clump. Now where's your dead elk?"
As Frank spoke he turned to Bluff. That individual was staring around inevident bewilderment.
"It was sure here I met him. There's the little glade, and this big treeis the one I climbed up into. I saw him lying there. I _know_ he wasdead when I bled him. But I must be blind, for the elk certainly is nothere now. Oh! Did he come to life again, and run away?" said poor Bluff,in despair, looking at the tail, which he had thrust into his belt.