CHAPTER XXV
UP A TREE
"Gracious!" gasped Tom Wagstaff, "let's run!"
"I agree with Tom," added Jim, glancing furtively around, as though heexpected to see the dreadful beast rush out of the woods after them.
"You're a fine set of hunters, aint you?" sneered Bob; "after comingout to hunt game you want to run when you strike the trail of the verycreature you're looking for."
"I aint looking for bears," said Tom, "I haven't lost any."
"And besides," added Jim, "there isn't any fallen tree here where wecan crawl under to get out of the way."
"But there's plenty of trees which you can climb--_there he comesnow_!"
Tom and Jim each glanced affrightedly around, not knowing which way torun to escape the dreaded brute.
But it was a joke of Bob's, and he made the woods ring with hislaughter, while, as may be supposed, the others were in no amiablemood.
"I don't see any fun in that sort of thing," growled Tom.
"You may do like the boy in the fable, who shouted 'Wolf!' once toooften," added Jim, ashamed of his weakness.
The next instant Tom Wagstaff shouted: "_There he comes and nomistake!_"
Tom and Jim were standing on one side of the streamlet, facing Bob onthe other side, so that his back was turned toward the point at whichthey were gazing.
The expression on the countenance of the couple was that of extremealarm, though such a brief time had elapsed since Bob had given them ascare that they had not yet recovered from it.
"You're right!" Jim added, instantly, as he and Tom wheeled and dashedoff at the top of their speed through the woods.
Bob was determined they should not fool him. He laughed again in hishearty fashion, throwing back and shaking his head.
"You can't come that, boys!" he called, "it's too soon after my littlejoke on you."
"But, Bob, we aint joking," shouted back Jim, looking over hisshoulder, but still running; "the bear is coming as sure as you areborn."
"You can't fool me."
Bob had not the remotest suspicion that his friends were in earnest,but the sight of them climbing the same tree led him to think theywere pushing their poor joke with a great deal of vigor.
At this same moment he heard a crashing and trampling among the bushesbehind him, and, checking the words on his lips, turned his head.
The bear _was_ coming!
An enormous fellow of the ordinary black species had been descried byTom and Jim when less than a hundred yards away, and he was advancingstraight toward the spot where the three were standing.
They were in dead earnest, therefore, when they fled, calling to Bobthe frightful news.
Had not Bob just played a joke on them he would not have doubted theirsincerity, so that in one sense his peril was a punishment for his ownmisdoing.
It need not be said that the laughter on Bob Budd's lips froze, and hemade a break after his companions, who had so much the start of him.
"Gracious!" he muttered, "I didn't think they were in earnest; I'm agoner this time sure."
Nevertheless he had no thought of sitting down and waiting to bedevoured by bruin, who lumbered along in his awkward fashion, rapidlydrawing near him.
Bob's hat went off, his gun was flung from his hand, and with onebound he landed far beyond the edge of the streamlet and made afterhis friends, throwing terrified glances over his shoulder at thebrute, which took up the pursuit as though it was the most enjoyablesport he had had in a long time.
Once more the exasperating vines got in the way, and thepanic-stricken fugitive fell sprawling on his hands and knees,bounding instantly to his feet and making for the tree where hisfriends had secured refuge.
By this time the bear was almost upon him, so close indeed that hereached out one of his paws to seize his victim.
No words can picture the terror of Bob Budd when he felt the longnails scratching down his back and actually tearing his coat, butbruin was a few inches too short, and the youth made such good timethat he struck the tree a number of paces in advance of his pursuer.
The fugitive, however, did not stop, for before he could climb thebrief distance necessary to reach the limbs, the beast would have hadhim at his mercy. He therefore continued his flight, yelling in such adelirium of fright that he really did not know what words escaped him.
"Why don't you come down?" he called to his friends, "and give me achance? Let him chase _you_ awhile."
It is unnecessary to state that neither Tom nor Jim accepted theurgent invitation of their imperiled comrade.
"Run hard, Bob, and show him what you can do!" called back Tom, whoreally thought it was all over with their leader.
This shout accomplished more than was expected. The noise led the bearto look up the tree, where he observed the two boys perched but ashort distance above him. He seemed all at once to lose interest inthe fugitive, who continued his flight some distance farther, when,finding his enemy was not at his heels, he sprang for a sapling, upwhich he went like a monkey.
The trouble with Bob, however, was that he climbed too high. It was asmall hickory, not much thicker than his arm. This kind of wood, asyou are aware, is very elastic, and the first thing the lad knew wasthat the upper part, to which he was clinging, bent so far over thatit curved like a bow, and before it stopped he had sank to within sixor eight feet of the ground.
Had the bear continued his pursuit, Bob would have been in anunfortunate predicament; but, casting a glance behind him, he noticedthe beast had stopped under the tree supporting Tom and Jim.
Two courses were open to him, either of which would have secured hissafety.
He had time enough to drop from the sapling and take to a larger one,up which he could have climbed and been beyond harm; or he could haveslid a little farther down the hickory, so as to allow it to rightitself, and he still would have been safe, for a bear is unable toclimb a tree so slight in diameter that his paws meet around it.
But Bob was too terrified to do either. He simply held fast, and didthe worst thing possible: he continued to shout for his companions tocome to his help.
By this means he once more attracted the notice of bruin to himself,whereas, if he had held his peace, he would have given the whole ofhis attention to the two boys in the larger tree.
The bear had reared on his haunches, seemingly with the intention ofstriving to reach the lads, when he turned his head and took a look atthe one in the sapling.
Stupid as is bruin by nature, he saw that it would be easier for himto reach the single fugitive than the others, and he proceeded to doso.
You need not be told that Tom and Jim, like Bob, had thrown away theirguns again in their frenzied flight, through fear that they wouldretard their efforts to get beyond his reach.
Poor Bob, when he found himself once more the object of the animal'sundivided attention, felt as though he might as well let go and bedevoured at once. All the same, though, he hung fast and continued hiscries, which, had there been time, would have brought help from thedistance of a mile.
He was clinging to the sapling with both hands, and his two feet, thatwere wrapped about the small trunk, only a short distance below hisshoulders. This caused the centre of his body to hang down like thelower point of a horseshoe, the curve being sharper than that of thebowed hickory.
Halting directly under the howling lad, the bear reared on hishaunches, reached upward with one paw and struck Bob a sharp blow. Itcaused him no material damage, but set the body to swaying back andforth. At the same time the hickory nodded, letting the lad sink a fewinches and then rising with a regular, swinging motion.
This would have ceased in a moment of itself, but for the action ofthe bear, who, every time the body came within easy reach, hit it asharp tap with his paw, causing it to swing back and forth in a sortof rhythmic accord with the dipping of the sapling.
AN AWKWARD PREDICAMENT]
It is said that some, and indeed all, animals possess a certainwaggery of disp
osition which shows itself on rare occasions. The bearinflicted no injury on Bob, but the scraping of those long, sharpclaws did considerable damage to his trousers, while keeping his fearsat the boiling point.
It certainly was a grotesque scene.
There sat bruin, with his right paw raised, regularly tapping Bob,while the latter, with his hands and feet close together, and his bodydoubled up like a jack-knife, swung up and down with a steady motion,in response to the impetus given by the brute.
Of course the latter was silent, though if he had possessed thecapacity to laugh, there can be no doubt that he would have done so,for, aside from the ever-present peril threatening the fellow, a moreamusing sight cannot be imagined.
Even Tom and Jim, when they saw their companion was suffering no harm,broke into mirth, which grated on the nerves of the victim of a mostunprecedented combination of circumstances.
But sooner than Jim or Tom suspected the moment came when the laughwas "on the other side of the mouth."