  “But it is a bear all right, isn’t it?” Billy was saying with evident satisfaction, “and you’ll have to take back all you said about my being so scared ’cause I saw a whole lot of things that never could happen, Arthur. Mebbe there aren’t any wild bears a-roamin’ around these parts any more, but I did see a hairy monster, didn’t I? And when I told you he reared up on his hind legs and made like he wanted to dance with me, I wasn’t yarning, you see. Huh! next time you won’t be so ready to make out I’m a fakir. Magnifying a stump into a live beast! Whew! look at him stretching right now, will you? What are you meaning to do, Hugh?” The patrol leader had started toward the imprisoned bear, causing Billy to ask this last question. “Why, I wonder where his master can be?” Hugh Hardin readily observed, his curiosity aroused afresh. “Oh! taking a good long sleep somewhere in the bushes around most likely,” Billy remarked unconcernedly. “You know the breed all right, fellows. They’re as cruel a bunch as you’d find anywhere. I reckon this poor thing’s got heaps and heaps of big welts under his hair from being whipped when he wouldn’t feel like dancing, his pole held in his forepaws. I’ve watched ’em do it.” All of them now approached the bear more closely. The animal did not seem to be of the common black American variety, but had a sort of cinnamon hue. “I think they bring them over from Russia, down along some part of the Caucasus or Ural Mountains,” Hugh was saying as the shaggy beast, still standing erect on its haunches, started to make those queer whining sounds again. “What d’ye reckon the old thing means by that, Hugh?” asked Arthur. “And look at the way he keeps working his mouth, will you?” added Billy. “Tell you what, I think he must be hungry! He smells that fine loaf of bread you’ve got under your arm, Chief. Better give it to the poor beggar. Look at him putting out his tongue, and slathering his lips. He’s sure begging for something.” “I think I know what he wants most of all,” said Hugh. “You can see from the way the ground’s torn up around that he must have been tied here all night.” “Whew! that would be tough on the poor thing, wouldn’t it?” declared Billy, who had a tender heart and could not bear to see any beast or bird suffer when it lay in his power to change things for the better. “He wants a drink of water the worst kind, boys,” continued the patrol leader. “And I know of a fine little spring not five minutes’ walk away from here, too. I’ve often stepped over there when working at my wireless to get a cold drink,” Arthur hastened to remark. “You’re elected then unanimously, seeing that you’re the only one that knows where the water tank lies,” Billy told him. “Elected to what?” demanded the other scout. “Why to lead the poor old bear to his drink,” Billy went on to say, without betraying the least sign of humor in his round face. “Step right up and unfasten that greasy rope, Arthur, while I stand by this tree ready to climb, if so be he breaks away and comes my way. He keeps on looking at me like he thought I was good enough to eat. That’s the trouble with being nice and plump. But what ails you, Chum Arthur? I don’t see you jumping forward to pat our hairy brother and tell him his troubles are all over, since you’ve come along.” “Hugh! what are we going to do about it?” Arthur asked, turning from his tormentor toward the scout master. “If you lead the way, I’ll go along with you to that spring,” replied the other quietly. “We might fill our hats and perhaps that’ll be enough. I never saw a bear drink water, but in hot summer weather I should think they’d want it as well as any other animal. Come along, Arthur.” Billy seemed in doubt whether to offer to accompany his comrades or remain there. He did not altogether like the idea of finding himself left alone with the bear. The rope looked thin and worn, and might break. So as soon as the others had departed, and he could hear their voices growing fainter as they hurried on toward Arthur’s pet spring, Billy proceeded to climb the tree against which he had been leaning. “Gives a fellow a better outlook, for one thing,” he told himself, as he straddled the lower limb, “and then in case the sly old rascal did break loose, why I’d have a halfway chance to kick at him, and keep him down below till they came back and Hugh tied him up again. Scouts should be cautious as well as brave; that’s always been my motto. There, Hugh went and left that loaf of bread when he took Arthur with him to get the water. See that bear sniffing as hard as anything, would you? One thing sure, if he did break loose he’d start in to gobble that bread, and let me alone.” Listening he could hear the other two talking some little distance away. It was from this that Billy judged they had arrived at the spring, and were proceeding to fill their campaign hats. Although this idea of Hugh’s might seem a little strange on the face of it, there was really nothing uncommon about his desire to relieve the sufferings of the thirsty animal. Scouts are taught to do just these helpful things whenever the opportunity comes along; and many a fellow has found a chance to turn his reversed medal over for the day by an act of mercy toward dumb beasts,—horses, cows, or even dogs in pain or trouble of any sort. Given time, Billy might have thought to the same end himself, but his brain did not work as rapidly as that of some of the other boys, and as a rule he made slow progress. He sat there, keeping a wary eye on the performing bear and guessing at the progress of his chums by catching the sound of their voices coming louder and louder with every half minute. Then Billy breathed more freely when he saw their figures flitting carefully among the trees near by, so as not to spill more of the water than could be helped. “Good for you, boys!” he called out as he hastened to slip down from his elevated perch, but not soon enough to escape the sharp eyes of Arthur, who immediately took him to task for deserting the solid earth. “Wise old Billy, ain’t it?” he remarked, jeeringly. “He wasn’t going to take any chances of being nibbled at by the tame bear, was he? Climbed a tree, didn’t you, son? Just as if bears couldn’t shin up a trunk like hot cakes! You’re a bright one, I must say, Billy.” “That’s all right and I am not ashamed to admit it, either,” asserted the other stoutly. “A scout should never be rash, the rules say. Why should I take unnecessary chances, when I knew that bear had his eye on me, and thought I’d make a good lunch? If he’d been tackling you, Arthur, I’d show you what I’d do if I had to grab him from the back, and wrestle with him like his master does; only he hasn’t his muzzle on right now, and that’d be bad. Does he drink, Hugh?” While the others were indulging in this little exchange of sentiments, the scout master had advanced toward the tied bear holding out his hat water-pail. The animal eagerly thrust his snout into the cool liquid and seemed to be drinking after a fashion, which told that Hugh had been right when he said the beast must have been fastened here for some time. “He wasn’t there when I came down from the top of the hill yesterday morning, I give you my word for that, Chief,” Arthur announced, as he stood ready to hand his hat of water over to the other, should the first supply prove insufficient to satisfy the poor beast. “You can see for yourself that it would be impossible for me to have passed on this trail and missed running across him.” “But what d’ye reckon has become of his master, and how are we goin’ to get the dancing bear back to town, when he don’t know us? That’s what I’d like to know,” Billy demanded apprehensively, not as yet daring to come within five feet of the sleek monster. “I’m bothered to know what it all means,” Hugh told them. “When he fastened the bear here, the man must have had some notion in his head but he’s been kept from coming back again.” “Would he want to abandon the poor thing just because it wasn’t paying him to tote the bear along?” asked Arthur. “I wouldn’t think that could be,” said Hugh. “As far as I know, these men who own trained bears always make a good deal of money and they spend mighty little. Besides, such an animal would be worth fifty or a hundred dollars for exhibition purposes, I’d think. No, there’s some other reason for it. I’ve got half a notion to try to find the man’s track leading away from here, and see which way he did go. What if he fell down some little precipice—there are such things around these hills—and broke his leg? Why, he might lie there and die for all anybody’d hear him call, up in this lonely region.” Both of the other scouts were more or less worked up by what the patrol leader had just said. It was not very difficult for them to picture a variety of serious perils along the lines suggested by Hugh; they rather liked the idea of picking up the departing trail of the foreigner just to see if they would be equal to the task of discovering him, perhaps asleep, near by. “But I don’t see how anybody could sleep through all that noise Billy here put up,” Arthur chose to remark, “when he came rushing down the hill with his hair standing on end, and his eyes looking as if they would drop out of his head.” “Oh! hold on, there, go easy with a fellow, can’t you?” urged Billy reproachfully. “Of course I own up I was some scared, but it wasn’t as bad as all that, and you know it, Arthur. Guess anybody’d have had some shock to run across that thing all of a sudden and believe it to be a wild bear.” “Why, before we’re done with it,” boasted Arthur, “you may see me riding on the old fellow’s broad back like as not. They’re really as tame and docile as kittens, I was told; that is, after they get to know you, and you’ve fed ’em a few times so they’ll look on you as a friend. There, he acts as though he’d had all the water he wanted, Hugh. Just throw out the rest, and I’ll put on my wet hat, which ought to feel nice and cool after all that soaking.” Hugh was already commencing to cast around in search of tracks that would be of a far different type from their own,—prints made by broad-soled hob-nailed shoes, such as these Russian immigrants wear. This made it look as though he had been quite in earnest when he made that assertion about feeling in the humor to try and follow the trail the bear’s master had left when he departed on his unknown errand. Billy happened to think of that loaf of bread which the patrol leader had laid down when arriving on the scene. Some spirit of mischief caused the boy to step over, and picking the package up advance toward the tied bear, holding it out to see what the animal would do. He found out, and in a big hurry too, after a fashion he had evidently not suspected would come to pass. The animal sniffed harder than ever as he caught the tantalizing odor of the freshly baked bread. If it had held a good scent for the boy who had stuffed himself at breakfast only an hour or two ago, fancy how it excited the bear, which must have been very hungry indeed. Before Billy could realize how all those frantic pullings might result, he heard the worn rope give a sudden sharp snap where it had gone around the tree. Then he saw that the eager bear was now loose, and advancing quickly toward him, growling and whining with eagerness, and impatient to break his long fast! |
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