In none of his hunting excursions had Oscar ever been very badly troubled by what is known as the “buck-fever.” It is true that the sight of big game always startled him at first, but when the time came to shoot his hands were as steady as those of Big Thompson himself. On this occasion, however, all his nerve seemed to desert him completely. Slowly and cautiously he moved out from behind his rock, and, raising his rifle to his shoulder, tried to bring the sights within range of a spot behind the bear’s fore shoulder, near the region of his heart; but the weapon swayed about like a sapling in a gale of wind, and in two seconds’ time he had covered every inch of that side of the bear’s body except the one at which he wished to shoot.
281“This will never do!” thought Oscar, drawing in a long breath, as if he hoped in that way to calm his agitated nerves and stop the rapid beating of his heart, which now thumped loudly against his ribs. “If I don’t kill him dead, or disable him at the first shot, my life is not worth a row of pins. If I stay here, or run, it’s an even chance if he don’t discover me and assume the offensive. I don’t know what to do.”
Oscar drew himself a little further back behind his rock, and took a moment in which to think the matter over.
He could not shoot; he dared not retreat; and he was afraid to stay where he was. It looked as though he had got himself into a tight place.
It has been said by those who ought to know, for they have “been there,” that when a person is drowning the whole of his life passes in review before him, like the scenes of a panorama; and Oscar could now affirm, from personal experience, that a boy who unexpectedly finds himself in the presence of a full-grown grizzly has to pass through the same ordeal.
282He did, at any rate. He seemed to remember everything he had ever done. Scenes and incidents long since forgotten, and which he had hoped would never be recalled to him, flashed through his mind like lightning.
His heart beat loudly and more rapidly than before, and Oscar became thoroughly frightened when he found that his strength was all leaving him. His rifle seemed to weigh a ton, and he gladly would have laid it down if he had not been afraid of attracting the bear’s attention.
All this while the grizzly stood motionless in his tracks, looking toward the thicket on the opposite side of the glade and listening. He did not appear to be aware of the boy’s presence, for he never once turned his gaze in his direction; but it was plain that something had aroused his suspicions.
Knowing that it would be the height of folly to risk a shot while his nerves were in that condition, the boy also turned his head toward the thicket; but his senses were not as keen as those of the bear, and he could neither see, hear, nor smell anything.
There was something approaching that cluster 283of bushes, however, and Oscar found it out a few moments later.
All of a sudden a tall figure glided out from behind a tree, and Big Thompson, carrying his rifle at a trail, and keeping his eyes fastened on the snow, moved out into plain view.
Then Oscar saw, for the first time, that the bear’s trail led from that thicket to his den under the rock. The guide, whom the boy supposed to be a mile away at that moment, had found it and was following it up.
He was running right into danger too. His eyes being fastened on the trail, he did not see the bear, which was as close to him as it was to Oscar. At least that was what Oscar thought; but, as it happened, the wary old hunter knew where the bear was as well as his employer did.
The boy’s fears were greatly increased now. For a moment he seemed utterly incapable of moving or speaking; and then, his power of action and speech coming back to him as suddenly as it had deserted him, he sprang to his feet and raised a shout that could have been heard half a mile away.
284“Look out there, Thompson!” he yelled. “The bear is right in front of you!”
There is nothing of which the grizzly stands so much in fear as the sound of the human voice.
Numerous instances are on record bearing evidence to the fact that men who have been stricken down and seriously wounded by these fierce animals have saved their lives by setting up piercing shrieks of pain and terror.
This grizzly proved to be as timid as any of his species in this respect. When Oscar’s shout awoke the echoes of the grove he turned quickly; and, giving vent to a hoarse “huff, huff!” which resembled, in everything except volume, the sound uttered by a wild hog when he is suddenly startled, made all haste to get around the rock out of sight; but before he had taken half a dozen steps he was floored by a bullet from Big Thompson’s rifle.
Now it so happened that this veteran hunter was quite as much disconcerted at the sound of Oscar’s voice as the grizzly was. He never dreamed that the boy was anywhere in that vicinity; and if he had held his peace a 285moment longer the guide would have given a much better account of himself.
As it was, Oscar’s shout of warning disturbed his aim; and instead of killing the bear outright, as he could have done under almost any other circumstances, he only succeeded in inflicting upon him a painful wound, which aroused all the ferocity in his nature at once.
He got upon his feet in an instant, and, uttering growls of rage that made Oscar shiver all over, charged toward the hunter, whose coolness and courage were wonderful to behold.
Having no time to recharge his muzzle loader, Thompson grasped the barrel with both hands, and, swinging the heavy weapon over his head, calmly awaited the onset.
It was a picture for a painter; and on the brow of the hill a little distance away was another picture for that same painter, if he wanted something to represent “Fright.”
There stood Oscar, with open mouth and staring eyes, watching all that was going on below him, and so utterly overcome with terror 286that he ............