Part 53 (1/2)
”For fifteen minutes--twenty--perhaps--we fought desperately. Writhing, struggling, I could feel the brute's hot breath on my face and his lolling tongue dripped saliva. Finally, his heavy breathing told me he was getting winded, and I knew that if my strength did not fail me I should be the victor. Fortunately, I was in splendid physical condition.
Not once did I lose my presence of mind in this terrible crisis. I was as calm as I am this minute, while the bear was letting out roars of rage and pain that curdled the blood of those who heard them.
”At last I made a superhuman effort and backed the brute up against a tree. Gripping his nose and jaw, I had doubled up my leg and thrust my knee into his stomach, which was of course cruel punishment--when, just then----”
A slight cough made Mr. Penrose turn quickly. Miss Mattie Gaskett, whose eyes were nearly as large as Mr. Cone's at this version of the encounter, was standing behind him with ”Cutie” in a wicker basket.
Mr. Penrose looked disconcerted for a moment, and then that presence of mind of which he boasted came to his a.s.sistance and he said ingratiatingly:
”This young lady will vouch for the fact that my clothes were in shreds--ribbons----”
”Why--er--yes, you had lost your s.h.i.+rt bosom,” Miss Gaskett agreed, doubtfully.
Remarking that he would finish the story when Mr. Cone had more leisure, Mr. Penrose ”skedaddled” after the bell-boy with unmistakable alacrity.
”And how is kitty?” inquired Mr. Cone, beaming upon Miss Gaskett. ”Did you take her with you this summer?”
As he lifted the cover and looked in the basket, ”Cutie's” pupils enlarged and she shrank from him. ”Cutie” had a good memory.
”Luckily for her I did not,” Miss Gaskett answered. ”If I had, I should have lost her.”
”Lost her?”
”Coyotes.”
”They would have _eaten_ her?”
Miss Gaskett nodded.
”Undoubteely. They were thick as anything. They howled hideously every morning before sunrise, and it was not safe to leave one's tent at night without a weapon.”
”Whew!” Mr. Cone's lips puckered in a whistle.
His astonishment inspired Miss Gaskett to continue:
”Yes, indeed! And once when I was out walking ever so far from everybody I met one face to face. My first impulse was to run, but I thought if I did so it might attack me, so, trying not to show that I was frightened, I picked up a stick, and just then----”
Seeing that Mr. Cone's gaze wandered, Miss Gaskett paused to learn the cause of it. She flushed as she found that Mrs. Budlong, with a smile wreathing her face, was listening to the recital.
”I'll tell you the rest when you are not so busy,” Miss Mattie said, taking her key from Mr. Cone hastily.
Mrs. Budlong declared that her pleasure equalled his own when Mr. Cone expressed his delight at seeing her, and there was no thought on the minds of either as to the hotel rules she had violated or the food she had carried away from the table in the front of her blouse and her reticule.
”You are looking in splendid health, Mrs. Budlong,” he a.s.serted, quite as if that lady ever had looked otherwise.
”Yes, the change benefited me greatly.” A stranger might have gathered from the plaintive note in her voice that prior to her trip she had been an invalid.
”You, too, found the Western country interesting?”
”Oh, very! At heart, Mr. Cone, I am a Child of Nature, and the primitive always appeals to me strongly,” Mrs. Budlong hesitated and seemed debating. Having made her decision she asked in an undertone:
”I can trust you?”