Part 13 (1/2)
”Shoot him, Palmleaf!”
”Let him have it!”
”Aim low!”
”Now's your time!”
The negro, who had been running hard, stopped short, and, seeing the bear bounding toward him, made a feint to raise his musket, when it went off, either from accident or terror, in the air. We heard the bullet _zip_ fifty feet overhead. The bear gave a vicious growl, and made directly at him.
”He'll have the darky!”
”He'll have you, Palmleaf!”
”Run, fool!”
”Run, you black son!”
Palmleaf turned to run; but, seeing a high rand of ice sticking up a few yards to his left, he leaped for it, and, jumping up, caught his hands at the top, and tried to draw himself up on to it. The bear was within six feet of him, snarling like a fury.
_Bang!_
_Bang!_
_Bang!_
Raed and Corliss and Bonney had fired within twenty yards. But the bear reared, and struck with his forepaws at the darky's legs, stripping his trousers clean off the first pull. Such a howl as came from his terrified throat!
_Crack!_
That was a better shot. The bear turned, or set out to, but fell down in a heap, then scrambled up, but immediately tumbled over again, and lay kicking.
By this time we had all got near. The negro, scared nearly into fits, still hung on to the edge of the ice, looking as if ”spread-eagled” to it.
”Come, sir,” said Wade. ”Better get down and put on your trousers,--what there is left of them.”
The darky turned an agonized, appealing visage over his shoulder, but, seeing only friends instead of bears, let go his hold, and dropped to his feet.
”That's what you call a 'sure shot,' is it,” sneered Wade,--”that one you fired at the bear? Guess you didn't hurt _us_ much at Petersburg.”
”He need to be pretty thankful that somebody fired a _sure shot_ about the time the bear was paying his compliments to him,” laughed the captain.
”Yes: who fired that last shot?” I asked of Donovan, who stood near.
”Wade did.”
We had to send back to the schooner for the butcher-knives, and also for a line to hoist the bear we had first killed out of the hole.
The bears were skinned: we wanted to save their hides for trophies. As nearly as we could make out, they had been both wounded by the bullets from the howitzer, one of them--the one killed first--pretty severely.
They did not, however, appear to me, in this our first encounter with them, to be nearly so fierce nor so formidable as I had expected, from accounts I had read. Hobbs cut out a piece of the haunch for steaks.