Three Boys in the Wild North Land Part 19

"Thank G.o.d! He will yet restore to me my children."

Mr Ross's lips quivered, but crus.h.i.+ng down his own fears he said, as he comforted his sorrow-stricken wife:

"Yes, thank G.o.d! Perhaps he has made even the wild animals of the forest to be their guardian angels."

Frank, Alec, and Sam had listened to Mustagan with bated breath. As Alec said afterward:

"My heart seemed to stop beating while I listened."

When it came out that the bears were friendly, and not disposed to injure the children, the lads could hardly restrain the hearty cheers that somehow, in spite of themselves, would try to burst out.

There was no more sleep that night. As it was at least five miles to the spot where the tracks had been discovered, the strict orders of silence were cancelled, and soon there were noise and activity. Food was prepared and eaten with an appet.i.te unknown since Wenonah and Roderick were of the happy party.

The absorbing question with Mr and Mrs Ross, in consultation with Mustagan and Big Tom, was how they were to proceed when the morning came.

To follow them up and rush in upon them might anger the bears, and the children might suffer. To stalk them so quietly as to be able to get within range and shoot the bears might terrify the children, or they might be wounded by the bullets. There was much talking and many suggestions. A remark from Mustagan gave Mrs Ross a hint, and so a woman's quick intuition solved the perplexing question.

Mustagan had said that, as he carefully examined the tracks, he found where the children had evidently filled their birch dishes with berries and fed them to the little bears, whose many tracks had shown that, like young dogs, they had gambolled and played around them.

Said Mrs Ross as she heard this:

"Those bears seem well disposed toward children, so the brave boys will go on ahead with similar dishes of berries, and they will find that the animals will rather eat the fruit than do the lads any harm."

This suggestion so delighted the boys that, without a moment's thought of the risks they would run, they gladly consented, and were eager to carry out the suggestion.

Mr Ross and the Indians were old bear hunters, and they could not at first think that any such plan would be at all possible. However, think or plan as much as they would, they found it utterly impossible to settle on any other scheme that appeared to them either safe or suitable. The result was that daylight found them still in perplexity, and altogether undecided as to the correct method to adopt in this novel expedition, so unique in all of their experiences.

Mrs Ross, however, and the boys, stuck to her suggestion, and pleaded that it be attempted. As nothing else was suggested the Indians and Mr Ross at length consented. However, they took many precautions to save the lads and prevent disaster, either to them or to the children.

The preparations were soon made, even to the rogans of berries, and heavily armed with their guns the party set out under the guidance of Mustagan. Mrs Ross went with them, as her anxieties were so great for the rescue of her darlings.

When within a half mile or so of the spot where the tracks had been seen they halted, and, after some final consultation, Mustagan and Big Tom decided to go on and see if there were any further developments. Very cautiously and yet rapidly did they advance from covert to covert, until they were so close to the sand of the dried-up stream that it was quite visible to them, although they themselves were well hid from observation.

Here for a time they waited, for they shrewdly conjectured from Mustagan's description of the numerous tracks, crossing and recrossing, that for the present, at least, the bears were abiding in that vicinity.

Not long had they to wait ere they were convinced of the correctness of these conjectures, for coming out of the forest on the other side of the dried-up stream were to be seen four bears and the two lost children.

Crouching down low on the ground, and peering through the dense bushes behind which they were hidden, did our two Indians watch them for a time, that they might decide on the best method of rescuing the little ones. The wind was blowing from the bears toward the Indians, and so there was little fear of the animals scenting danger at that distance, which was still a good quarter of a mile away.

Why the children had remained so long with the bears was perplexing to these hunters until the mystery was solved by the fact that was now evident to their eyes, that the children were really prisoners and the bears would not let them escape. As the men watched they saw Wenonah seize Roderick's hand in hers, and, starting on a run, she tried to go up the channel on the sands. This movement was stopped by one of the large bears as speedily as possible by putting himself in the children's way. Then children, still hand in hand, turned to the opposite direction, and when trying there to escape were stopped by the other large bear. In the meantime the little ones played around them like lively young dogs.

Foiled in their efforts to go either up or down in the dried-up channel of the stream, after some time spent on the sands the children and bears came up, and, entering among the berry-bushes, began to eat of the abundant fruit.

They were now much nearer to the Indians, and it was evident that the young bears were looking to the children to help them in picking their breakfast of berries.

When convinced of this the Indians' eyes brightened, and they said:

"The mistress is right; the boys will feed the young bears, and we will shoot the old ones."

Noiselessly they withdrew from their hiding place and rejoined the rest of the party, who had with almost feverish impatience awaited their return. Quietly and rapidly they reported what they had seen, and then the final preparations were made.

Quickly they all moved on, and soon were at the brow of the last hill, from the top of which the whole of the great plain, densely covered with the berry-bushes, could be seen, with the thread of s.h.i.+ning sand in the distance, already referred to.

Here on the hilltop Mr and Mrs Ross were seated behind some dense bushes, through which they could look without creating suspicion. Then the Indians, taking the boys along with them, started on their dangerous course. Like panthers they moved quietly along, keeping as close to the ground as possible, until they reached a ledge of rocks. Here the Indians, with their guns loaded with ball, were placed, while the boys, with nothing but their baskets of berries, in company with Mustagan went on a little farther. Then Mustagan, giving the boys their final instructions and charging them to keep cool and be brave, no matter what might occur, withdrew with his gun, and hid himself behind a rock, a little way in the rear of them.

It was an exciting time for the boys, but they had learned to have such confidence in these grand old red men that such a thing as fear was now about unknown in any of them, even at the most trying moments.

While there sitting they were startled by a shrill bird call from not far behind them. They could hardly believe their ears when they found it came from the lips of Mustagan. In a minute or two it was repeated, and then again and again, with short intervals between.

To their surprise another bird call some hundreds of yards ahead of them was heard, and after a time it was repeated. Then the blackbird's notes rang out from behind, and then another note came from the front. Ere the voice behind could again reply a solemn "Hoot-a-hoot-a-hoo" came from the front.

For a time all was still, and then the song of the robin was heard in front, and only a chirp was heard in the rear.

Sharp and quick was the ending.

Soon after this chirp the boys heard the bushes rustling in front of them not fifty yards away. Then they saw in the opening the two children, closely followed by two young bears. As the children slowly moved along they kept plucking the berries and feeding them to the greedy young animals. The children were ragged and sadly changed as, from their still hidden position, the boys watched them; they could see that Wenonah, at least, seemed to know that they must act cautiously, and they observed that frequently she spoke to the little fellow at her side.

It was her bird notes that had answered Mustagan. Little did they realise, a year or so before, as he taught Wenonah these calls of the birds and what they meant, that her very life would so soon depend upon her knowledge of them.

Still cautiously advancing with little Roderick at her side, and both of them feeding the little bears, she at length reached a spot where she caught a glimpse of the boys. Without at all raising her voice she said:

"Crouch down as well as you can and bring the berries."

This they quickly did.

"Feed these greedy young ones while I give a basket to the old ones, so that while they are eating them we can get away."

Poor girl! She knew not of the number of guns that were now within range of anything that would dare to harm her, and the boys were warned not to speak.

Taking one of the baskets of berries, she quickly disappeared among the dense bushes, while the boys, with the other full baskets, had made friends with the young bears. When Wenonah returned, she found the young bears were filling themselves with the fruit. So thoroughly terrified had the children become, through fear of the bears, that although the boys by expressive signs urged them at once to hurry in the direction of safety and deliverance, they hesitated, and even when they started kept fearfully looking back.

The instant they reached Mustagan he shouted to the boys to return, and not a moment too soon, for cras.h.i.+ng through the bushes came the two old bears, fierce and savage, and showing that in some way they had become suspicious of danger.

Coolly picking up the two baskets which the two young bears had upset, the boys, keeping their faces to the fierce, savage brutes, slowly retreated. The bears, at first only seeing the boys, came rus.h.i.+ng toward them, but when they reached their young ones they stopped for a time, and then came on to attack the boys.

To the ledge of rocks Mustagan had carried the now happy children. They had nearly smothered "dear old Mustagan," as they loved to call him, with their kisses. Wild, indeed, were they with joy as father and mother rushed forward and received them as from the dead. They could only lie clinging to them while they wept out their bliss.

From it they were startled, as out rang a volley from the guns, and two great, fierce bears rolled over each other, each shot through more than one vital spot.

"Capture the little fellows alive!" was the cry.

And soon, after a lively chase and some sharp struggling, two four months' old cubs were so tied up as to be unable to do any injury either with teeth or claws.

Very anxious had the boys been during the search for the lost children.

Their only regret was that they were so powerless as to be unable to join in the search. Very proud, however, were they to have had some share in the exciting events of the last hours of their strange deliverance. Tears were in their eyes and dimmed their vision as they first saw them in the company of the wild beasts, showing by their appearance what they must have suffered during the long days and nights of such hards.h.i.+ps.

The story of the children's account of their adventures and hards.h.i.+ps will be given in another chapter. Suffice here to say that very quickly was the march taken up, after the half-famished little ones had been fed, for they had had nothing but berries to eat, and, as Roderick put it: