OVERLANDERS GET A JOLT
As she went over, Emma Dean's feet hit the under side of the table. Her plate of venison slid off to the floor, and Hippy Wingate's coffee landed in his lap. The Overlanders sprang to their feet, but Joe Shafto sat glaring from one to the other of them in amazement.
"A bear! A bear! A bear under the table," screamed Emma and sank back in a dead faint.
It was then that the Overland Riders saw what had so frightened her, for a black bear ambled out from under the table and began gulping down the venison from Emma's overturned plate. To the eyes of the girls he appeared to be a huge animal, and his growls, as he swallowed choice morsels of venison, were far from reassuring.
"Don't be skeert! It's only Henry," cried the forest woman. "Set down!"
No one heeded her advice. Elfreda Briggs was standing on a chair, Anne Nesbit had run into the garden which she had reached by a short cut through an open window. Tom and Hippy, having sprung back, were gazing on the intruder in startled amazement, while Nora Wingate, standing on the table with one foot in the platter of venison, was screaming.
Grace, who had backed into a corner, was trying to subdue her own individual panic sufficiently to reason out the situation. Joe Shafto's words, when Grace finally absorbed them, brought enlightenment.
"Will he bite, Mrs. Shafto?" she called.
"Won't bite nothin' if ye don't bother him."
Grace ran to Emma and bathed her face with water.
"Get down!" commanded Lieutenant Wingate, holding up a hand to Nora. "Don't you see you're spoiling a perfectly good lot of venison? I never saw such a parcel of 'fraid cats in all my life."
"Neither did I," grumbled Mrs. Shafto. "I didn't know Henry was down there or I'd a shooed him out before ye set down."
"I won't get down until that beast is out of the house," declared Nora. "Whoever heard of such a thing. Don't!"
Hippy pulled her down without ceremony and placed Nora in a chair.
"Behave yourself! You will see more bears, and then some, before you finish this journey."
Joe took a broom and shooed Henry out into the yard. A scream out there followed almost instantly, for Henry had ambled around the house to make the acquaintance of Anne Nesbit.
"The beast is chasing me!" she panted, as she ran back into the house.
No one gave heed to her, so she ran to Nora and the two consoled each other. In the meantime, Grace had revived Emma.
"Ha—as he gone?" she wailed weakly.
"Yes. That is Mrs. Shafto's tame bear, you silly."
"Merely a voice of nature that you heard, Emma," reminded Hippy. "By the way, what message did Henry convey to you?"
"Henry is the name of Mrs. Shafto's pet," explained Grace.
"Fright!" moaned Emma in answer to Hippy's question.
"Mrs. Shafto, if you don't mind, I believe I will have another piece of deer," said Hippy.
"Yer wife stepped in it," replied Joe.
"It's all in the family," observed Hippy, holding out his plate.
One by one the Overlanders returned to the table, with the exception of Emma, whose appetite had left her, but Hippy had the rest of the venison all to himself. The meal was finished off with apple pie, and the girls said they had not eaten so much since their first meals at home on their return from service in France.
Following the meal, the Overland Riders discussed their proposed journey with the forest woman, looked over the supplies she had bought and pronounced themselves satisfied, not only with her purchases, but with Joe Shafto herself. Nothing more was seen of Henry that evening. The woman said he probably had gone into the woods to sleep or to forage for food.
"Where did you get the beast?" questioned Emma.
"When he war a cub. I shot his mother and brought the cub home, and he's one of the family. I kin make him mind just like a dog, and sick him on like a dog. I'll call him in and show ye."
"No, no," protested Emma and Nora in chorus.
"I shall dream of bears all night, but don't you dare let him out while I am here," begged Emma.
"Henry's my watchdog. He sleeps on the front steps, and he'll chaw up anything that comes in the yard after I git to bed, so keep out or you'll git bit."
"Oh, I shall keep out, never fear," answered Emma in a tone of voice that brought a laugh from everyone at the table.
Before leaving Mrs. Shafto that night the Overland girls acquainted her with such plans as they had made for their outing, Tom telling her of the work that lay before him and expressing his wish to have the party as near to his work as possible. "Good nights" finally were said, and the guests departed for their little camp among the trees. A fire was built to light up the tents while the girls were arranging their blankets and preparing themselves for bed.
"Hindenburg gets free range for the night," volunteered Hippy. So, with the bull pup on watch, all hands turned in, for an early start was to be made on the following morning. They were awakened by his barking at daybreak.
Joe Shafto was hallooing to them.
"Git a hustle on ye," she called in answer to Tom Gray's answering hail.
There was a scramble in the camp of the Overlanders, for they desired to show their guide that they were no novices at breaking camp and getting under way. Just as they were finishing their breakfasts Joe led over June and July, and waited observantly while Tom and Hippy rolled their belongings into packs which Mrs. Shafto lashed to the mules with her own hands.
"Ye see the twins don't like to have strangers monkeyin' around 'em," she explained. "I'll git goin' now and ye kin foller along. I've got to git Henry first."
"Eh? What's that?" demanded Hippy.
"I don't go nowheres without my Henry."
"You—you aren't going to take that beast with you, are you, Mrs. Shafto?" cried Emma.
"I sure be, and I reckon ye'll be mighty glad to have him along before we git through with this here hop into the Big Woods."
Emma groaned dismally.
"Never mind," soothed Hippy. "You can practice your nature reading stunt on him. Who knows but that you may learn the bear language, so that by the time we finish our work up here you will be able to go out in the forest and tell the bears your life history, and listen to them telling you theirs. Of course they might eat you, but that would not matter."
"Huh!" grunted Miss Dean, elevating her nose and turning her back on him.
"Mount!" ordered Hippy, after each girl had saddled her pony and stood waiting for the start. They swung into their saddles with agility, and jogged out into the road with Hindenburg racing ahead and darting back, barking joyously. He was already feeling the call of the wild.
"There's Joe," called Emma, as they rounded a bend in the road.
"I do not see the bear," wondered Tom.
"Perhaps she decided to leave him at home to shift for himself. I hope so."
Grace said she hoped not, for the bear would make life interesting for them.
Joe was sitting on the back of one of her pack mules jogging along, leading the second mule behind, but, though she must have heard the Overlanders shout to her, she neither replied nor looked back. Hindenburg, however, darted ahead and began barking at the mules, dodging their heels successfully for several minutes, much to the amusement of the party following. At last, however, he caught a glancing blow from a mule foot that sent him rolling into the bushes. In a few moments he was out again, circling mules and rider, barking his angry protests, then dodging off the trail into the bushes where they heard him barking with a different note in his voice.
"There comes the bear!" cried Nora. "Look at him!"
"Yes, and there comes Hindenburg bucking the line," added Hippy.
The bear, followed by the dog, burst into sight just at the moment that Hindenburg nipped the bear's hind leg. Henry whirled, made a pass at the pup, and missed him. The bear then charged Hindenburg with mouth wide open, and the battle was on.
The Bear Advanced, Sparring Like a Prize Fighter.
"Call off yer dog," shouted Joe.
"Call off your bear," answered Hippy Wingate.
The guide tried to do so and failed. Hippy's efforts to draw Hindenburg from the fray met with no better success.
It was at this juncture that the bear scored first blood. With a well placed blow of his paw he knocked the pup into the middle of the road, and the lead mule, at whose heels Hindenburg had fallen, kicked him the rest of the way into the bushes.
"Sick 'im, Henry!" yelled Joe.
"No you don't," shouted Hippy as the bear ambled across the road in pursuit of the injured pup.
"I'll learn that fresh pup to bite my bear," flung back the forest woman.
"And I'll kill that brute of a bear if he gets the pup," retorted Hippy, galloping his pony to the point at which the two animals had disappeared, and leaping from Ginger's back, regardless of the risk of losing his mount.
Hippy plunged into the bushes to the rescue of the bull pup. The dog's yelps indicated that he was in further trouble, which Hippy discovered to be the fact when he came in sight of the combatants. Henry was boxing the unfortunate dog with both fore paws. Hindenburg, from whose mouth and nose the blood was running, was staggering about weakly, but trying his utmost to get a hold and hang on.
"Let go, Henry, you brute!" commanded Hippy.
Henry, however, instead of letting go, ambled at the dog with wide open mouth, thoroughly angered and determined to finish with his teeth the battle he had begun with his paws.
Lieutenant Wingate sprang into the fray and delivered a kick on the side of the bear's head with all the strength he could throw into the blow.
Henry rose in his might, rearing on hind legs, and advanced on Hippy, snarling and showing his teeth, and sparring like a prize fighter.
"That's your game, is it?" jeered the Overland Rider.
Whack!
Hippy planted a blow with his fist full on Henry's nose, the most tender part of a bear's body. Henry reeled, backed away, followed by Lieutenant Wingate who sparred skillfully, frequently planting other blows on the tender nose of his adversary.
Boxing with a bear was a new experience for him, but his success thus far made Hippy careless, and in a particularly savage blow he threw his body too far forward, missed the nose, and was obliged to spring towards the animal to save himself from falling.
Henry, despite his rage and aching nose, did not miss his opportunity. Both powerful front legs closed about Hippy Wingate like a flash, and the man and the bear went down together.