CHAPTER XX
THE HEROISM OF THE SHANGHAI ROOSTER
Jack Darrow was the only person in the group around the campfire who at first saw the huge bear. And he was so startled that for a breath he did not know what it was best to do. To shriek out in alarm would neither save the darkey nor frighten off the bear.
The Shanghai rooster settled down with a half-stifled squawk in the bottom of his coop. Without doubt the bird saw the bear and realized that his life was in peril.
"What de matter wid yo'?" demanded Washington, rolling his eyes and beginning to look scared himself.
Jack's mouth was dry and he had to wet his lips before he could as much as whisper. Only a few seconds had elapsed since the bear rose into view behind the darkey; but it seemed to Jack as though an eternity had passed.
His whispered words were for the old hunter, whom he knew was always alert.
"Andy! Your rifle!"
The brown claw of the old hunter was never far from the grip of his gun when he lay before a campfire. Jack saw the hand clamp upon the weapon even before Sudds rolled over.
"What's up, Jack?" he whispered.
"Behind Wash—quick!"
No need to tell the hunter to be quick. He was on his knees and the gun was at his shoulder in the twinkling of an eye.
"Come here, Wash—quick!" ejaculated Jack, with sudden inspiration, and the darkey, used to obeying orders without question, scrambled up and started toward the boy.
With a roar that brought every other person save the old hunter to his feet, the huge bear swung both front paws to grab the negro. Wash escaped the embrace by the breadth of a hair.
Bang! spoke Andy Sudds' rifle.
"Gollyation! I'se done shot!" bawled the darkey, and sprang into Jack's arms.
The boy hung on to him or perhaps Wash would still be running, he was so scared. Nor were the other members of the party much less startled.
But Andy Sudds was as steady as a rock. His first ball had hit the huge beast in the breast, but the latter had plunged forward after the escaping darkey as the ball struck him. Therefore the wound was too high up to do serious damage.
A grizzly, or Kodiak, bear has never yet been settled by a single shot—unless the bullet entering the beast's carcass was explosive. With a mighty roar the bear plunged forward, right through the fire, scattering it far and wide and aiming directly for the place from which the rifle ball had come. It had stung him, and he was after the old hunter on the instant.
He half fell over the coop which contained the Shanghai rooster. Irritable as he could be, the bear delayed long enough to strike at this coop. He smashed one end of it flat, but the Shanghai miraculously escaped injury.
The bird had undoubtedly been disturbed and frightened by the secret approach of Bruin; but once free, the feathered creature felt his dignity disturbed, and finding himself free of the coop, he flew with a loud squawk at the charging bear.
Andy had pumped two more bullets after his first one. Both had found their billet in the body of the bear; but neither had struck a vital spot. The scattering fire, as the beast plowed through the embers, drove the rest of the party out of range in a hurry. Jack dragged Wash to one side; but the darkey yelled:
"Gollyation! I wanter save Buttsy! Oh, lawsy-massy! Dat Shanghai suahly is a reckless bird!"
In the flaring light of the flames the rooster was seen to pounce upon the shoulders of the huge bear as the latter came down to "all-fours" and dived at the old hunter. Andy sprang back, collided with a tree-trunk, and went head over heels. In an instant the bear would have been upon him and one stroke of his sabre-like claws would have finished Andy Sudds.
But the rooster certainly did delay the bear's charge. The brute struck at his feathered tormentor with first one fore paw, and then the other. He failed to dislodge his enemy by such means.
And then a big ember behind him snapped and a part of the flaming branch fell upon the ground just where Bruin put his hind paw upon it. Plowing through the blaze in a hurry was one thing—this was an entirely different proposition.
Bruin uttered a roar of pain and turned to bite at the stung paw. As he swung his huge body about, the blood now spouting from his jaws—for one of the bullets had punctured a lung—Andy came into position again, with the muzzle of his rifle less than ten feet from the hairy side.
Bang!
An answering roar of rage and pain followed the shot. The beast tried to whirl again, but fell instead. The rooster fled, squawking, into the bush.
The huge bear struggled on the ground for some moments before anybody dared approach. It was Wash who first dashed in and planted a foot upon the dead beast's neck.
"See wot dat Shanghai done?" he cried. "Wot you gotter say now ter
Christopher Columbus Amerigo Vespucci George Washington Abraham Lincoln
Ulysses Grant Garibaldi Thomas Edison Guglielmo Marconi Butts?"
"I got to take off my hat to the rooster," Andy Sudds said, quietly. "If it hadn't been for him that bear would have had me as sure as shootin'!"
"Butts is a hero—no doubt of that," gasped Jack Darrow, when he could get his breath.
The others—even Professor Henderson—were greatly excited by the incident and delighted by its outcome. Here was fresh meat in abundance, to say nothing of a fine blanket-robe, if they could take the time to stretch and "work" the hide. Andy promised to do that the next day if they would camp where they were long enough.
Meanwhile the bear was skinned and certain steaks cut off for immediate consumption, while the bulk of the carcass was cached under some blocks of ice on the glacier. Andy was for smoking some strips of meat over the rebuilt fire.
"You see, Professor, it's so hot in the daytime here, and so cold at night, that pemmican is about the only kind of meat that will keep—unless it's canned. We'll eat what we can of the fresh bear steaks; but these strips will be all right smoked a long time after the fresh meat has become too strong for anything but a buzzard," quoth the hunter.