It all happened so quickly that even the dogs looked astonished. Surely, this was a demon bear.
The boys hurried to the spot where they had last seen the animal, and, although they carefully searched for the mouth of a cave, or burrow, through which the bear might have escaped, they saw none, but found the earth everywhere solid and firm. They extended their search for a hundred feet or more about them, but still with the same result. They could find no hole or opening into which the bear could possibly have entered. His mysterious disappearance right before their eyes seemed terribly uncanny.
There was certainly something wrong with the one-eared bear. He had sprung from the ground, just at their feet, where a moment before there had been nothing; and now he had as mysteriously disappeared into the solid earth, and had left no trace behind him.
Balser and Tom stood for a moment in the greatest amazement, and all they had heard about the evil spirit which inhabited the one-eared bear quickly flashed through their minds.
“We’d better let him go, Balser,” said Tom, “for we’ll never kill him, that’s sure. He’s been leading us a wild-goose chase all the morning only to get us up here to kill us. I never saw such an awful place for darkness. The bushes and trees don’t seem natural. They all have thorns and great knots on them, and their limbs and twigs look like huge bony arms and fingers reaching out after us. I tell you this ain’t a natural place, and that bear is an evil spirit, as sure as you live. Lordy! let’s get out of here, for I never was so scared in my life.”
Balser was also afraid, but Tom’s words had made him wish to appear brave, and he said:—
“Shucks! Limpy; I hope you ain’t afraid when you have your hatchet.”
“For goodness’ sake, don’t joke in such a place as this, Balser,” said Tom, with chattering teeth. “I’m not afraid of any natural bear when I have my hatchet, but a bewitched bear is too much for me, and I’m not ashamed to own it.”
“How do you know he’s bewitched?” asked Balser, trying to talk himself out of his own fears.
“Bewitched? Didn’t he come right out of the ground just at our very feet, and didn’t he sink into the solid earth right here before our eyes? What more do you want, I’d like to know? Just you try to sink into the ground and see if you can. Nobody can, unless he’s bewitched.”