“Not this trip. I haven’t got him trained yet.”
Greenleaf explained the capture, and suggested that they build a cage to keep him in till the work on the east line was finished. It seemed the only thing to do, and they set to work immediately to build a substantial cage of two by fours and a piece of woven wire hog fence. They loaded the crude cage on a one-horse wagon and started out for the camp.
“Won’t those fellows be surprised,” Greenleaf chuckled, “when we bring them in a bear for breakfast instead of a trout?”
They were soon back at the bear pit, where they found things pretty much as Greenleaf had left them. The bear had dug down considerably more dirt but had tired himself out and was lying quietly in the bottom of the pit. They carried the cage over to the edge of the pit with the open end close to the edge.
“Little fellow, isn’t he?” Sturgis said, peeping down between the poles. “We oughtn’t to have much trouble with him.”
“If you had seen him bouncing around in there a while ago,” Dan said, “you wouldn’t be so sure of it.”
“Well,” Sturgis answered, “we’ll try him, anyway. Pat, you get that light logging chain while we take these poles away.”
The removal of the logs seemed to give the bear renewed hope, and they soon found that he was only resting, and not nearly so exhausted as he looked. He sized them up sullenly for an instant, and then made a vicious lunge at Dan which brought him head and shoulders above the edge of the pit. He clung desperately to the rim and only the crumbling of the sides kept him from getting out. He fell heavily on his back but recovered himself instantly, sprang again with a vicious snarl, and a furious blow of his paw laid the leg of Greenleaf’s trousers open for a foot. Once more the crumbling dirt threw him back.
As Pat came running up with the chain, tying a slip noose in it as he ran, the bear made another desperate spring and obtained a firm hold with his front feet, balanced a second and drew up one hind foot to the solid ground. In another instant he would be free from the pit, an ugly customer to handle in his infuriated condition. Greenleaf sprang forward with the intention of pushing him back into the pit with his hands at the infinite risk of falling in with him, but Dan was ahead of him and struck the bear a heavy blow on the head with the flat of an ax. The blow knocked the crazed animal back into the pit just as he had all four feet on the surface.
“I hate to do it, old man,” Dan said, “but I ain’t crazy to hug you.”