In less than an hour Pep Frost came back, bringing with him quite a large chunk of bear meat.
“Had a putty good fight with thet b’ar,” he said. “But the knocked-out eye bothered him a good bit. I knocked out tudder with the gun an’ then the rest was easy.”
In a deep hollow among the rocks a fire was kindled and here they broiled as much of the meat as they cared to eat. This meal was welcome to all and after it was over even Mr. Winship declared that he felt like a new person.
The want of weapons was a serious one, and Pep Frost declared that it was no use going after the Indians unless the two boys were armed with something. He cut for each a strong stick and fashioned it into a bow, and then cut a dozen or more arrows.
“Now try them,” he declared, and when they did so, and found the arrows went fairly straight and with good force, he was delighted.
“’Taint so good as a gun or a pistol,” he said, “but it’s a heap sight better’n nuthin’.”
As some of the Indians had been wounded and killed in the fight, the old pioneer declared that the red men would most likely remain in that vicinity for a week or perhaps even for a month.
“They know well enough that there aint nobuddy to come to our aid,” he said. “So they’ll hang around down by the river an’ give the wounded warriors a chance to patch up thar hurts.”
“And what will they do with their prisoners?” questioned Harry.
“Keep ’em with ’em, more’n likely, lad.”