They sat for some time in the hut discussing various matters. At last John crawled to the door and looked out. He was rather a matter-of-fact boy in his way, and there seemed no special excitement in his voice as he remarked: “Well, Rob, there comes your bear.”
The others hurried to the door. Sure enough, upon the bare mountain slope beyond the lagoon, nearly half a mile away, there showed plainly enough the body of an enormous bear, large as a horse. It was one of the great Kadiak bears, which are the biggest of all the world.
“Cracky!” said Jesse; “he looks pretty big to me. Do you suppose he’ll find us here in the house?”
Rob, the oldest of the three, who had been on one or two hunts with his father, looked serious as he watched this giant animal advancing down the hill-side with its long, reaching stride. Suddenly he uttered an exclamation. “Look!” said he; “there’s two more just come out of the brush. It’s an old she bear and her cubs coming down to fish!”
All could now see the three bears, the great, yellow-gray mother, huge and shaggy, and the two cubs, darker in color and, of course, much smaller, although each was as large as the ordinary black bear of the United States. Certainly it was an exciting moment as the boys looked at these great creatures now so close at hand.
Presently the old bear seemed to suspect something, for she stopped and sat up on her haunches, swinging from side to side a head which was fully as long as the arm of any one of the boys.
“She probably smells the smoke,” whispered Rob. “Oh, I hope she won’t get scared and run away! No, there she comes; it’s the first salmon run, and they’re all hungry for fish.”
They watched the bears until at last they disappeared in the brush which lined the creek on the farther side. Rob kept his eye intently fixed on the place where they had disappeared, but made no motion to leave the hut until finally all three of the bears once more appeared, this time splashing across the creek.
“She knows the tide as well as we do,” muttered he. “It won’t be long now before the fish begin to move up the creek again. Now, come on, fellows, if you’re not afraid!”