About three o'clock in the afternoon, we sat down to rest on the bank of the creek. We had been there but a few minutes, when a good sized black bear came shambling along up the bank of the creek, looking for salmon. The Indians saw him when a hundred yards or more away, and flattened themselves out on the ground to await his nearer approach. I raised my rifle to my shoulder, but they both motioned me to wait, that he was yet too far away. I disregarded their injunction, however, and promptly landed an express bullet in the bear's breast. He reared, uttered a smothered groan, turned, made one jump, and fell dead. Now arose the question of saving his skin; it was late, and we were yet three miles from the Indian village; to skin the bear then meant to camp there for the night, and as the rain still came down in a steady, heavy sheet, I at once decided that I would not stay out there another night for the best bear skin in the country. Seymour and John held a short consultation, and then John said they would come back and get the skin next day, and take it in lieu of the money I owed them for their services. We struck a bargain in about a minute, and hurried on, arriving at the village just as it grew dark. My rubber coat and high rubber boots had kept me comparatively dry, but the poor Indians were wet to the skin.
CHAPTER XVIII.
N arriving at Chehalis John kindly invited me to stop over night with him, but I declined with thanks. I went into his house, however, to wait while he got ready to take me down to Barker's. It was the same type of home that nearly all these Indians have—a large clapboard building about eight feet high, with smoked salmon hung everywhere and a fire in the centre of the room, which, by the way, was more of a smoke than fire, curing the winter provender. A pile of wood lay in one corner of the room, some empty barrels in another, fish-nets were hung in still another, and the family lived, principally, in the fourth. John lives with his father-in-law, mother-in-law, two brothers-in-law, one sister-in-law, his wife and three papooses. Blankets, pots, tinware and grub of various kinds were piled up promiscuously in this living corner, and the little undressed kids hovered and shivered around the dull fire, suffering from the cold. We were soon in the canoe again, en route to the steamboat landing, where we arrived soon after dark. I regretted to part with John, for I had found him a good, faithful servant and staunch friend. I was glad to get rid of Seymour, however, for I had learned that he was a contemptible sneak, and told him so in as many words.
En route home I had about two hours to wait at Port Moody for the boat. There were great numbers of grebes and ducks in the bay, and I asked the dock foreman if there was any rule against shooting there. He said he guessed not; he had never seen anyone shooting there, but he guessed there wouldn't be any objection. I got out my rifle and two boxes of cartridges and opened on the birds. The ducks left at once, but the grebes sought safety in diving, and as soon as the fusillade began a number of gulls came hovering around, apparently to learn the cause of the racket. I had fine sport between the two, and a large audience to enjoy it with me. In ten minutes from the time I commenced shooting all the clerks in the dock office, all the freight hustlers in the warehouse, all the railroad section men, the ticket-agent and baggage-master, numbering at least twenty men in the aggregate, were clustered around me, and their comments on my rifle and shooting were extremely amusing. Not a man in the party had ever before seen a Winchester express, and the racket it made, the way in which the balls plowed up the water, and the way the birds, when hit, vanished into thin air and a few feathers, were mysteries far beyond their power to solve. At the first lull in the firing half a dozen of them rushed up and wanted to examine the rifle, the fancy finish and combination sights of which were as profoundly strange to them as to the benighted Indians. They soon handed it back to me, however, with the request to resume hostilities against the birds; they preferred to see the old thing work rather than to handle it. The gulls were soaring in close, and six shots, rapidly delivered, dropped three of them into the water, mutilated beyond recognition. This was the climax; the idea of killing birds on the wing, with a rifle, was something these men had never before heard of, and two or three examined my cartridges to see if they were not loaded with shot, instead of bullets. When they found this suspicion was groundless they were beside themselves with wonder and admiration of the strange arm. As a matter of fact, it required no particular skill to kill the gulls on the wing, for they were the large gray variety, and frequently came within twenty or thirty feet of me, so that anyone who could kill them with a shotgun could do so with a rifle.
Finally the steamer came in and I went aboard. The train arrived soon after and several of its passengers boarded the boat. The gulls were now hovering about the steamer, picking up whatever particles of food were thrown overboard from the cook-room. One old Irishman, who had come in on the train from the interior wilds, walked out on the quarter deck and looking at them intently for a few minutes, turned to me and inquired:
"Phwat kind of burds is thim—geese?"
"Yes," I said, "thim's geese, I reckon."
"Well, be gorry, if I had a gun here I'd shoot some o'thim"; and he went and told his companions "there was a flock of the tamest wild geese out thare ye iver sawed."