Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

At length, both the smaller bears passed out of sight, and then a little later, the old one. The boys crept on all fours to their horses, untied the deer and threw them to the ground. Jack tightened his saddle girths, and all three mounting passed down the hill towards the bears.

As they descended into the valley, the ridges, which from the height had seemed so low, began to appear higher, and to assume the proportions of quite respectable hills. Jack thought that he had marked the place where the bears disappeared, with some care, but before long, made up his mind that he had quite lost it. Joe and Handsome Face, however, rode steadily forward, as if they knew just where the place was, as of course they did. The advance was brisk, yet the boys did not gallop, and went as carefully as possible. Pretty soon, Jack could see that they must be getting near the place, for the boys used still greater caution, and at length, Joe stopped, slipped off his horse and went ahead on foot, while Handsome Face and Jack remained behind. When Joe looked over the ridge, he saw nothing, and remounting, they passed on to the next one, where he took another look. Coming back very cautiously, he whispered: "They are just over the ridge; we can rush on them from there." From the top of the ridge they could see the three bears, unsuspicious as yet, and no more than fifty yards away, and as soon as they saw them, the three dashed forward at top speed.

"He had no time to think, hardly to move."—Page 280

Jack expected that Pawnee would be able to run away from the other horses, and he made up his mind that he would try for the old bear; but he found that the horse that Handsome Face was riding, was as swift as Pawnee, and the two kept along about even, both trying to overtake the mother. It was a race as well as a chase. At first the way was down hill and there, they did not in the least gain on the bear, but in a moment she began to climb the hill, and then they closed up on her rapidly. Handsome Face had his bow strung and a sheaf of arrows in his hand, and was making ready to let fly. It was impossible for Jack to shoot, as Handsome Face was directly between him and the bear, the boys riding nearly side by side, and only a few feet apart. All the while they were drawing up close to the bear; rather closer, as Jack thought, than was safe; but he had no time to think about this. Suddenly, Handsome Face drew an arrow to the head and shot, and almost as he did so, the bear whirled and charged directly toward the two boys. Handsome Face's horse turned at right angles, to rush away, and striking Pawnee with his chest just behind the shoulders, knocked him off his feet, so that he fell flat on his side. As the horse went down, Jack jumped, alighting on his feet, but staggering three or four steps before he recovered his balance. He had not let go his gun. He turned to look to see where the bear was, and as he did so, he saw, almost upon him, a huge mass of hair and gleaming white teeth, flying toward him. He had no time to think, hardly to move. He threw up his gun, fired, tried to jump back out of the way, but his heel caught; something struck him a violent blow, and he knew nothing more.

All this time, Joe, whose horse was slower, had fallen behind the others, whipping and kicking with his heels, trying to keep up. The charge of the bear at right angles to her course, had enabled him to gain quite a little bit, so that when the beast threw itself on Jack, he was but a few yards off. He flung himself to the ground, and rushing up close to the side of the bear, shot arrow after arrow into its heart, until all his shafts were gone. It did not leave its prey, and throwing away his bow, he drew his knife, sprang upon the bear and thrust the blade again and again into its body behind the shoulder. Still it did not move; there was no response, not even a quiver of the muscle, and suddenly Joe realised that the bear was dead. He sprang to its head and catching the beast by its great ears, dragged its head off Jack's face and breast and called aloud to Handsome Face, who by this time had returned, "Hurry, hurry, let us help him if we can." The boys managed to drag the bear off Jack, who presented a shocking spectacle. His head, breast and shoulders were covered with blood, but he was not quite dead, for they could see the breath from his nostrils bubbling through the blood. Pulling him up a little way from the bear, they began to feel of him to see whether he was hurt, but in a minute they both broke down. Joe cried bitterly, saying, "Oh! My friend, my friend. I have lost my friend," while Handsome Face began to sing a very melancholy song. It was a sad time for both boys.

Suddenly, as they were crying, Jack sat up and said, "What's the matter? Oh! I know." Both Indian boys sprang to their feet and stared at him, for a moment, and then Joe, throwing himself on his knees behind him, put his arms around Jack, gave him a great hug. "Oh!" he said, "you're not dead, I thought you were dead. Are you hurt? Did the bear strike you?"

"No," said Jack, "I guess there's nothing the matter with me, except that I feel stupid and my head aches."

Joe and Handsome Face now felt Jack all over and he seemed to be unhurt anywhere except that on the back of his head, there was a great bruise which was bleeding a little. The blood, on his head and breast, was that of the bear, and when they went to the body and looked at it, they found that by the merest accident in his shooting, Jack's life had been saved. The ball had struck the bear in the end of the nose and had passed up through the air passages into the brain, causing instant death. The animal had been so close to Jack when he shot, that death did not stop her advance, and the whole weight of her body thrown against Jack had knocked him violently to the ground; his head had struck a small stone and the blow had cut and stunned him. Except for a headache, he was as well as he had ever been.

Jack, for a little while, sat on the ground and nursed his aching head, while Handsome Face and Joe worked at the bear, taking off the skin. The two were very merry, and chattered and sang. Joe, in the exuberance of his spirits, made fun of Jack for having been thrown off his horse and knocked down by the bear, and altogether, was a very different Joe from the one who had been sobbing on the hillside only a few minutes before.