Before long the two boys had the bear skinned, and loaded on one of the horses. Then Handsome Face and Joe went back to the ridge where they had left the deer, put them on the horses and returning to Jack, the party started for the village. No one seemed to know what had become of the two bear cubs. During the excitement that attended the chase of the mother, the little fellows had disappeared. Handsome Face said that Pawnee had no sooner struck the ground than he had bounded to his feet again and had done this so quickly that he had got out of the bear's way.
Just as they reached the prairie, they heard shouts behind them, and looking back, saw Bull Calf and The Mink galloping toward them, each with a load behind him on his horse. When they came up, it was seen that Bull Calf had a young bear and The Mink a deer and when their stories had been told by both parties, it was learned that this little bear had run over the ridge and down toward the Indian boys who were coming down the mountain, and they had chased it and killed it with their arrows. Certainly, this had been a lucky hunt; four deer and two bears for five boys!
At a little brook, they crossed on their homeward way, Jack dismounted and washed from himself as much blood of the bear as he could, and after that felt much more comfortable, so that before camp was reached, though his head still ached badly, he felt quite like himself again.
That night, in the lodge, when he told Hugh the story of the day, the old man found fault with him for carelessness and bad judgment.
"You hadn't never ought to ride close beside any man that's trying to kill on horse-back. If it's buffalo or bear, it's all the same. If he has to turn off quick, he'll either ride into you or right ahead of you and get in your way. Besides that, you can't shoot at anything if a man is between you and the game, and yet you're riding along side of him with a loaded gun, likely as not pointing right at him, and if you're anyway careless, you're likely to pull it off and maybe kill him. There ain't no game that it's worth taking them risks for. Just as soon as you found that your horse was not good enough to pass the boy's, you ought to have fell behind and waited; you might know that that bear wouldn't be killed by an arrow, and that your chance would come. Of course, there have been times when bears have been killed by arrows, old Pis'kun, here, killed a big grizzly once that way, but a thing like that don't happen once in a dog's age; that's one reason why Indians are so afraid of bears.
"In the old times, when they had nothing but arrows, they couldn't kill bears at all, and lots of men that tried it got killed off. It's only since the Indians got some good guns, that they have killed any bears to amount to anything."
"Well, Hugh, I see now, since you explained it to me, that I was pretty stupid, but I didn't think about any of these things," said Jack.
"No, I don't reckon you did. You are a boy of course, and boys have a kind of habit of not thinking, but just running in and doing things, and not figuring on what may happen afterward. I'm mighty glad I wasn't with you, for I reckon if I had been, I'd a been scared a plenty."
"Well, but then, if you had been with us I guess it wouldn't have happened. You'd probably have called out to me and I'd have likely done what you said."