[XIII.]
WHILE this despatch is speeding after the baron, we shall take the liberty of proceeding ourselves to Bœtsoi’s chalet, where the brave danneman wanted to carry Christian off with him with no other arms than a cord and an iron-shod stick.
“Wait!” cried the major; “our friend must be equipped and armed. Your boar-spear is not to be despised, Master Joë, but a good Norwegian cutlass will do more execution, and a good gun will not be superfluous.”
Yielding to the entreaties of the major and the lieutenant, Christian put on a reindeer skin coat and felt boots, the latter without either soles or seams, and having the advantage of never slipping on the ice, and of being impenetrable to the cold. Then, after arming and supplying him with powder and balls, Christian’s friends put a fur cap on his head, and proceeded to draw lots for their places in the hunt.
“I have number 1!” cried the major, in great exultation; “so it is I who am to yield my place to Christian, and to take my stand a hundred steps behind him; the lieutenant will be on my left, and the corporal on my right, at a distance, also, of a hundred steps on each side. Now then, start, and count your steps; when you have counted a hundred, make us a sign, and we will follow.”
Everything being thus regulated, the danneman and Christian began the march, and the others followed, observing the distances agreed upon. Christian was astonished to see them adopt this order of battle from the very moment of departure.
“Is the bear so near,” he asked of his guide, “that we should not have time enough ten times over to take our proper positions on approaching his den?”
“The wicked one is very near,” replied the danneman. “No one of them has ever taken up his winter quarters before, so near my house. I was so far from suspecting his presence, that I have passed a dozen times almost over his hole, without supposing that I had such a handsome neighbor.”
“Our bear is handsome, then?”
“He is one of the largest I have ever seen. But begin and talk low; he has very good ears, and, in less than a quarter of an hour, he will hear every word we say.”