Bang!
There was a quick report, as though some one had slapped two boards together. The bear, stung with a pain more violent than any bee sting, sprang back with a grunt of outraged dignity—sprang back, and, howling in rage, fled ignominiously down the mountain, with his astounded companion tumbling after!
There was deep silence on the ledge. Open-mouthed, the boys watched the lumbering animals disappear in the foliage at the foot of the incline, and the crackling of the brush and the waving of twigs testified that their speed was as yet undiminished—they were still going, and going fast.
Teddy blinked rapidly. Bending over, he felt with his hand of several places on the rocky floor of the shelf. Finally he found one to his liking. Then he sank blissfully down, rolled over on his back, and the next moment the hills echoed with the laughter of two boys lying on a narrow ledge high up in the mountains.
“The—the poor thing was scared!” Roy spluttered, as soon as he got his breath. “He tried—oh, golly—he tried to commit suicide! Baby! I never expect to see a sight like that again! Teddy, if you had only seen him—seen the expression on his face when the gun went off! He grabbed the barrel, pointed it at his chest, and pulled the trigger! Honestly! Then he looked so gosh-blamed surprised and disappointed, and—and—Hold me, Teddy, or I’ll bust!”
“I saw most of it,” Teddy declared, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. “The best part of it all was to see those two hopping down the mountain like a couple of silly cows—or like rocking horses out on a spree! Man, that was one sweet show! Say, I’ll bet the one who shot himself won’t sleep to-night. Or, if he does, he’ll have bad dreams. Imagine a bear shooting himself! Won’t Pop Burns like to hear about this!”
“Yes, but will he believe it?” Roy asked dubiously. “Pop likes to tell ’em, but when it comes to listening—that’s another thing.”
“Well, anyway, this beats his story about the bear eating Nick’s pants.”
“I’ll tell a maverick it does! And we know this is true, while that other—well, I have me ‘doots.’ Come on, we’d better go now. We’ve got to find your gun before we start home. Here—you slide down first then grab me. I’ll bet Star and Flash are getting restless by now. Neither one has been ridden much lately. All right—over you go. There’ll be no bear to welcome you with open arms, either, thank goodness. The party is over!”
Still chuckling, the two boys, after finding the two guns where they had been dropped, made their way down the mountain toward the ponies. Star and Flash whinnied as they came up and pranced about ecstatically the moment the boys were in the saddle. The love Teddy and Roy had for their broncos was not unreciprocated.