Then he steadied. Bob might not be dead after all. He laid his ear over his heart and the next moment he gave a great cry of joy. He was alive! His heart was beating regularly albeit somewhat faintly. And now Jack was himself again. The past hour seemed like some horrid nightmare. Quickly he unscrewed the top from his canteen and soaking his handkerchief with the water he laid it on Bob’s forehead. Then he began chafing his wrists. In a short time he noticed a slight flutter of the eyelids and as he quickly wet the cloth again and again placed it on his head the eyes slowly opened.
“Jack.”
It was but a faint whisper, but it put new life into the boy who heard it.
“Dear boy, thank God you’re alive.”
“But the bear?” Bob whispered. “He was right on me.”
“And he still is, but he’s dead. Just a minute and I’ll roll him off.”
Only the bear’s head was on Bob’s legs but even so it took all the strength Jack could muster to swing it off.
“There now let’s see if we can get that trap off,” he said as he knelt down to examine it.
He saw that Bob’s leg was badly swollen and he greatly feared that the bone was broken. But he said nothing of this to Bob.
It takes a strong man to open the jaws of a bear trap and probably not one man in a hundred could do it while the trap was closed on his own leg. But, as he afterward told Bob, Jack knew that it had to be done and he did it. Necessity must have lent him strength for he tried it again later, and although he exerted all the strength he could muster, he could not spring the strong jaws apart.