CHAPTER IX
FATHER BEAR VISITS THE CAMP
THE following morning after his return from the cave, Mike started off to inspect his traps. He rather suspected that the old father bear had deserted the mother and cubs and wandered over the mountain in another direction and possibly been trapped by some hunter. If such was not the case, he might have come upon his mate's tracks and followed her to the trap. In that case he might have been trapped as his mate was. There was still another thought which came to Mike, but he disliked dwelling on it: the bear might scent the man who stole the babies and follow him. Mike knew of cases where a mother bear had followed her cubs for miles and miles and then fought with the thief.
Therefore, Mike was very observing as he crept through the woods and started through the glade where the trap was set. He saw tracks, which had been recently made, all over the soft top ground, for the thaw had melted the snow that bore the she-bear's tracks and soaked the ground enough to soften it for half an inch into the frost; here were plainly seen the marks of great paws as they trampled the area about the trap, but never came near enough to be caught.
But there was no sign of a bear about. Looking very carefully from right to left, Mike started back to camp, prepared at the first sound or sign to shoot.
Mike had almost reached the camp when he heard shouts and cries of terror. He ran as fast as he could, and found the women and Babs in the dining-room with doors closed, shouting directions from a partially opened window. Cookee was at the window of his kitchen waving a pail of boiling water about. The older children were shut in the office with faces pressed close against the panes of glass, but Don and Dot were in his own cabin which had but one small pane of glass let in the front of the door. The door was closed, but a ponderous shaggy bear stood snuffling at the crack at the bottom, and uttering, ever and again, the most terrifying growls.
The people had sought safety wherever they had been caught at the time the bear marched into the clearing, after following the scent of his dead mate's body. With nose to the ground he must have been on his way toward the little shed where the she-bear hung, when a new scent greeted his nose. He made for Mike's cabin and began to realize that his children were in there.
Immediately he tore at the wood and demanded in stern tones to be admitted.
Don and Dot, looking at each other in dismay, peeped out of the window to behold that most appalling hulk standing at the door!