But it was easy enough to follow the early morning visitor to the cabin. After carrying the shote into the edge of the swamp, bruin had stopped and made a hasty meal upon the porker. Indeed the boys, who started on his trail scarcely two hours after the raid had been committed, undoubtedly disturbed him at his repast. The shote was not completely eaten when they found the bear’s breakfast-table. “It is a mighty big bear anyway,” Bryce declared, looking at the marks of the marauder’s feet. “He couldn’t have brought that pig so far if he hadn’t been.”
“He warn’t big enough for you to hit,” said Nuck, slyly.
“Huh! guess you can’t crow any,” responded the younger boy. “You missed him good and wide, too.”
They hurried on then, easily tracking the big, human-like spoor of the bear in the soil which here was not frozen. Indeed, in some places they “slumped in” rather deeply. The bear seemed to have picked out his path by instinct. But he could not hide his trail and before long the hunters came to a huge tree standing amid a clump of brush on the top of a hillock. The high ground was surrounded by water and rather hard to come at; but the boys were determined to get the bear after chasing it so far. They approached with caution, however, Enoch making Bryce remain in the rear.
“If I fire and don’t kill him you must be in reserve with your gun,” he whispered cautiously. “He’d be an ugly customer if he turned on us. He’s as big as a steer.”
“Huh! who’s afraid?” demanded Bryce.
“Jest you remember how father was killed,” Enoch said, gravely. “Who’d ha’ believed a bull-deer could kill an old hunter like him? You do as I say!”
So Bryce dropped behind and watched his brother crawl up the side of the hummock with infinite caution, parting the brush with the barrel of his rifle, which he held in readiness to use at any instant. Suddenly, from the heart of the brush clump, there sounded an angry growl. The bear was not to be taken unawares. And when a big bear growls in anger the sound is hair-raising to the uninitiated. Bryce felt a chill in the region of his spine and if his old cap did not actually rise off his head, it certainly felt as though it would. He was to one side of Nuck’s position so as not to get his brother between him and the bear should the creature come forth, and suddenly he saw the shaggy head and shoulders of the beast rise up over the brush. It looked enormous and when the bear opened its jaws, and displayed its great teeth and blood-red gums, it was indeed a fearsome spectacle.
“Shoot him! shoot him!” exclaimed Bryce, excitedly. But Nuck remained comparatively cool–at least, to all appearance. He stood up, too, with the rifle at his shoulder. The bear stretched wide his great fore-paws and plunged forward to seize the boy; but the rifle spoke and the smoke of the piece hid the creature for a moment.
When the cloud passed there was a great commotion in the brush, and Bryce saw that Nuck had darted back several paces and was rapidly loading his gun again. The younger boy could not see the bear; but it was badly wounded without doubt. The thrashing in the brush told that. Recovering his courage he pushed forward and finally saw the huge brown body on the ground, writhing in the muscular activity which follows death. The charge of Nuck’s rifle had reached a vital spot.