“They’re ugly fellers, an’ mighty scarce raound these parts. The trappers north of here call ’em Mount St. Elias b’ars, because there’s more of ’em there. The pelt’s wuth double a black b’ar’s. It’ll be great luck ef we find one.”
This whole conversation was carried on in an undertone, and without further noise or delay, the party pushed on.
At the end of half an hour’s forced march they found themselves on a sort of level tableland, at a great elevation above the sea. Here and there were patches of snow, and small glaciers could be distinctly seen on distant mountain slopes, toward the east and north.
The scene near at hand was utterly desolate and forbidding. The bear path, too, had “ended in a squirrel track and run up a tree,” Tom declared. He was on the point of proposing a halt for a rest, if not for the night, when he caught sight of a grayish patch in a clump of low spruces about a hundred yards distant. He was sure it had moved while he was looking. His heart beat violently as he gave a low whistle to attract Baranov’s attention.
The guide’s eye no sooner rested on the object than he sank as if he had been shot. The boys did the same, and cautiously crawled to his side.
“Slip a cartridge into that rifle quick,” he whispered to Fred. “That’s old Silver Tip, sure, an’ ef we work it jest right, we can drop him. Naow don’t you move for five minutes. Before long, you’ll see him start this way. When he gets up to that rock over thar between them two leetle spruces, Tom, you let drive. Don’t you fire, Fred, till Tom gets another cartridge in. An’ ef you miss him, run fer your lives.”
Before the boys could ask where he was going or what his plans were, the old hunter had disappeared in the undergrowth, taking his ax with him.
The wind was blowing freshly from Bruin toward them. In the course of a few minutes, which seemed hours, they saw the animal push his snout out from the boughs and sniff the air curiously. There was a strange scent, he thought, lingering about this mountain-top. What could it be?
Whatever its nature, it evidently acted like the reverse end of the magnet to the shaggy beast; for after a moment’s uneasy moving about, he started off in a line which would carry him very near the ambushed hunters.