Some twenty paces from that solitary2 boot-print which marked the end of Black Dan's trail, Jim was set free from his litter and his attention directed to a bruised3 tuft of moss4.
"Seek him," said Blackstock.
The dog gave one sniff5, and then with a growl6 of anger the hair lifted along his back, and he limped forward hurriedly.
"He's got it in for Black Dan now," remarked MacDonald. And the whole party followed with hopeful expectation, so great was their faith in Jim's sagacity.
The dog, in his haste, overshot the end of the trail. He stopped abruptly8, whined9, sniffed10 about, and came back to the deep boot-print. All about it he circled, whimpering with impatience11, but never going more than a dozen feet away from it. Then he returned, sniffed long and earnestly, and stood over it with drooping12 tail, evidently quite nonplussed13.
"Oh, give him time, Long," retorted Blackstock. Then——
"Seek him! Seek him, good boy," he repeated, waving Jim to the front.
Running with amazing briskness16 on his three sound legs, the dog began to quarter the undergrowth in ever-widening half-circles, while the men stood waiting and watching. At last, at a distance of several hundred yards, he gave a yelp17 and a growl, and sprang forward.
"Got it!" exclaimed Big Andy.
"Guess it's only the trail o' that there b'ar he's struck," suggested Jackson pessimistically.
"Jim, stop!" ordered Blackstock. And the dog stood rigid18 in his tracks while Blackstock hastened forward to see what he had found.
"Sure enough. It's only the bear," cried Blackstock, investigating the great footprint over which Jim was standing19. "Come along back here, Jim, an' don't go foolin' away yer time over a bear, jest now."
The dog sniffed at the trail, gave another hostile growl, and reluctantly followed his master back. Blackstock made him smell the boot-print again. Then he said with emphasis, "Black Dan, Jim, it's Black Dan we're wantin'. Seek him, boy. Fetch him."
Jim started off on the same manoeuvres as before, and at the same point as before he again gave a growl and a yelp and bounded forward.
"Jim," shouted the Deputy angrily, "come back here."
The dog came limping back, looking puzzled.
"What do you mean by that foolin'?" went on his master severely21. "What's bears to you? Smell that!" and he pointed15 again to the boot-print. "It's Black Dan you're after."
Jim hung upon his words, but looked hopelessly at sea as to his meaning. He turned and gazed wistfully in the direction of the bear's trail. He seemed on the point of starting out for it again, but the tone of Blackstock's rebuke22 withheld23 him. Finally, he sat down upon his dejected tail and stared upwards24 into a great tree, one of whose lower branches stretched directly over his head.
Blackstock followed his gaze. The tree was an ancient rock maple25, its branches large but comparatively few in number. Blackstock could see clear to its top. It was obvious that the tree could afford no hiding-place to anything larger than a wild-cat. Nevertheless, as Blackstock studied it, a gleam of sudden insight passed over his face.
"Jim 'pears to think Black Dan's gone to Heaven," remarked Saunders drily.
"Ye can't always tell what Jim's thinkin'," retorted Blackstock. "But I'll bet it's a clever idea he's got in his black head, whatever it is."
He scanned the tree anew and the other trees nearest whose branches interlaced with it. Then, with a sharp "Come on, Jim," he started towards the knoll26, eyeing the branches overhead as he went. The rest of the party followed at a discreet27 distance.
Crippled as he was, Jim could not climb the steep face of the knoll, but his master helped him up. The instant he entered the cave he growled28 savagely29, and once more the stiff hair rose along his back. Blackstock watched in silence for a moment. He had never before noticed, on Jim's part, any special hostility30 toward bears, whom he was quite accustomed to trailing. He glanced up at the big branch that overhung the entrance, and conviction settled on his face. Then he whispered, sharply, "Seek him, Jim." And Jim set off at once, as fast as he could limp, along the trail of the bear.
"Come on, boys," called Blackstock to his posse. "Ef we can't find Black Dan we may as well hev a little bear-hunt to fill in the time. Jim appears to hev a partic'lar grudge31 agin that bear."
The men closed up eagerly, expecting to find that Blackstock, with Jim's help, had at last discovered some real signs of Black Dan. When they saw that there was still nothing more than that old bear's trail, which they had already examined, Long Jackson began to grumble32.
"I guess Tug ain't no keener after bear this day than you be," commented MacDonald. "He's got somethin' up his sleeve, you see!"
"Mebbe it's a tame b'ar, a trained b'ar, an' Black Dan's a-ridin' him horseback," suggested Big Andy.
Blackstock, who was close at Jim's heels, a few paces ahead of the rest, turned with one of his rare, ruminative33 laughs.
"That's quite an idea of yours, Andy," he remarked, stooping to examine one of those great clawed footprints in a patch of soft soil.
"But even trained b'ar hain't got wings," commented MacDonald again. "An' there's a good three hundred yards atween the spot where Black Dan's trail peters out an' the nearest b'ar track. I guess yer interestin' hipotheesis don't quite fill the bill—eh, Andy?"
"Anyways," protested the big Oromocto man, "ye'll all notice one thing queer about this here b'ar track. It goes straight. Mostly a b'ar will go wanderin' off this way an' that, to nose at an old root, er grub up a bed o' toadstools. But this b'ar keeps right on, as ef he had important business somewhere straight ahead. That's just the way he'd go ef some one was a-ridin' him horseback."
Andy had advanced his proposition as a joke, but now he was inclined to take it seriously and to defend it with warmth.
"Well," said Long Jackson, "we'll all chip in, when we git our money back, an' buy ye a bear, Andy, an' ye shall ride it up every day from the mills to the post office. It'll save ye quite a few minutes in gittin' to the post office. It don't matter about yer gittin' away."
The big Oromocto lad blushed, but laughed good-naturedly. He was so much in love with the little widow who kept the post office that nothing pleased him more than to be teased about her.
For the Deputy's trained eyes, as for Jim's trained nose, that bear-track was an easy one to follow. Nevertheless, progress was slow, for Blackstock would halt from time to time to interrogate34 some claw-print with special minuteness, and from time to time Jim would stop to lie down and lick gingerly at his bandage, tormented35 by the aching of his wound.
Late in the afternoon, when the level shadows were black upon the trail and the trailing had come to depend entirely36 on Jim's nose, Blackstock called a halt on the banks of a small brook37 and all sat down to eat their bread and cheese. Then they sprawled38 about, smoking, for the Deputy, apparently39 regarding the chase as a long one, was now in no great hurry. Jim lay on the wet sand, close to the brook's edge, while Blackstock, scooping40 up the water in double handfuls, let it fall in an icy stream on the dog's bandaged leg.
"Hev ye got any reel idee to come an' go on, Tug?" demanded Long Jackson at last, blowing a long, slow jet of smoke from his lips, and watching it spiral upwards across a bar of light just over his head.
"I hev," said Blackstock.
"An' air ye sure it's a good one—good enough to drag us 'way out here on?" persisted Jackson.
"I'm bankin' on it," answered Blackstock.
"An' so's Jim, I'm thinkin'," suggested MacDonald, tentatively.
"Jim's idee an' mine ain't the same, exackly," vouchsafed41 Blackstock, after a pause, "but I guess they'll come to the same thing in the end. They're fittin' in with each other fine, so fur!"
"What'll ye bet that ye're not mistaken, the both o' yez?" demanded Jackson.
Long looked satisfied. He knocked the ashes out of his pipe and proceeded to refill it.
"Oh, ef ye're so sure as that, Tug," he drawled, "I guess I ain't takin' any this time."
For a couple of hours after sunset the party continued to follow the trail, depending now entirely upon Jim's leadership. The dog, revived by his rest and his master's cold-water treatment, limped forward at a good pace, growling43 from time to time as a fresh pang44 in his wound reminded him anew of his enemy.
"How Jim 'pears to hate that bear!" remarked Big Andy once.
"He does that!" agreed Blackstock. "An' he's goin' to git his own back, too, I'm thinkin', afore long."
Presently the moon rose round and yellow through the tree-tops, and the going became less laborious45. Jim seemed untiring now. He pressed on so eagerly that Blackstock concluded the object of his vindictive46 pursuit, whatever it was, must be now not far ahead.
Another hour, and the party came out suddenly upon the bank of a small pond. Jim, his nose to earth, started to lead the way around it, towards the left. But Blackstock stopped him, and halted his party in the dense47 shadows.
The opposite shore was in the full glare of the moonlight. There, close to the water's edge, stood a little log hut, every detail of it standing out as clearly as in daylight. It was obviously old, but the roof had been repaired with new bark and poles and the door was shut, instead of sagging48 half open on broken hinges after the fashion of the doors of deserted49 cabins.
"I'm thinkin', boys, we'll git some information yonder about that bear, ef we go the right way about inquirin'. Now, Saunders, you go round the pond to the right and steal up alongshore, through the bushes, to within forty paces of the hut. You, Mac, an' Big Andy, you two go round same way, but git well back into the timber, and come up behind the hut to within about the same distance. There'll be a winder on that side, likely.
"When ye're in position give the call o' the big horned owl7, not too loud. An' when I answer with the same call twice, then close in. But keep a good-sized tree atween you an' the winder, for ye never know what a bear kin do when he's trained. I'll bet Big Andy's seen bears that could shoulder a gun like a man! So look out for yourselves. Long an' Jim an' me, we'll follow the trail o' the bear right round this end o' the pond—an' ef I'm not mistaken it'll lead us right up to the door o' that there hut. Some bears hev a taste in regard to where they sleep."
As noiselessly as shadows the party melted away in opposite directions.
The pond lay smooth as glass under the flooding moonlight, reflecting a pale star or two where the moon-path grudgingly51 gave it space.
After some fifteen minutes a lazy, muffled52 hooting53 floated across the pond. Five minutes later the same call, the very voice of the wilderness54 at midnight, came from the deep of the woods behind the hut.
Blackstock, with Jackson close behind him and Jim pulling eagerly on the leash, was now within twenty yards of the hut door, but hidden behind a thick young fir tree. He breathed the call of the horned owl—a mellow55, musical call, which nevertheless brings terror to all the small creatures of the wilderness—and then, after a pause, repeated it softly.
He waited for a couple of minutes motionless. His keen ears caught the snapping of a twig56 close behind the hut.
"Big Andy's big feet that time," he muttered to himself. "That boy'll never be much good on the trail."
Then, leaving Jim to the care of Jackson, he slipped forward to another and bigger tree not more than a dozen paces from the cabin. Standing close in the shadow of the trunk, and drawing his revolver, he called sharply as a gun-shot—"Dan Black."
"Dan Black," repeated the Deputy, "the game's up. I've got ye surrounded. Will ye come out quietly an' give yerself up, or do ye want trouble?"
"Waal, no, I guess I don't want no more trouble," drawled a cool voice from within the hut. "I guess I've got enough o' my own already. I'll come out, Tug."
With a roar Jim sprang out from behind the fir tree, dragging Long Jackson with him by the sudden violence of his rush.
"Down, Jim, down!" ordered Blackstock. "Lay down an' shut up." And Jim, grumbling59 in his throat, allowed Jackson to pull him back by the collar.
Blackstock advanced and clicked the handcuffs on to Black Dan's wrists. Then he took the revolver and knife from the prisoner's belt, and motioned him back into the hut.
"Bein' pretty late now," said Blackstock, "I guess we'll accept yer hospitality for the rest o' the night."
"Right ye are, Tug," assented60 Dan. "Ye'll find tea an' merlasses, an' a bite o' bacon in the cupboard yonder."
As the rest of the party came in Black Dan nodded to them cordially, a greeting which they returned with more or less sheepish grins.
"Excuse me ef I don't shake hands with ye, boys," said he, "but Tug here says the state o' me health makes it bad for me to use me arms." And he held up the handcuffs.
"No apologies needed," said MacDonald.
Last of all came in Long Jackson, with Jim. Blackstock slipped the leash, and the dog lay down in a corner, as far from the prisoner as he could get.
In a few minutes the whole party were sitting about the tiny stove, drinking boiled tea and munching61 crackers62 and molasses—the prisoner joining in the feast as well as his manacled hands would permit. At length, with his mouth full of cracker63, the Deputy remarked:
"That was clever of ye, Dan—durn' clever. I didn't know it was in ye."
"Not half so clever as you seein' through it the way you did, Tug," responded the prisoner handsomely.
"But darned ef I see through it now," protested Big Andy in a plaintive64 voice. "It's just about as clear as mud to me. Where's your wings, Dan? An' where in tarnation is that b'ar?"
The prisoner laughed triumphantly65. Long Jackson and the others looked relieved, the Oromocto man having propounded66 the question which they had been ashamed to ask.
"It's jest this way," explained Blackstock. "When we'd puzzled Jim yonder—an' he was puzzled at us bein' such fools—ye'll recollect67 he sat down on his tail by that boot-print, an' tried to work out what we wanted of him. I was tellin' him to seek Black Dan, an' yet I was callin' him back off that there bear-track. He could smell Black Dan in the bear-track, but we couldn't. So we was doin' the best we could to mix him up.
"Well, he looked up into the big maple overhead. Then I saw where Black Dan had gone to. He'd jumped (that's why the boot-print was so heavy), an' caught that there branch, an' swung himself up into the tree. Then he worked his way along from tree to tree till he come to the cave. I saw by the way Jim took on in the cave that Black Dan had been there all right. For Jim hain't got no special grudge agin bear. Says I to myself, ef Jim smells Black Dan in that bear trail, then Black Dan must be in it, that's all!
"Then it comes over me that I'd once seen a big bear-skin in Dan's room at the Mills, an' as the picture of it come up agin in my mind, I noticed how the fore-paws and legs of it were missin'. With that I looked agin at the trail, as we went along Jim an' me. An' sure enough, in all them tracks there wasn't one print of a hind-paw. They were all fore-paws. Smart, very smart o' Dan, says I to myself. Let's see them ingenious socks o' yours, Dan."
"They're in the top bunk yonder," said Black Dan, with a weary air. "An' my belt and pouch68, containin' the other stuff, that's all in the bunk, too. I may's well save ye the trouble o' lookin' for it, as ye'd find it anyways. I was sure ye'd never succeed in trackin' me down, so I didn't bother to hide it. An' I see now ye wouldn't 'a' got me, Tug, ef it hadn't 'a' been fer Jim. That's where I made the mistake o' my life, not stoppin' to make sure I'd done Jim up."
"No, Dan," said Blackstock, "ye're wrong there. Ef you'd done Jim up I'd have caught ye jest the same, in the long run, fer I'd never have quit the trail till I did git ye. An' when I got ye—well, I'd hev forgot myself, mebbe, an' only remembered that ye'd killed my best friend. Ef ye'd had as many lives as a cat, Dan, they wouldn't hev been enough to pay fer that dawg."
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1
skilfully
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| adv. (美skillfully)熟练地 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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sniff
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| vi.嗅…味道；抽鼻涕；对嗤之以鼻，蔑视 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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12
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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13
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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15
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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briskness
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| n.敏捷，活泼 | |
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yelp
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| vi.狗吠 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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withheld
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| withhold过去式及过去分词 | |
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upwards
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| adv.向上，在更高处...以上 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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knoll
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| n.小山，小丘 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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grumble
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| vi.抱怨；咕哝；n.抱怨，牢骚；咕哝，隆隆声 | |
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ruminative
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| adj.沉思的，默想的，爱反复思考的 | |
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interrogate
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| vt.讯问，审问，盘问 | |
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tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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sprawled
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| v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的过去式和过去分词)；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着） | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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scooping
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| n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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41
vouchsafed
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| v.给予，赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 )；允诺 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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growling
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| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
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44
pang
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| n.剧痛，悲痛，苦闷 | |
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45
laborious
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| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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47
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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48
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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50
leash
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| n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住 | |
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grudgingly
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52
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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53
hooting
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| （使）作汽笛声响，作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 )； 倒好儿； 倒彩 | |
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54
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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55
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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56
twig
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| n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解 | |
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57
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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58
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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grumbling
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| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
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60
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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61
munching
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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62
crackers
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| adj.精神错乱的，癫狂的n.爆竹( cracker的名词复数 )；薄脆饼干；（认为）十分愉快的事；迷人的姑娘 | |
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63
cracker
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| n.（无甜味的）薄脆饼干 | |
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64
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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65
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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66
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67
recollect
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| v.回忆，想起，记起，忆起，记得 | |
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pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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