CHAPTER XVIII
A PILLAR OF FIRE
"Can you build a fire with one match?" asked Thede, after a shortsilence, during which the boys had been trying in vain to get ashot at the bears.
"Of course I can!" answered Sandy. "What's the good of goingthrough all those Boy Scout examinations, if a fellow can't build afire with one match? Of course I can build a fire with one match!"
"Can you build a fire with one match up in a tree?" asked Thede,with a suspicion of mirth in his voice.
"Of course I can!" answered Sandy.
"Up in a tree in the darkness, on a windy night?" asked Thede.
"If this thing is going to your head, you'd better drop down andmake a run for the camp!" advised Sandy.
"Honest, now," asked Thede, "can you make a fire with one match ina green tree, in a high wind, on a dark night?"
"Cut it out!" roared Sandy.
"Because if you can," Thede explained, "I think I can show you away out of this mess!"
"Well, go on and show it, then!"
"All you've got to do," Thede went on, "is to build a fire and dropthe burning brands down on top of the bears. That will bring themout into the light for a second or two, and perhaps we can dropthem with our automatics."
The boys heard the Indian moving softly about in the branches ofthe tree he had selected as a refuge, but paid little attention towhat he was doing. Afterwards, they discovered that he had droppedhis rifle at the foot of the tree, and was trying to secure it.
"Why did you say build a fire with one match?" asked Sandy. "Ialways carry a lot of matches," the boy added, feeling in hispocket.
"Find any?" asked Thede.
"Not a match!"
"I knew you wouldn't!" Thede said.
"How'd you happen to know so much?" grunted Sandy.
"Because," Thede replied, "I saw you feeling in your pocket for amatch and bring your fingers out empty while at the cabin. Thenyou went to a match box and laid a great heap of 'em on the table.I thought of it while we stood there, but it never occurred to meto tell you to stow them away."
"I remember now!" Sandy said regretfully.
"Well," Thede responded cheerfully, "I've got just one match. Iwonder if you can light a fire with that!"
"You just wait a minute and I'll tell you!" replied Sandy.
Thede heard him moving about over the limbs of the tree, his everymotion being punctuated by growls from below. Then came anexclamation of satisfaction from the darkness, and Thede heard theboy declaring that it was a dead tree they were in, and that therewas plenty of dry wood.
"All right, start your fire, then," suggested Thede, "and we'll seeif we can't burn the backs off some of those bears!"
"Perhaps we can break off enough dry limbs to make a rousing oldfire that will keep till morning," Sandy said in a moment. "Ifthis old tree is really dead to the heart, it'll make quite ablaze."
Sandy gathered a great handful of twigs not more than a couple ofinches in length and placed them in a sheltered position in the leeof the tree. Then he added dry boughs of larger size and madeready to use the precious match.
"Now you know what'll happen if that match goes out!" said Thede.
"This match," said Sandy confidently, "is not the kind of a matchthat goes out. I'd be a healthy old Boy Scout if I couldn't builda fire in the top of a tree with one match!"
The boy waited until there came a brief lull in the wind, then withthe match protected as much as possible by his hat he struck it.
The flame spluttered for an instant, died down, crawled around tothe windward side of the stick, crawled back again, and then flaredup gloriously. At first the dry twigs refused to ignite, butpresently one caught the blaze, then another, and directly Sandywas obliged to draw his face away from the growing heat.
"There!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Didn't I tell you I could doit?"
"You said you could," answered Thede, "but I didn't believe it!"
"Look here," Tommy said in a minute, sheltering his face from thesmoke. "First thing we know, we'll have this whole blooming treeon fire."
"If it gets good and hot, we can fry fish after the bears go away,"suggested Thede. "I'm hungry! By the way," he added with a grin,"where are those fish?"
"Do you think I brought 'em up in the tree?" demanded Sandy.
"You never left 'em down there?" asked Thede.
"Didn't I?" exclaimed Sandy. "What did you do with the ones youwere carrying?"
"Why," replied Thede, "I guess I left 'em in the thicket where westood when we made a hop-skip-and-jump for the tree."
"We certainly are a bright mess!" cried Sandy.
"Say," Thede said in a moment, "I'll just bet that's what kept thebears so still while we've been up here building the fire. They'vebeen eating our fish! That's why we couldn't get sight of them!"
"Can you see the bears now?" asked Sandy. "I'm sure I can't!"
"They're still back in there eating our trout!' wailed Thede.
"Unless you want a leg burned off," advised Sandy, "you'd betterwork around on another limb!"
"Aw, this limb is all right!" argued Thede.
The light from the fire now illuminated quite a little circlearound the tree, and the boys saw 0je sliding cautiously down thetrunk of the tree where he had taken refuge.
"He's after his gun!" declared Sandy. "Just watch out and you'llsee him get one of those bears!"
Oje certainly was after his rifle, for he slid down cautiously,keeping the bole of the tree between himself and the bears.
Much to the surprise of the lads, the Indian did not again climbinto the shelter of the branches. Instead, he stood peering aroundthe trunk of the tree as if waiting for the wild animals to maketheir appearance. The flame blazed higher and higher and the boysbegan to feel uncomfortable.
"I'll bet there ain't any bears here!" Sandy exclaimed after amoment's silence. "I guess we run away from a rabbit!"
"I guess we didn't!" insisted Thede.
The boy's opinion was verified a moment later by the appearance ofthree shambling figures in the lighted zone. The bear is noted forhis curiosity, and the boys realized, too, that the feast of fishmust have been devoured.
"We might have sneaked away while they were eating that finesupper!" Sandy said, in a tone of disgust. "I think we ought tohave medals made out of a cow's ear! That would be a good medal,wouldn't it, for boys who showed such courage in the face of theenemy?"
"Never you mind!" Thede answered. "I guess the bears are next totheir job. We wouldn't have gone far before they'd been after us."
As the bears appeared in the light of the fire, now blazingfiercely and fast climbing from one dry limb to another, the ladssaw the Indian raise his rifle to his shoulder and fire.
Instead of taking to their legs, the bears grouped themselvesaround their fallen mate and snarled savagely up into the tree.
"Oje will get another one in a minute," Thede ventured, overjoyedat the success of the first shot, "and then we can open fire withour automatics."
"Holy Moses!" cried Sandy. "Here we've been sitting here watchingthe panorama with our guns in our pockets! I guess we don't knowmuch about hunting bears, when it comes down to cases."
"Well, it isn't too late to shoot yet," Thede declared.
"It's getting pretty hot here, anyhow," said Sandy, "and we'll haveto drop in a minute, whether we shoot or not. This old tree seemsto be as dry as tinder!"
"Yes," Thede agreed, "I guess you started something when you madesuch good use of that one match."
The boys moved about on the limb in order to get at theirautomatics. They noted then, for the first time, that the perchupon which they rested was burning close to the trunk. They calledout to each other, almost simultaneously, to shift to the trunk ofthe tree.
But it was too late. They felt themselves swinging through, theair, and the next moment there was such a mixture of boy and bearat the bottom of the tree as has rarely been seen in the
BritishTerritories.
Both boys landed squarely on the back of one of the animals. Ofcourse, they rolled to the ground instantly and grabbed for theirautomatics, but their movements were no quicker than those of theastonished bear.
"Woof!" he said. "Woof!"
Translated into boy-talk, this read "Good-night!" and a secondlater they heard both bears tramping through the forest as ifpursued by a pack of hounds.
"What do you know about that?" demanded Tommy.
Without replying, Thede scrambled to his feet and dashed into thethicket where he had left the fish. He returned in a moment with awoeful face which set his chum into roars of laughter.
"They ate our fish!" he said,
"What'd you think they'd do with them?" demanded Sandy. "Did youthink they'd put 'em in cold storage and keep 'em for next summer?"
"What I'm sobbing about," Thede went on, "is that the bearscertainly made a monkey of me. They weren't after us. They wereafter the fish!"
"Well, they got the fish, didn't they?" asked Sandy.
"And we might have been on our way while they were devouring them!"wailed Thede.
The tree was now virtually a pillar of fire, and the boys moved outfrom under it. They found the Indian standing, stolid andindifferent, just out of the circle of light.
"Just think of all that funny thing happening and he never seeingany humor in it!" exclaimed Sandy.
The Indian lifted his hand for silence, and pointed off toward thehills. Then, motioning the boys to follow him, he led the way intoa thicket and crouched down.
Directly the panting and puffing of a man exhausted from a longrun, was heard, and the familiar figure of Antoine dashed into thecircle of light! He glared about for a moment and then droppeddown on the snow, evidently completely exhausted.
Boy Scouts in Northern Wilds; Or, The Signal from the Hills Page 16