With Boone on the frontier

“Oh, Harmony, the boys are coming back!”

“So I see, Cora. What is that they are dragging on the snow behind them?”

“Some game, I suppose. Mrs. Parsons, can you make it out?”

The Quakeress gave a long look.

“It looks to me as if ’twere a bear,” she answered slowly. “But we shall soon know for certain, girls, so be patient.”

Throwing on their capes and hoods, Cora and Harmony rushed out of the log cabin, and to the end of the path that had been shoveled through the snow.

“It is a bear!” cried Harmony.

“And a big one, too!” put in her sister.

When the young pioneers reached the girls they were all but exhausted over the long, hard pull.

“Oh, Joe, what a splendid success!” ejaculated Harmony. “Who brought him down?”

“Both of us,” answered the brother. “And we had a hard time of it, too, I can tell you. We hunted the bear and then he hunted us, and we might not have had him at all only he got stuck fast between the rocks.”

The youths decided to bring the bear directly up to the cabin door. Here Mrs. Parsons came out with a torch, for it was now dark.

“Thee has done well, my son,” said she. “And thee, too, Joseph. ’Twill give us meat for many a long day to come.”

“And what a splendid robe the bear-skin will make,” came from Harmony.

The boys were too tired to skin and cut up the bear that night, so the game was hauled into the cabin, and placed in the coldest corner the building boasted. Then all the others bustled about to get the young hunters a substantial supper.

And how good that meal tasted! It was well enough to camp in the open, but nothing at all compared to what Mrs. Parsons and the girls were able to set before them. They ate and ate, and in the meantime told of their several adventures.

It was well for the lads that they were under a roof that night, for with the setting of the sun the temperature began to drop steadily until the night became one of the coldest Kentucky had ever experienced. The wind arose and hummed, and shrieked through the trees of the forest so that sound sleeping was almost out of the question.

“Had we remained in the woods we would have been frozen to death,” said Joe, and Harry agreed with him.

Fortunately the bitter cold spell did not last over forty-eight hours, and on the third day the sun came out as bright and warm as ever.

“We must get out to-day for those deer,” said Joe. “If we don’t go soon some wild animals will get at them sure.”

The high winds had swept the rocks free of all loose snow, so traveling was not as difficult as it had been. They went again on snowshoes, and took their firearms as before.

“As we are not after any big game we can now shoot anything that strikes our fancy,” said Joe, and on the way bagged several rabbits and a wild turkey, while Harry knocked over several ruffled grouse, or pheasants.

“Not a bad haul in itself,” said Joe, when their game bags were fairly stuffed with their quarry. “Counting these, and the deer, and the bear, I reckon we have done as well as many older hunters could do.”

On and on they went until, about noon, they came to the patch of forest in which they had formerly camped.

“Here are some fresh tracks!” cried Harry, presently. “Some hunter has been around here, either this morning or yesterday.”

“I don’t see anybody,” answered his companion, after a long look around.

“Nor do I.”

“Hope our deer are safe,” went on Joe, suddenly, remembering the trouble they had had with Yellow Blanket.

They pushed on and soon reached the site of the former camp. The two deer hung as they had left them, and the boys drew a long sigh of relief.

“We got scared over nothing,” was Harry’s comment.

“But those tracks were there!”

“Oh, yes, plain enough.”

“Then the hunter must have turned in some other direction.”

“Yes; I couldn’t see the trail after passing over yonder rocks.”

The tree branches were thick in this vicinity, so that the boys could see but little of what was above them. They set to work without delay, and soon one deer was lowered to the ground and then the other. Then two drags were cut down and the game was tied fast with ropes.

“Now for dinner and then for home,” said Joe. “By the time we get back I reckon we’ll be as tired as we was when we hauled in the bear.”

The young pioneers had brought along some cooked food, so they did not bother with starting up a fire. The tramp had kept them warm, and they sat down on some rocks to eat their midday meal.

While they were eating they did not notice a dark form circling about them and drawing closer and closer with every step. Yet such was the fact, and the form was that of a brownish-black wolverene.

It may be remarked here that the wolverene, often known by the name of glutton, is one of the wildest and fiercest beasts ever met with in any North American forest. It is similar to a small bear in appearance, but has a larger mouth and teeth and larger and sharper claws. It is a great lover of raw meat, and will fight sometimes to the bitter end to obtain what it desires. It has an especial fondness for the meat of the deer and the beaver.

This wolverene had scented the two deer in the tree the day before and all night long and during the morning it had tried to get at the meat, but could not, on account of the swinging ropes. Now it saw the game lying on the drags, and the young hunters several yards away, and it was meditating a leap forward in an effort to secure at least part of the longed-for prey.

Nearer and nearer came the beast, its eyes gleaming wickedly and its cruel jaws working convulsively. It crawled on the ground with the stealthiness of a panther.

When it was less than twenty feet away, Harry suddenly arose and walked toward the game, to examine the deer heads, to see if they would be worth preserving.

The wolverene saw the movement and its hopes of getting at the coveted prey sank. Then it grew furious at the advance of the young hunter and crouched still lower, with the intention of leaping straight for Harry’s throat.

All unconscious of his danger, Harry turned around, and then for the first time saw what he was facing. At the same instant the tail of the wolverene gave a swish, and the beast rose high into the air as it leaped for Harry’s throat.

But the wolverene never landed as expected. While it was yet in mid-air, the report of a rifle echoed through the forest and the beast fell to the ground with a strange snapping and snarling, and then of a sudden stretched itself out in death.

“Oh!” It was all Harry could say for the time being. He gazed at the wolverene in a dazed sort of way.

“Harry!” burst out Joe, and ran forward, rifle in hand. “A wolverene, and dead, too! How did you do it?”

“I—I didn’t do it, Joe.”

“But he is shot—right through the left eye,” went on Joe.

“So I see. But I haven’t any gun with me. Mine is over on the rock.”

“Fetched him, didn’t I?” came in a clear voice, from the trees behind the young hunters, and turning swiftly they found themselves confronted by Daniel Boone, whose long rifle was still smoking from the shot.

“So you shot him, Colonel Boone?” said Harry.

“I did, lad. It was a hard shot too, I admit—firing right over your shoulder at him. If the rifle had swung around you might have got the ball in the neck.”

“You—you saved my life, colonel.”

“We won’t speak of that, lad. I’m glad I came up in time. I was out hunting myself, just for the fun of it, and I saw you coming this way and thought I’d find out if you had had any luck. That wolverene must have been all-fired hungry, to come at you in that fashion. But the deer meat worried him, I suppose.”

It was some time before Harry could get over his scare, and the party of three sat down on the rocks to compare notes. Daniel Boone had brought down three deer since early morning, and had placed them where he could send out other hunters to bring them in later on.

“There are only a few wolverenes left around here,” he said. “I doubt if you are troubled by any more of them, but after this you had better be on guard all the time.”

“I will be,” answered Harry.

“Is the meat good for anything?” questioned Joe.

“Some of the old-time hunters eat it,” answered Daniel Boone. “I never did. Better leave it for the wolves,” and this they did, after cutting off the long, white claws, which Boone told them were valuable, the Indians thinking more of such things than of money in making a trade.

The two young hunters were glad enough to have Daniel Boone accompany them home, and the great hunter willingly helped them along with their drags. He was much interested in the story about the big bear.

“You are both doing well,” he said. “In fact, I doubt if any old hunters in these parts have done better.”

They asked him if he had heard anything more of the expedition that had moved westward in search of the Indian captives.

“Not a word,” replied Daniel Boone. “And I don’t expect to hear anything until spring. Nobody is going to travel very far in such weather as this, in a country where there isn’t anything better than an Indian or a buffalo trail.”

“I don’t care how long we have to wait, if only when the news comes it is good news,” said Joe soberly.

“I suppose you miss your mother a good bit, lad. Well, I can’t say as I blame you. A good mother is the best blessing a boy ever had.”

“And I miss my sister,” came from Harry.

“That is the one bad feature of moving into the Indian country, boys. It is bad enough to be wounded in a fight, but it is far worse to have those we love carried off to we don’t know where, and treated we don’t know how.”

“Has Red Feather said anything more?” asked Joe.

“No. He is waiting patiently for his release.”

“Don’t you suppose he will go on the warpath as soon as you let him go?”

“Perhaps. But if he does I shall hunt him down and have no mercy on him.”

“I wish all the fighting would come to an end,” said Harry, with a sigh. “I think I’d just like to have a few years at quiet farming and nothing else.”

“It would be nice, but I am afraid we are a long way from that yet,” answered Daniel Boone. And he was right, as later events on the bloodstained soil of Kentucky proved.