CHAPTER XVII
PERK SHOWS HIS HAND
"Let me tell yeou, partner, that same bar he's some stickin'-plaster allright!"
A full half hour must have passed without any noticeable change in theconditions. The obstinate beast stayed close to the foot of the tree,never making any attempt at climbing the same; just as though he mightbe well aware of his own shortcomings.
A number of times, when one of the prisoners among the branches chancedto make some sort of movement, in order to relieve the numbness that hadgripped his legs, the bear would exhibit the same ferocity he had shownall through the siege.
"The old chap certainly must have a long debt to pay toward somebody,and is taking it out on us, Perk," ventured Jack, breaking the silenceonce more.
"But it doant seem so much like a joke as at first," grumbled Perk,disconsolately. "What in thunder'd we do if he camped aout on us, mebbefur a hull day'nd night--gorry! wouldn't we be in a pickle,though--nawthin' to eat'r drink it might be, an' so sore in aour bodieswe'd feel like howlin'."
"Oh! let's hope it doesn't turn out so serious as all that," Jacksoothed him somewhat by saying confidently. "What bothers me most is howwe're going to do any sort of business, with that chap hanging out inthis neighborhood, and likely to drop in on us any old minute."
"Drat the luck, any way!" growled the greatly annoyed Perk, aghast atthe very idea of slow starvation; with that fat old husky camped at thefoot of their tree refuge, daring them to set a foot on the ground.
The morning was wearing away by degrees, with the sun already peepingdown into the deep ravine, from its more lofty position in the heavens.Perk was now busily engaged cudgeling his brains in the endeavor toconjure up some species of scheme by which they might have a chance torid themselves of their four-footed jailor.
All at once Jack saw the other start to feeling of his person eagerly asthough some dazzling idea had burst upon his mind. As a rule theseoccasions were few and far between, and yet Perk had been actually knownto originate some amazing schemes, that perhaps did not always turn outas successfully as he himself might have fancied would be the case.
"I could a sworn I fetched it along, thinkin' there might be some peskyrattlers in this here coulie," Jack heard him muttering; and then anexclamation of delight announced that whatever he had in mind it hadeventually turned up in one of his numerous pockets.
"Hey! what's in the wind now, I want to know?" Jack demanded, in idlecuriosity, since he hardly anticipated that his chum would be able tooffer any plausable plan for ridding themselves of that intolerablenuisance encamped below decks.
Perk was holding something up exultantly, and Jack could see it appearedto be a small _flask_--such things were very common nowadays, withprohibition in the land; but as he had never known his mate to usestrong spirits Jack naturally felt more or less surprise to see such abottle stowed away on Perk's person. But the word "rattlers" may havegiven Jack a slight inkling of what it all meant.
"Fetched this here stuff 'long, Jack, in case either o' us ran afoul o'a pizen snake," came the explanation; "kinder do hate to waste the sameon sech a wretched beast; but seems like it might get us outen thisnasty scrape."
Jack was forced to laugh.
"Quite an original joke you'd play on Old Eph, I take it, partner--getthe poor stick drunk, you mean, of course; but what makes you reckonhe'd take to the bottle; for of course you couldn't lean down far enoughto pour the stuff into his open mouth--that'd be a heap too dangerous,I'd think."
Perk gave him a reproachful look as he hastened to explain.
"Say, I aint _quite_ that silly, I hopes, Jack ole hoss, as to give thatcritter half a chanct to nab me. I got another idee, it happens, such asought to pan aout too, if I kin do what I want without spillin' thebeans, or in this case the bootleg stuff."
"Sounds good to me, Perk," Jack told him as if to encourage furtherexplanations. "If you don't expect him to swallow it what then,partner?"
"Jest yeou watch yeour Uncle Perk get busy, boy, that's all."
Long before this both of them had relieved their aching shoulders of theweighty packs they were carrying, attaching the same safely to certainbroken limbs of the tree that came in conveniently enough. This allowedof a certain amount of freedom; and so Perk was able to wriggle downseveral feet, his movements as usual attracting the observation of thejealous guardian, for the great shaggy beast stood upright, with hissnout elevated menacingly.
"Be careful now, and don't give him half an opening to nab your foot,brother," warned Jack.
"Shucks! he aint got a Chinaman's chanct to do that same, Jack. Hey! oleboy, do yeou smell it a'ready, to be makin' sech faces at me? Well, heregoes to wet yeou daown nice an' easy like."
With that Perk leaned over still more--his hand holding the pocket flaskwas just a foot or so above the extended snout of the bear, when thefirst trickle of the liquor started to fall, striking the animal's nose,and running down on the heavy hair covering his neck and back.
"Glory be! look at the scamp openin' his mouth and puttin' aout his redtongue to ketch some o' the drops!" cried the excited Perk. "Hey! don'tbe so het up an' greedy, Mister; I sure aint atryin' to get yeousoaked--seems like he's quite took to the bottle, don't it, Jack?"
"Like an old toper, for a fact, brother," the other assured him,laughing as he spoke. "I've heard how the young black bears over inYellowstone Park come up to tourists, and beg for some spirits, to whichtheir taste turns; but I didn't know a big old tramp like this had aleaning that way. I see you're trying to keep him from swilling it down,Perk; must have some object in letting the stuff run all over his backas you're doing?"
"Kinder think I have got sech a neat little scheme, partner; on'y yeouwait up till I put the finishin' touch to the game--proof o' thepuddin's in the eatin' o' the same, yeou know."
"I'm waiting to be shown, buddy--you know your hand, and can play itbest. Go to it then, and I'll be the judge to say if it pans out okay ornot."
Perk was now draining the flask of the last drop; for when he made uphis mind to do a thing he always went the limit.
"There, that finishes my snake-bite cure, more the pity," he kepttelling his fellow prisoner, with a vein of keen regret in his voice."No, yeou jest caint have another drop yeou greedy rascal. Seems likeyeou made things warm enuff for two ginks what never did any harm toyeou or the fambly; an' now suh, the tables got to turn--I'm figgerin'on makin' the likes o' yeou as hot as Tophet, that's right, Old Eph."
Still holding out the empty flask as though to keep the bear fromdropping down on all-fours, Perk carefully took out a match, and held itpoised between fingers and thumb. Then it was that what he really meantto do clicked in the mind of Jack; it rather staggered him in thebargain, so that he uttered an exclamation that told the other he haddivined his secret.
"Kinder guess yeou're on to my curves, buddy," observed Perk; "well,here she goes, an' hopin' luck comes aour way."
He thereupon scraped the head of the match along a certain part of thetree trunk--several times was this repeated, but all to no avail, as thefriction did not appear to be brisk enough to start things going.
Then Perk went back to first principles, and gave a quick scrape downthe seat of his trousers; whereupon there followed a tiny flash, and thematch began to burn brightly.
Waving the bottle, and letting a drop or two ooze from its mouth Perk,watching his opportunity cast the burning match directly on top of thebear's shaggy neck. He must have held his breath with suspense while sodoing, for he felt as though he were casting the die, with everything atstake.
"Wow! it's a go, Perk, you wonderful schemer!" burst from Jack, as hesaw a blue flame start up, where the booze had fallen on the thick,rusty looking coat of the astonished animal, instantly increasing as theliquor caught.
Both of them watched with staring eyes to see what followed; but theydid not have long to wait. The bear dropped down on all four feet, andtwisting his he
ad around commenced snapping viciously at the spot wherehe already began to feel uncomfortably warm. This caused him to burn histongue, and from that moment it took on all the aspect of a _circus_ tothe two spectators lodged there amidst the branches of that friendlytree; although to be sure it was an altogether different kind ofsituation to the astonished bear.
The animal developed a surprising amount of agility, twisting andturning in a frantic endeavor to bite at the object that was giving himsuch a queer sensation as of pain. But all his antics had no effect onthe fire in his coat, which was continually extending its circulation bystreaks and bounds.
"Go to it, buddy--call aout the hull fire department an' smother theblaze, or yeou're sure a goner. Lookit him arollin' on the ground tobeat the band--aint that cute though, partner--jest like sensible humanbein's would do if they had their heads 'bout 'em when on fire. But itaint agoin' to help the pore ole dick any, either. There, he's a runnin'off like fun, headin' fur some sorter water-hole he knows 'bout, Ikinder guess. What a sight that is, Jack ole geezer; but jest the sameI'm sorry 'bout that snake pizen stuff, I sure am--didn't canc'late tohave to use it on sech game."
"That's all right, Perk; it'd saved the cause, and possibly our lives inthe bargain. I'd call it well spent, if you asked me," Jack told him.
"Say, look at him goin' licketty split, like the Ole Nick was after him,blazin', an' with spurts o' smoke bustin' outen his singed hide. He sureenough played outen his class that time, I figger. Mebbe, naow, he'llcut an' run next time he meets gentlemen o' aour stripe."
The spectacle was so extremely ludicrous to Perk that he writhed andtwisted about as if seized with a fit; so, too, did he threaten to burstout into loud laughter only that Jack gave him due warning of what direconsequences would be apt to follow any indiscretion along those lines,which sobered the hilarious one, and brought him back to sanity.
"Kin we climb daown outen this tree naow, partner?" asked Perk, after hecould no longer discern any further sign of the badly singed king of themountain valleys; "I'll be tickled pink to be able to stretch my legs abit, seein' they're so stiff an' sore; but it shore was too bad 'boutlosin' my precious snake pizen cure--hopes we aint a goin' to need itany time, that's all."
Trackers of the Fog Pack; Or, Jack Ralston Flying Blind Page 17
