CHAPTER XII--THE MAN FROM TINTACKER
Ruth was just as scared as she could be. Although the bear did not seemparticularly savage, there surely was not room enough on the path forhim and Ruth to pass. The beast was ragged and gray looking. His littleeyes twinkled and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, like that of an oxwhen it is plowing. Aside from a grunt, or two, he made at first nothreatening manifestation.
Helen could not remain inactive and see a bear chase her chum over therocks; therefore she picked up a good-sized stone and threw it at thebeast. They say--at least, boys say!--that a girl can't throw straight.But Helen hit the bear!
The stone must have hurt, for the beast let out a sudden growl that wasin quite a different tone from the sounds he had made before. He turnedsharply and bit at the place on his flank where the stone had hit him,and then, in a perfectly unreasonable manner, the bear turned sharparound and scampered after Ruth harder than ever. It was plain that heblamed her for throwing the stone. At least, she was nearest to him, andthe bear was anxious to get out of the way of the screaming girls below.
Ruth did not give voice to her fear. Perhaps if she had shrieked as TheFox did the bear would have been afraid of her. As it was, he came on,growling savagely. And in half a minute he was fairly upon her heels!
The way up the height was in a gully with steep sides. Ruth, castingback over her shoulder a single terrified glance, saw the lumberingbeast right upon her heels. The rocks on either hand were too steep toclimb; it seemed as though the bear would seize her in a moment.
And then it was that the miracle happened. It seemed as though the girl_must_ be torn and mangled by the bear, when a figure darted into sightabove her. A voice shouted:
"Lie down! Lie down, so I can shoot!"
It was a man with a gun. In the second Ruth saw him she only knew he wastrying to draw bead on the pursuing bear. She had no idea what herrescuer looked like--whether he was old, or young.
It took courage to obey his command. But Ruth had that courage. Sheflung herself forward upon her hands and knees and--seemingly--at the sameinstant the man above fired.
The roar of the weapon in the rocky glen and the roar of the strickenbear, was a deafening combination of sound. The bullet had hit the bigbrute somewhere in a serious spot and he was rolling and kicking on therocks--his first throes of agony flinging him almost to Ruth's feet.
But the girl scrambled farther away and heard the rifle speak again. Asecond bullet entered the body of the bear. At the same time a lustyshout arose from below. The boys and Jib having explored theriver-tunnel as far as they found it practicable, had returned to thecamp and there discovered where the girls had gone. Jib hastened afterthem, for he felt that they should not be roaming over the rocks withoutan armed escort.
"Hi, yi!" he yelped, tearing up the path with a rifle in his hand. "Keepit up, brother! We're comin'!"
Tom and Bob came with him. Jib saw the expiring bear, and he likewiseglimpsed the man who had brought bruin down. In a moment, however, thestranger darted out of sight up the path and they did not even hear hisfootsteps on the rocks.
"Why, that's that feller from Tintacker!" cried the Indian. "Hey, you!"
"Not the crazy man?" gasped Jane Ann.
"Oh, surely he'll come back?" said Helen.
Ruth turned, almost tempted to run after the stranger. "Do you reallymean to say it is the young man who has been staying at the Tintackerproperties so long?" she asked.
"That's the feller."
"We'd ought to catch him and see what Uncle Bill has to say to him aboutthe fire," said Jane Ann.
"Oh, we ought to thank him for shooting the bear," cried Madge.
"And I wanted to speak with him so much!" groaned Ruth; but nobody heardher say this. The others had gathered around the dead bear. Of a suddena new discovery was made:
"Where's Mary?" cried Helen.
"The Fox has run away!" exclaimed Madge.
"I'll bet she has!" exclaimed Jane Ann Hicks. "Didn't you see her, Jib?"
"We didn't pass her on the path," said Tom.
Ruth's keen eye discovered the missing girl first. She ran with a cry toa little shelf upon which the foxy maid had scrambled when theexcitement started. The Fox was stretched out upon the rock in a deadfaint!
"Well! would you ever?" gasped Madge. "Who'd think that Mary Cox wouldfaint? She's always been bold enough, goodness knows!"
Ruth had hurried to the shelf where The Fox lay. She was very white andthere could be no doubt but that she was totally unconscious. Jib lenthis assistance and getting her into his arms he carried her bodily downthe steep path to the camp, leaving Tom and Bob to guard the bear untilhe returned to remove the pelt. The other girls strung out after theirfainting comrade, and the journey to the summit of the natural bridgewas postponed indefinitely.
Cold water from the mountain stream soon brought The Fox around. Butwhen she opened her eyes and looked into the face of the ministeringRuth, she muttered:
"And _you_ saw him, too!"
Then she turned her face away and began to cry.
"Aw, shucks!" exclaimed the ranchman's niece, "don't bawl none about it.The bear won't hurt you now. He's dead as can be."
But Ruth did not believe that Mary Cox was crying about the bear. Herwords and subsequent actions _did_ puzzle the girl of the Red Mill. Ruthhad whispered to Tom, before they left the scene of the bear shooting:
"See if you can find that man. If you can, bring him into camp."
"But if he's crazy?" Tom suggested, in surprise.
"He isn't too crazy to have saved my life," declared the grateful girl."And if he is in his right mind, all the more reason why we should tryto help him."
"You're always right, Ruthie," admitted Helen's brother. But when theboy and Jib returned to camp two hours later, with the bear pelt andsome of the best portions of the carcass, they had to report that thestranger who had shot the bear seemed to have totally disappeared. JibPottoway was no bad trailer; but over the rocks it was impossible tofollow the stranger, especially as he had taken pains to hide his trail.
"If you want to thank that critter for saving you from the b'ar, MissRuthie," the Indian said, "you'll hafter go clear over to Tintacker todo so. That's my opinion."
"How far away is that?" demanded Mary Cox, suddenly.
"Near a hundred miles from this spot," declared Jib. "That is, by wagontrail. I reckon you could cut off thirty or forty miles through thehills. The feller's evidently l'arnt his way around since Winter."
Mary asked no further question about the man from Tintacker; but she hadshown an interest in him that puzzled Ruth.
Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys Page 12
