Dorothy on a Ranch

They separated, the girls to their own rooms to freshen themselves for the evening and for a long talk over the delights of this wonderful summer; yet in all their happiness, a deep regret was in their warm hearts for Jim Barlow’s absence and the wish that they might know where he was and that he was well.

The lads sought Mateo in his room, and though the valet pretended slumber he was promptly roused by the energetic attentions of his visitors.

“Look here, Mateo, we know you’re shamming. The fact is that after getting us all wrought up to this bear business and agreeing to take the chief part, you’re afraid. Either you think the ‘boys’ll’ get lively with their shooting-irons and hunt the bear too well, or else – I don’t know what else. Only this, you can’t pretend to be hoodooed or ‘bewitched’ with any of Wun Sing’s omelettes. That’s all up. The doctor’s taken a hand in that and I know it isn’t indigestion you’re bewitched with – it’s plain sneak. Now, boy, get up!”

After Leslie’s long speech, that ended in the terse command, Mateo raised himself on elbow and protested:

“But it is of the illness, I, señor, en verdad. The omelette of Wun Sing – ”

“May have been a little too rich for you, Matty lad, but don’t worry. That wonderful fowl has shortened her life by her own ambition. I suppose she had a certain number of eggs to lay during her earthly career and she concluded to get the job over with. She’s an all right Chinee hen, but she’s the one that’ll die, not you nor Wunny Sing. Doctor Jones said so. We’ve interviewed him on the subject. Doctors know a lot. So, be decent! Get up and practise a bit.”

Thus adjured by Herbert, for whom the valet had a great admiration, Mateo threw off the light covers and rose to his feet – fully dressed. He had only lain down, professing himself ill, whenever there was danger of his young master appearing.

With a swift change of front, he now fell in with the lads’ notions, and thereafter followed an hour of “practice,” accompanied by curious sounds and growlings. All this behind locked door and tightly shuttered windows – something almost unknown at peaceful San Leon.

At supper time there was a subdued air of mystery about the three lads, which Dorothy noticed, if none of the other girls did. Also, they were so extremely courteous and thoughtful that it was rather overdone. However, politeness was agreeable, and there followed the happiest evening the young guests had spent since the departure of Gray Lady for the east.

The fading moonlight was now supplemented by the electric lights, making the wide lawns brilliant as day, save where the deep shadows fell, black in contrast. At midnight, Dorothy awoke. Something had startled her and she sat up in bed, shivering in fear. How queer! she thought and peered through the window as if expecting some unwelcome sight. There was nothing unusual visible and, except for a curious creeping sound, as of some large body moving stealthily on the veranda floor, nothing to hear.

Strange that brave Dorothy’s heart should beat so fast and she turn so cold. She wished Alfy would awake. She wanted to hear somebody speak. Then she scorned herself for her foolishness, wondering if she, too, had caught the Chinaman’s terror of “bewitchment.” Oh! this was horrid! Alfy would go right to sleep again, even if she were awakened, and she must, she must hear somebody human!

She opened her trembling lips to call: “Alfy! Alfy dear, please wake up!”

But the words were never uttered. Something had come into view at her open window which froze them on her lips.

CHAPTER XIV

THE GRIZZLY AND THE INDIANS

For a moment Dorothy sat still in bed, afraid to move or cry out while the great animal at the window remained equally motionless. Then she was able to shriek:

“Alf! Helena! Somebody – help – help! HELP!”

Alfy leapt from her little bed with an answering cry, frightened by Dorothy’s screech, and hurriedly demanding: “Why – why – what?” then rubbed her eyes and stood transfixed with horror.

A moment later the whole house was in an uproar. The lads came running from their rooms, yelling in sympathy with the cries of the girls, the doctor rushed from his office-bedroom clad only in pajamas; the nurse forsook her sick bed – which she had not left before since first stricken with a chest attack; Anita – Wun Sing – kitchen boy – all the household gathered in the great corridor upon which the girls’ rooms opened.

Such an uproar had never been heard at peaceful San Leon since its foundation stone was laid; and the sounds carrying clearly in that night air, out from the Barracks rushed a horde of cowboys and workmen with Captain Lem in lead.

“A bear!”

“The Grizzly! The Grizzly!”

A grizzly it was sure enough. All the feminine portion of the household retreated to the empty chamber of Miss Milliken, slammed down its window and locked themselves within; then from curiosity opened the door a little way, to peek through the crack.

“Oh! Oh! It’s coming this way – why doesn’t somebody shoot it!” cried Helena, running back to look through the window panes.

The great animal had now dropped from its upright position at Dolly’s window and was crawling on all fours back along the wide porch. It certainly was coming that way but – it couldn’t get in!

“Could it? Can bears – open – open – things?” gasped Molly, retreating to a wardrobe and hiding within it, whence she demanded in a torrent of questions information of all sorts concerning bears and why nobody killed it before it killed them!

Oddly enough, nobody had interfered with the creature’s movements thus far, though some of the men had run back to the Barracks for firearms, and just then unlucky Wun Sing came round the corner of the building and met it face to face. He had run at top speed in the opposite direction from that the beast seemed taking when he had first espied it, issuing from his room beyond the kitchen. Seeing it headed that way he had instinctively chosen the other, not reckoning that even bears can change routes.

Then the yell that rose belittled all which had gone before.

Grizzly uprose on his hind feet and rushed to meet poor Wunny, squeezing him in a terrible embrace that checked the Chinaman’s yell instantly. Until a touch of Bruin’s teeth upon his thinly clad shoulder and a bite of sharp teeth awoke it again. A clutch of his queue from the great paw brought forth greater shrieks and seemed to give the victim an extraordinary strength. By some means he wrenched himself free and escaped, the grizzly pursuing on all fours again – and both headed toward the lake.

Whether Wun Sing’s purpose was to throw himself within it he didn’t know himself, but the road toward it was the clearest and offered his best chance. Half way to the water his feet caught in his long night blouse and he tripped. Instantly the grizzly was upon him. The great furry creature sprawled over the prostrate cook, growling and snapping his teeth but as yet inflicting no further injury, and the man underneath no longer knowing anything, for his terrified senses had taken leave of his quivering body.

Slowly the bear got upright again and, for a moment towered above his helpless victim. Then seeming to have satisfied his rage in that direction, he resumed his natural position and moved back toward the house. He kept his great head well lowered, wagging it from side to side and, altogether, conducting himself like a half-blind or greatly bewildered bear.

By this time the men from the Barracks had reappeared, well armed; but as the grizzly climbed upon the veranda floor again they hesitated to fire because the low windows opening upon it were full of peeping faces. Silent Pete, alone, dared approach the creature as near as the other end of the veranda. This man had been a mighty hunter in his youth, when Colorado was an almost unknown country with few settlers and big game plentiful. His old blood had warmed to the conflict now, though he was silent as ever and paid no heed to the warnings called to him by his ranch mates. Creeping stealthily forward toward the encounter he watched his grizzly enemy with exultation, his thought being:

“He’s tough! He’s an old one! His hide’s thick – I must make no mistake. When I get nigh enough to hit him through the heart – wish he’d rise up again – queerest actin’ grizzly I ever met – likely my last one – so anxious to meet me he come a-visitin’ – he, he, he! Ah! he’s risin’ – I’ll – ”

Out on the electric lighted grounds the men were grouped with their rifles, all anxious to fire and all eager to delay till the last moment, watching this wild beast so uncommonly near at hand. Why, from its movements it might almost have been a tame animal escaped from some menagerie. Besides, the trophy belonged to Silent Pete. He was first and hardiest to face the brute and only if his famously sure shot failed would they fire to the rescue. Yes, the bear was the old hunter’s legitimate prize – they’d wait, guns ready —

“Don’t shoot! Oh! men, don’t shoot! DON’T SHOOT!”

To the utter amazement of everyone, up flew Dorothy’s window and out she leaped, so close behind the creeping grizzly that she almost touched him: she was gesticulating wildly and her repeated cries of “Don’t shoot!” startled old Captain Lem almost to numbness.

What was that she was saying?

“He isn’t a bear! I see his feet! Bears don’t wear – SHOES!”

Alas! Her cry came too late. As bruin reared himself old Peter’s shot rang out. An instant later, with such a cry as never issued from the throat of any bear, he dropped to the veranda floor and lay there motionless. The great bear hunt was over.

Five minutes later the grizzly rug was back on the floor of Leslie’s room and the lad who had masqueraded in it to frighten a few girls, the over-zealous Mateo, lay on his own little bed with Doctor Jones probing for the bullet which had entered his shoulder.

Fortunately, it had not lodged there but passed straight through leaving a clean flesh wound which would promptly heal, the doctor said, but that would keep unhappy Mateo in bed for a few days. He had feigned sickness when there was none, dreading to act the part he had just so unfortunately done. But the young master’s will had been too strong and the suggestion had been Mateo’s own.

“The punishment, for once, has fallen upon the guilty person. You’ll have time to reflect, Mateo, that frightening timid people is scarcely a manly pastime. I trust there’ll be no more skylarking till Mr. Ford is home. You will be kept upon a rigid diet till I order otherwise, and good night.”

So said the doctor, leaving his patient to his own thoughts and assuring himself that all the young folks had retired to their rooms again. He had administered no further reproofs – nor needed to do so. It was an exceedingly crest-fallen trio of lads who disappeared from view, when once the extent of Mateo’s injury was learned, and a very quiet one.

But the excited girls were not so quiet. They had to talk it over, simply had to!

“I thought it was queer all the boys were in their day clothes,” said Helena, with her arm about Molly, who was still shaking with fright, now and then, despite the fact that the affair was all over.

“I noticed, too, but I thought they’d just dressed awful quick. But suppose it had been a real one – would it have eaten us up?” she begged to know.

To which Alfy replied from her own room:

“No, Molly Breckenridge, don’t be a goose. We’d have eaten him up, course. We’d have had bear steak for breakfast – Some say it’s good. Don’t s’pose with all them men around they’d have let it live very long? No, indeedy. But Matty did it real cute, after all, didn’t he? Must ha’ been terrible hot, trampin’ around under all that skin. Well, we ought to go to sleep, but seems if I’d never catch another wink. I wonder what became of Wunny! Last I saw him he was lyin’ flat on the ground – thinkin’ he was et up, I guess. Dolly – My heart! Dolly Doodles is asleep a’ready. Did you ever see such a sleepy head, Nell?”

There was no answer from the room across the hall, so Alfy curled down among her pillows and composed herself to sleep. But her mind wasn’t at rest. She kept seeing, in her fancy, the prostrate figure of Wun Sing, and hoped some of the men from the Barracks had looked after him. She felt as if she must get up again and go to see for herself. But – out of doors at night didn’t seem quite the same, even to this sensible girl, as it had done before the bear scare. Besides – something really was the matter with her eyes. They felt as if they were full of sand – she’d just shut them a minute to —

She was asleep at once. A body simply could not stay awake after bedtime, in that Colorado air! And it was well she could not. Else, the warm-hearted girl would have suffered fresh alarm.