The Desert Home: The Adventures of a Lost Family in the Wilderness by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
A RIVAL HONEY-ROBBER.
"Now, there were some circumstances to be considered, before we couldproceed any farther in the matter of the bees. How were we to get atthe honey? `Why, by felling the tree, and splitting it open, ofcourse,' you will say. Well, that would have to be done, too; but therewas still another consideration. It is no very difficult matter to fella tree, and split it up--that is, when one has a good axe--but it is avery different affair to take the honey-combs from some eight or tenthousand bees, every one of them with a sharp sting in his tail. We hadno brimstone; and if we had had such a thing, they were well out of thereach of it, while the tree stood; and after it should be felled, wecould not approach them. They would then be furious to a certainty.
"But Cudjo's knowledge of bee-hunting extended farther than to the merefinding of the tree. He knew, also, how to _humbug_ the bees, and robthem of their sweet honey. That was a part of the performance thatCudjo understood as well as any other. According to his directions,then, two pairs of stout buckskin gloves were prepared. We chanced tohave one pair already, and Mary soon stitched up a second, of the kindgenerally used for weeding thistles--that is, having only a thumb, and aplace for all the fingers together. One pair of the gloves Cudjointended to use himself--the other was for me. Of course, the rest wereto take no part in the robbery, but only to stand at a safe distance andlook on.
"In addition to the gloves, a couple of masks were cut out of elk-hide,and with strings fitted to our faces. These, with our thick deerskinovercoats, would protect us against the stings of all the bees increation.
"Thus accoutred, then, or rather taking these articles along with us, weset out for the bee-tree. Of course, everybody went as usual. We tookwith us the axe to cut down the tree, and several vessels to hold thehoney.
"On arriving at the glade, we loosed Pompo out of the cart; and picketedhim as we had done the day before. It would not do to bring him anynearer the scene of action, as the bees might take a fancy to revengethemselves by stinging him. We then took our `fixings' from the cart,and proceeded to the tree. In a few moments we stood by its foot.
"On looking up we observed that there was an unusual commotion among thebees. They were whirring in large numbers around the entrance of theirnest, and swarming out and in. As the day was very still, we could hearthem buzzing loudly. What could it mean? Were they going to hive?
"Cudjo thought not. It was too early in the season for that. And yettheir actions were strange. He could not understand it.
"`Dey look, Massa,' said he, after gazing at them for some moments, `deylook zackly like some varmint war a-vexin' ob 'em.'
"So did they, but no `varmint' appeared to be near their hole; and noanimal, however thick in the skin, would have ventured into it, as wethought. The orifice was not over three inches in diameter, and we knewthat neither squirrel, marten, nor weasel, would have dared to put anose into it. What, then, could have so excited them?
"We observed that it was a warm day--the warmest we had had up to thattime--and, probably, the beat had set them a-going. With thisexplanation, therefore, in the absence of a better, we remainedsatisfied; and commenced making our preparations to fell the tree.
"It was not likely to be a difficult job. The tree, as I have said, wasa hollow one; and near the ground its trunk was nothing but a mereshell, which we could easily cut through. So Cudjo went lustily to workwith his axe; and the white sycamore chips were soon flying in everydirection.
"He had hardly made a dozen strokes, when we were startled by a singularnoise, that sounded something like a `cross' between a growl and asnort!
"Cudjo immediately suspended his blows; and we all stood gazing at eachother with looks that betokened surprise and terror. I say _terror_--for the noise had something terrible in it; and we knew it could haveproceeded from nothing else than some large and fierce animal. Whencedid it come?--from the woods? We looked anxiously around us, but nomotion could be observed in the bramble. The underwood was thin, and wecould have seen a large animal at some distance, had such been there.
"Again the horrid sound echoed in our ears. It appeared to issue out ofthe earth! No--_it came out of the tree_!
"`Golly!' exclaimed Cudjo, `it am a bar, Massa Roff! I know him growl.'
"`A bear!' I ejaculated, catching the thought at the same moment. `Abear in the bee-tree! Run, Mary! Run for the glade!'--and I hurried mywife and children from the spot. Harry and Frank both wished to remainwith their rifles, and I could hardly get them off. I induced them togo, at length, by telling them that they must stay near their mother andthe little ones, to guard them in case the animal should come that way.All this occupied but a few seconds of time, and then Cudjo and I wereleft to ourselves.
"It was evident that a bear was up the hollow of the tree, and hence theflurry among the bees. Cudjo's axe had disturbed him--he was comingdown!
"What was to be done? Could we not close up the hole? No--there wasnothing--we should be too late!
"I seized my rifle, while Cudjo stood by with his axe. I cocked thepiece, and made ready to fire the moment his head should appear. To ourastonishment, instead of a head, a shapeless mass of shaggy, black hairmade its appearance, which we saw was the rump and hind-quarters of theanimal. He was coming down tail-foremost--although not a bit of tailwas to be seen, for he had none.
"We did not stop to examine that. I fired as soon as his hips madetheir appearance, and almost at the same instant Cudjo dealt them ahearty blow with his axe. It was enough to have killed him, as wethought, but to our surprise the hind-quarters suddenly disappeared. Hehad gone up the tree again.
"What next?--would he turn himself in the hollow, and come downhead-foremost? If so, my rifle was empty, and Cudjo might miss hisblow, and let him pass out.
"All at once my eye fell upon the two great deerskin coats, that werelying on the ground close by. They would be large enough, properlyrolled, to fill the mouth of the cavity. I threw aside my rifle, andlaid hold of them. Cudjo assisted me. In a second or two, we hadgathered them into a hard `clump,' and wedged them into the hole. Theyfitted it exactly!
"We saw blood streaming down as we stuffed in the coats. The bear waswounded. It was not likely, then, that he would trouble us for a while;and as one watched the coats, the other brought up great stones, whichwe piled against them, until we had made all secure.
"We now ran around the tree, looking up the trunk, to assure ourselvesthat there was no opening above, through which he might creep out andcome down upon us. No--there was none, except the bee-hole, and thatwas not big enough for his nose, sharp as it was. Bruin was fairly `inthe trap.'
"I knew that Mary and the rest would be uneasy about us; and I ran outto the glade to make known our success. The boys cheered loudly; and weall returned together to the tree, as there was now no danger--no morethan if there hadn't been a bear nearer to us than the North Pole.
"We had him safe, so that there was no fear of his escaping. But howwere we to get at him?--for we had determined to take his life. Such afierce creature as this must not be allowed to get off; as he would soonhave settled with one of us, had he met us on anything like equal terms.I had thought, at first, he might be a grizzly bear, and this hadterrified me the more--for the killing of one of these fierce animalswith a shot is next to an impossibility. When I reflected, however, Iknew it could not be this; for the `grizzly,' unlike his sable cousin,is not a tree-climber. It was the black bear, then, that we had got inthe tree.
"But how were we to reach him? Leave him where he was, and let himstarve to death? No, that would never do. He would eat all the finestock of honey; if, indeed, he had not done so already. Moreover, hemight scrape his way out, by enlarging the bee-hole. This he could dowith his great sharp claws. We must therefore adopt some other plan.
"It occurred to us that it was just probable he might be down at thebottom, poking his nose against the coats.
"In a few minutes the thin shell was penetrated, and we could see intothe cavity. Bruin was nowhere visible--he was still up the tree. The`taste of our quality,' which he had had on his first descent, hadevidently robbed him of all inclination to try a second. What next?
"`Smoke 'im!' cried Cudjo; `dat fotch 'im down.'
"The very thing: but how were we to do it? By pushing dead leaves andgrass through the hole Cudjo had cut, and then setting them on fire.But our coats--they might be burned! These we could first remove,putting great stones in their place; and we proceeded to do so. In afew minutes that was accomplished: the grass and leaves were staffed in;some tufts were set on fire and thrust through; more rubbish was piledon top, until it reached up on a level with the hole; and then the holewas closed with a bundle of grass, so as to prevent the smoke fromescaping.
"In a few moments we saw that everything was progressing as we hadintended it. A blue rope of smoke came oozing out of the bee-hole, andthe terrified bees swarmed out in clusters. We had not thought of thisbefore, else we might have saved ourselves the trouble of making thegloves and masks.
"Bruin soon began to give tongue. We could hear him high up the treesnarling and growling fiercely. Every now and then he uttered a loudsnort, that sounded like an asthmatic cough. After a while his growlschanged into a whine, then a hideous moan, and then the sounds ceasedaltogether. The next moment we heard a dull concussion, as of a heavybody falling to the earth. We knew it was the bear, as he tumbled fromhis perch.
"We waited for some minutes. There was no longer any stir--no soundissued from the tree. We removed the grass from the upper hole. Athick volume of smoke rolled out. The bear must be dead. No creaturecould live in such an atmosphere. I introduced my ramrod through theopening. I could feel the soft hairy body of the animal, but it waslimber and motionless. It was dead. Feeling convinced of this, atlength, we removed the rocks below, and dragged it forth. Yes, the bearwas dead,--or, at all events, very like it; but, to make the thing sure,Cudjo gave him a knock on the head with his axe. His long, shaggy hairwas literally filled with dead and dying bees, that, like himself, hadbeen suffocated with the smoke, and had fallen from their combs.
"We had hardly settled the question of the bear, when our attention wascalled to another circumstance, which was likely to trouble us. Weperceived that the tree was on fire. The decayed heart-wood that linedthe cavity inside had caught fire from the blazing grass, and was nowcrackling away like fury. Our honey would be lost!
"This was a grievous _finale_, after all--in short, a completedisappointment to our hopes, for we had calculated on having honey onour table at supper.
"What could we do to save it? But one thing, that was evident:--cutdown the tree as quickly as possible, and then cut it through againbetween the fire and the bees' nest.
"Should we have time for all this? The fire was already high up; andthe draught, since we had opened the holes below, whizzed up the cavityas through a funnel.
"Seeing this, we closed them again; and Cudjo went to work with his axe,cutting all around the tree. And the way he did ply that axe! he seemedto have a wager against time. It was beautiful to see the style inwhich the chips flew!
"At length the tree began to crack, and we all stood out from it, exceptCudjo, who understood which way it would fall, and was not afraid ofbeing crushed. Not he! for Cudjo could `lay' a tree wherever it waswanted to the breadth of a hair.
"`Cr-r-r-ack!--cr-r-r-r-ash!' said the great sycamore, and down it came,shivering its branches into an hundred sticks as it fell.
"It had scarcely touched the ground, when we saw Cudjo attack it atanother point with his axe, as though it were some great monster, and hetrying to cut off its head.
"In a few minutes more he had laid open the cavity, close to the combs;and, to our great satisfaction, we saw that the fire had not yet reachedthem. They were well smoked, however, and completely deserted by thebees; so that we used neither our masks nor gloves in gathering thehoney. Bruin had been before us, but he had not been long at his mealwhen we intruded upon him, as only one or two of the combs were missing.Enough was left. It was evidently a very old hive, and there was honeyenough to fill all the vessels we had brought with us.
"We bundled the bear into the cart--as his hams and skin were worth thetrouble--and leaving the old sycamore to burn out, we turned our faceshomeward."