Into the Savage Country by Shannon Burke

Author:Shannon Burke [Burke, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-90893-3
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-02-23T16:00:00+00:00

It was a week later and Layton, Ferris, and I were on some high, slaty slopes when we came in sight of a large bear just as it slipped behind a tiny green shrub. We stopped at fifty yards, aimed our weapons at the shrub, and waited. We had run low on provisions other than beaver and that bear represented the first real meal in days. Minutes passed, and the bear did not appear again, though the shrub was hardly larger than the bear itself.

We were on a wide-open, treeless slope completely covered with black rocks with pinkish-colored lichen on the flat sides. The rocks were mostly plate-size and very loose, so every step, no matter how gentle, was accompanied by the clattering and sliding and skidding and tumbling of these rocks. Far below there were trees and the silent white froth of a distant torrent. Overhead, at the top of the slope, there were pine trees growing straight out of crags in the rock. But on the slope directly in front of us there were only a few scraggly thornbushes growing up here or there, and that vast plain of loose, flattened, plate-size rocks. It was an absolutely barren landscape. There was no possible chance the bear could have escaped from behind that lone shrub without our notice. We waited. The bear did not come out from behind the shrub. After ten minutes Layton motioned impatiently and took a step forward.

“Will we waste the day idling? Which of you is not afraid to join me?”

“We are both afraid to join you,” Ferris said. “That is one of the great bears. What the men call white bears. Do you know what the natives do when they see a white bear?”

“I am sure you are going to educate me,” Layton said.

“They go the other way.”

“Well, I am not a native,” Layton said. “I am an American from St. Louis and we are three men armed with long guns.”

“Which will do little if the bear comes at us,” Ferris said. “There is no way to stop the white bears once they are enraged.”

“A well-placed blast will stop them.”

“Perfectly placed,” Ferris said.

“I was under the impression you had a fine shot,” Layton said.

Ferris began replacing the powder in his pan. “It is adequate,” he said.

“He has the finest shot in the brigade, if not in the mountains,” I said.

“Then his mettle is not so great as his aim,” Layton said triumphantly. “Perhaps if it were a contest to sketch the beast you would win that.”

Ferris finished with his horn and capped it.

“If we must approach the shrub we should spread out and keep a distance. And if the bear charges, fire at the nose. If you aim higher the bullet will deflect off the skull. If you have a view of the flank fire at the shoulder to incapacitate it.”

“Wyeth?” Layton said.

“It is foolish to get much closer,” I said. “But I will move with the rest.”

“Then let’s go.”

Layton stepped straight toward the shrub.

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