The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-06-01

him get up with such grace OF move
ment.
The bear appeared to be looking
straight toward the house from the
tree where he stood. and Ted, who
jumped down from the log and sprang
to tree near by, looked on with
boys keen curiosity.
Maybe it's another bear" rushed
through Ted's mind. ''And what If it
isn't a bear at alp"
He was not close enough to get
very good look at the animal, and IN
order to do so he crawled along the
ground to another tree, from behind
which he took another look
By this time the bear had dropped
to the ground again and all at once
Ted saw that it had a cut ear, which
was just what Jack had had for three
years.
Once more Ted was in the act of
whistling to his pet, when the animal
started toward the house on all fours,
running over the ground in a manner
not exactly in accordance with the
usual 1ocomotion of bears. but not
very unlike either.
ST never saw Jack run that way
BEFORE" cried the boy as he bounded
on. HE is heading for home and
will beat me there if 1 don't make bet
ter time. Maybe Jack has been
wounded, the boys down on the creek
shot at him twice last summer, and"
Ted stopped, for once more the
bear had checked his course and was
moving across the clearing toward the
little cabin in one of whose little win
dows MRS. Brady had set a light. Ted
watched the bear moving over the
stumpy clearing with his head point
ing toward the shanty, but all at
once he saw more than this.
That which he saw was enough to
thrill him as he had never been
thrilled before. It was nothing less
than moccasin, where one OF the
hind feet of the supposed bear should
have been, and the more he looked
the surer he was of this.
The skin before him was Jacks,
but an Indian was inside it, and, Of
course, for some diabolical purpose.
Well did the red man know that he
could never get beyond the door of
the Brady cabin in his own dress;
therefore, probably knowing some
thing about the boy settlers pet, he
had killed Jack in the forest and had
undertaken this stratagem to carry
out his evil designs.
Ted knew that if his mother should
see the supposed Jack in the clearing,
she would hasten to open the door to
him, without suspecting anything
wrong, and when he thought of the
peril that menaced her he co uld
hardly suppress cry.
The Irish boy had reached the fringe
of the clearing, and, in the brilliant
moonlight, he saw the object that
moved across it. Not moment was
to be lost; yet shot must tell, for If
thrown away, the young marksman
would have upon him one of the
dread scourges of the frontier, and he
might be the first victim of savage
fury in that locality.
AS the boy trapper's rife touched
his shoulder the cabin door opened,
and he caught sight of his mother
She had opened the door for Jack"
and the redslxin had only to spring up
and with bound carry himself be-
yond the threshold. Controlling his
nerves with the GOODNESS of an old
head and fred.
K At the sharp report dark object
seemed to spring into the air, and the
next instant it lay the ground,
while the white-faced woman in the
doorway gazed across the clearing,
too frightened for a moment to stir.
Ted ran forward so as to be seen in
an instant, and as he cleared the
ground between the scene of his sh OF
and the cabin he was recognized and
his mother cried out:
''It is Jack you have killed, boyi
Didn't you recognize the old fellow"
Ted met his mother at the door, and
for a moment, looking up into her
face, he could not answer her; but
after glancing at the silent figure
among the stumpS, he made reply:
Jack never wore moccasins
mother. The bear out there happens
to be an Indian"
After awhile mother and son
dragged the body to a secluded spot
behind the cabin. There a grave was
made, and in it they placed the corpse
of one Indian who would never re-
turn to follow Pontiac across the
frontiers.
If the Indian had companions in the
neigh borhood, they retreated without
seeking to revenge the death of their
spy, and when the tide of war flowed
into that region, the Bradys had
taken refuge in one of the more
eastern forts, where they remained
till the uprising had been put down
Ted Brady grew to manhood near
the scene of his adventure. He be-
came noted for his Workmanship;
but he always called his best shot the
one which saved his mother from the
tomahawx of the Indian in Jacks
skin.
when the Kaiser Hunts.