The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-07-25

tree and remained standing full minute
| as straight as an Indian
While Jack was capable of doing great
| many tricks and could walk on his hind
! feet with considerable dexserity, Ted had
never seen him get up with such grace of
movement
| 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 a boys keen Curl
osity
Maybe it's another bear" rushed
| through Ted S mind. "And what if it isn't
bear at all?'
| The boys own thought startled him.
| 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 an
| other tree, from behind which he took an
other look.
By this time the bear had dropped to
the ground again, and all at once Ted saw
that it had cut ear. which was just what
Jack had had for thseo years.
Once more Ted was in the act of whis-
ting to his pet when the animal started
I toward the house on all tours, running
over the ground in a manner not exactly
| in accordance with the usual locoInotion
| OF bears, but not very unlike either.
II 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 don't make better 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 windows Mrs. Brady had
| set q light.
Ted watched the bear moving over the
stumpy clearing, with his head pointing
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 a moccasin
where one of the hind feet of the supposed
bear should have been, and the more lie
looked the surer he was of this
All was plain now.
The skin before him was Jacks, but an
Indian was inside it, and, of course, for
some diaboiioal purpose.
Well did the red man know that be
| could never get beyond the door of the
Brady cabin in his own dress Therefore,
probably knowing something 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 shs
would hasten to open the door to him
without suspecting anything wrong, and
when he thoaght of the peril that menaced
her he could hardly suppress cry.
Meantime the Indian must have been
congratulating himself on the success of
his trick.
He had not seen the boy in his rear, and
now, with but few yards between him
and his Victims he looked upon his victo,
ry as certain.
The Irish boy had reached the fringe of
the clearing and in the brilliant moon
light saw the object that moved across it.
Not a moment was to be lost. Yet
shot must tell, for if thrown away the
young marAsman 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 rifle touched his
shoulder the cabin door opened, and he
caught sight Of his mother
She had opened the door for Jack, and
the redslSin had only to spring up and
with bound carry himself beyond the
threshold.
Controlling his nerves with the GOODNESS
of an old marksman, Ted covered the
shaggy head and fred.
At the sharp report dark object seemed
to spring into the air, and the next in
stant it hay On the ground, while the
white faced woman in the doorway gazed
across the clearing too frightened for
moment to stir.
Ted ran forward so as to be seen in an
instant and as he cleared the ground be-
tween the scene of his shot and the cabin
he was recognized, and his mother cried
out:
st is Jack you have killed, boyl Didn't
you know 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 CHANGING
at the silent figure among the stumps he
made reply:
Jack never wore moccasins mother.
The bear out there happens to be an III
diam
Dead in the moonlight lay the scarlet
trickster Of the frontier, and when Ted
pulled the pearskin from him he saw,the
painted face and the weapons of the war
PAIN Cna6 ne carried IN his belt.
After awhile mother and son dragged
the body to a secluded spot behind the
cabin. There grave was made, and in it
they placed the corpse of one Indian who
would never return to follow Pontiac
across the frontiers.
The bearskin was removed to the cabin,
and when Teds father came back, as he
did few days later, he was shown Jacks
bullet bored hide, while he listened to tie
story of his Buys remarkable shot,
If the Indian had companions in the
neighborhoota, they reiterated without
seeking to avenge the death of their spy,
and when this tide of war flowed into that
region the Bfadys had taken refuge in QUE
of the more eastern forts, where they re-
manned till the uprising had been put
down.
Ted Brady grew to manhood near the
scene of his adventure. He became noted
for his craftsmanship, but he always called
his best shot the one which saved his
mother from the tomahawk Of the Indian
in Jacks skin.-T. G. Harbaugh in Inter
nooan