The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1905-02-24
THE HONEY THIEF.

By FRANK LILLE POLLOCK.


and in an hour or two the disturbance
was greatly diminished. Most of our
own bees had ceased raiding, although
still full of wrath; but there were
great many strange black bees about,
that must have come from bee-trees
in the woods Against these we could
do nothing but wait for nightfall.
now demanded explanations of the
mishap, but to my surprise l found
! that Lancaster could tell me little. All
he knew was that on rising that morn
| ing he had found the hives wrecked,
and had rushed on his bicycle to tele-
graph for help He suspected that it
was the work OF thieves, probably of
some camping party of roughs from
| town, for we had no neighbors within
four miles.
We examined the wrecked hives
carefully. A great deal of the honey
and comb was missing. The boards of
the hives seemed to have been
whenched or split apart and tn thin
section-boxes looked as if they had
been chewed. | already suspected the
identity Of the robber, and when |
found claw marks across the boards |
felt sure | was right. There was only
one animal wild or tame, that was
capable of such feat-the honey
loving bear
Bears, as we'll as deer, were not I'M
common Whereabouts, but we had never
tried to find either. But now that
bruin had found us, it was certain
that he would return to renew so
sweet an acquaintance.
Lancaster had a double-barreled
shotgun in his tent, which | think he
had never fired. l took the bicycle,
rode four miles to the nearest settlers
cabin, and borrowed his rife with
magazine full of cartridges. We de-
cided to lay an ambush that night
Daylight lasts late in that latitude
and season, and at nine o'clock it was
hardly twilight. Some of the bees
were still flying about, not yet recov-
cred from their excitement. We Sc
lected a screened nook on the hillside
where we could overlook the whole
establishment, lay down in the middle
of clump of weeds, and waited for
night.
Darkness seemed never coming
Long before dusk had fallen big
white moon rolled up over the burned
woods, flooding the wilderness with
clear light
This illumination kept the agitated
bees restless, and we could see them
lowering thickly about their en-
frances, while the homeless ones
crawled and buzzed over their ruined
hives.
l did not expect the bear to return,
if he came at all, before midnight
Lancaster and l were both tired, and
the night was warm. Soon | found
my eyelids dropping. Again and again
reused myself and punched Lancas-
ter with my elbow, but | must have
dozed, after all, although I never
seemed to lose consciousness of the
dark trees and vines and the white
hives in the moonlight.
DuI Suuu6uly, WIFI SuOCh VI cA-
element, became aware of a dark
object moving among the hives. At
the first glimpse l took it for large
hog, but as my vision and by brain
cleared, recognized the shutting gait
and dark fur of our honey-thief.
Lancaster was breathing heavily. |
put my hand over his mouth and
punched him, smothering his startled
ejaculation The bear had made a
leisurely inspection, shifting at hive
after hive, till he seemed to find one
that pleased him, when he reared up
and clawed off the three supers with
a single easy gesture.
This sight must have wrung Ian
casters heart, for he jumped up and
let fly one barrel of his shotgun. The
range was about fifty yards, and it is
not likely that he did much damage;
but the bear made leap aside and
stood glancing about uncertainty
Fearing that he would get away, |
sighted at his neck and fired.
The bear reared up and fell over
backward with snort, upsetting an
other hive. We both ran toward him;
and my companion, suppOsing him to
be done for, ran up almost to arms
length and discharged his other bar