Grizzly Fury (18 page)

“That pretty much describes a grizzly, all right,” Fargo said.

“I've underestimated my enemy and now those poor people have paid for my mistake.”

“Quit beating yourself over it.”

Grimacing, Wendy sat up. “This beast has to be stopped. We have to kill this blighter.”

“Dead as dead can be,” Fargo agreed.

They spent the better part of an hour searching for Bethany, yelling her name until they were hoarse. Then they attended to the bodies. The best they could do was cover them. All except Cecelia. Wendolyn insisted on burying her even though they had nothing to dig with except branches and rocks. They scooped a shallow grave and Wendy bowed his head.

“In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground. For out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Fargo waited, and when the Brit didn't go on, he said, “Was that the Bible?”

Wendy nodded and shouldered his elephant gun.

“Is that all you're going to say?”

“What else is there?”

The patches of blood still crawled with flies. Fargo kindled a new fire near where the lean-to had been. The coffeepot was intact and half full, and he put it on to heat.

The Britisher squatted across from him. “Let's assess our situation. Everyone else is dead. Our horses have run off. Most of our supplies have been destroyed. We're both wounded and hurting. Brain Eater is still out there somewhere and could show up at any moment. Is there anything I missed?”

“There's a storm coming,” Fargo said, and pointed to the west where a thunderhead framed the horizon. Flashes of lightning danced in the dark clouds.

“Just what we need,” Wendy said. “A good drenching.”

“It'll be a couple of hours yet,” Fargo said. “We'll finish the coffee and hunt cover to wait it out.”

“What then? Do we go after the bear on foot?”

“I don't think we'll have to,” Fargo replied. “When she's ready she'll come for us.”

“Tigers do the same thing,” Wendy said. “They turn on you, and the hunter becomes the hunted.” He closed his eyes and touched the bandage on his head.

“You all right?”

“I keep having dizzy spells. They don't last long but they're a nuisance.”

Fargo had problems of his own. His hip was stiff and his leg so sore he could barely stand to put his full weight on it. “We're not in much shape for bear-killing.”

“We have to outthink the monster. You know these animals better than I do. Come up with an idea that will give us an edge.”

“That's a tall order,” Fargo said. But he put his mind to it as they sat sipping coffee and listening to the distant rumble of thunder.

The wind picked up, bringing with it the scent of moisture. The sky darkened and the thunder grew louder.

They collected all the weapons and saddles and what was left of their supplies and put everything under a spruce. Its thick limbs would ward off most of the rain. For their own shelter Fargo chose a hollow overhang by the bank of the stream. As the first drops fell, they hunkered with their backs to bare earth.

Lightning speared the sky and thunder shook the ground. The firmament opened and unleashed a torrent, the rain so heavy they couldn't see more than a few feet.

Fargo felt an occasional cool drop on his face and the lash of the wind but otherwise he was snug as a bedbug in a quilt.

The stream flowed faster, its surface pockmarked. A piece of wood went floating past, and shortly after, a frog.

Wendy had his arm across his chest and his elephant gun across his lap. He began trembling and rubbed his hands together.

“You cold?”

“Like a block of ice,” the Brit confirmed.

Fargo frowned. The temperature hadn't fallen more than a couple of degrees. He wondered if infection was setting in. It was common with animal bites, and often fatal.

“When we are back to Gold Creek, the first thing I am going to do is take a hot bath,” Wendy said. “I may stay in the tub for a month.”

“You'll be the talk of the town,” Fargo joked. “Most men don't take but one bath a year and keep it as short as they can.”

“I've noticed that about you Yanks. Moose, God rest his soul, had an atrocious stink. And those Blackfeet had a peculiar smell about them, as well.”

“That was the bear fat.”

“I beg your pardon?” Wendy said.

“Some tribes rub bear grease in their hair to make it shine. One uses red clay. In the Southwest there's a tribe that's fond of smearing their hair with pulp they dig out of a cactus. Another uses buffalo shit sometimes.”

“My word. That's barbaric.”

“By your standards,” Fargo said.

“Here now,” Wendy said. “By any standard, to use buffalo excrement in one's hair is despicable.”

“Some use piss.”

“I'm beginning to suspect that you're making this up. No one in their right mind would do that.”

Fargo was about to say that people made do with what was on hand when he sensed movement in the rain. He looked, and a tingle ran down his spine.

Something was coming toward them.

 

Fargo stayed still. Whatever it was, odds were it hadn't seen them. Wendy went to speak and Fargo put his finger to his lips and then pointed at the vague shape in the rain. All they could tell was that it was big.

The thing stopped in front of the hollow.

Fargo placed both hands on his Sharps. Whatever it was, it knew they were there.

Wendy motioned at his elephant gun and at the creature and pantomimed shooting it.

Fargo shook his head.

Wendy silently mouthed the words, “Why not?”

As if to answer him, the rain parted and the Ovaro stuck its head under the overhang.

“I'll be damned,” Wendy said.

Fargo's joy was boundless. Reaching up, he patted the stallion's neck. “It's good to see you again.” The stallion nuzzled him and he scratched around its ears and under its jaw.

There was more movement, and a second and third horse clustered at the opening.

“Our lucky day,” Wendy beamed, patting one.

Thunderstorms in the high country swept in swiftly and just as swiftly swept off to the east. Already the rain was slackening and the lightning flashed less.

Fargo stayed put until the drizzle dwindled to random drops. Emerging, he led the Ovaro and another horse over to the spruce. Wendolyn brought the third. When Fargo bent and picked up his saddle blanket, he said, “Going somewhere?”

“Bethany,” was all Fargo had to say.

Two hours of daylight remained, enough for them to sweep in a wide circle. The rain washed away any tracks the girl made but Fargo had to try. Twilight was falling when he reined toward the meadow.

“I kept hoping Brain Eater will have another go at us,” Wendy said.

“Be careful what you hope for.”

Gathering enough dry wood to last the night took a long time. For supper they had coffee and beans. Fargo was ravenous and had two helpings. He was spooning up the last of the sauce when Wendy cleared his throat.

“What are your plans for tomorrow?”

“We'll look for the girl again. Yell our fool heads off and hope to hell she hears us.”

Wendy looked uncomfortable saying, “And if we don't find her? How long do we keep at it? The day after, as well? A week? When do we say enough is enough and get to the business of destroying Brain Eater?”

“We owe it to Cecelia,” Fargo said.

“I know that. I'm only saying that as much as we would like to find the child, we must face the possibility that we won't. The bear might have got her.”

“So long as there's hope we keep at it.”

They took turns sitting guard. Wendy insisted on the first watch, saying he wasn't tired.

Fargo lay on his side and tried to drift off but his mind was racing from all that had happened. He relived Bear Eater's attack in his mind's eye and couldn't think of anything he could have done differently to save those who died.

Death came in many shapes and guises in the wild. It came without warning, without mercy. One moment a man was minding his own business and the next he was fighting for his life.

Fargo would have thought that by now he would be used to it, but he wasn't.

An owl was hooting when sleep claimed him. It seemed not five minutes had gone by when a hand was on his shoulder, shaking him, and a voice was urgently whispering for him to wake up. He opened his eyes. “What is it?”

“We have company,” Wendy said.

Fargo sat up. He heard it right away: crashing off in the woods to the west. It sounded like a herd of buffalo were plowing through the vegetation but there were no buffs that high up. He laid a hand on his Sharps.

“What can it be?” Wendy asked. “I haven't heard any gnarls or roars.”

As if to prove him wrong, an ominous growl was carried on the wind.

“Brain Eater,” Fargo said, and stood.

“You're sure?” Wendy pushed up. “Why is she making all that noise?”

“You'd have to ask her.”

“I'm serious.”

“So am I.” Fargo had no idea what the grizzly was up to.

He'd never heard of a bear throwing a tantrum but that sounded like what she was doing. Or maybe, he mused, she was working herself up to attack them. Or—and the thought chilled him—she was deliberately making all that noise to draw them away from the fire.

The sounds went on for a while. Tree limbs snapping, brush crackling and popping. Now and again the bear growled. Finally the sounds subsided and the forest was quiet.

“I say, did she leave?” Wendy wondered.

Minutes dragged by and the silence continued.

Fargo sat back down and reached for his tin cup. He couldn't go back to sleep knowing the man-killer might be watching and waiting for her chance to strike.

“I don't mind admitting these grizzlies of yours wreak havoc with my nerves,” Wendy said as he reached for his own cup.

“They'll do that.”

“Tigers, rhinos, lions, you name it, all behave in certain ways. Even rogue elephants are predictable. You know what to expect.” Wendy stared into the darkness. “But not these great bloody bears. No animal I've ever hunted on any continent acts like they do.”

Fargo was watching the Ovaro. It would alert him if the griz came close.

“I never know what Brain Eater will do next,” Wendolyn said. “She seems to delight in bedeviling us.”

“No seems about it,” Fargo said.

“It's damned near demonic.”

“There's only one thing you can be sure of with a grizzly,” Fargo said.

“What might that be?”

“That it will kill you dead.”

Fargo was curious. As soon as they were up and ate and saddled, he rode west into the trees. Fifty feet in he came on flattened brush and broken branches and trees with claw and teeth marks. Brain Eater's tracks were everywhere.

“It's as if she went berserk,” Wendy said.

Fargo dismounted and led the Ovaro by the reins. The griz had torn a five- to six-foot swatch at the base of a knoll. He followed the path of destruction and discovered it went completely around the knoll so that soon he was back where he started. The knoll was bare except for a jumble of boulders at the top. “Cover me.”

The two largest boulders were giant slabs that leaned against one another. Between them was a gap half as wide as Fargo's shoulders. Hunkering, he peered in. He couldn't see anything. He reached in and felt empty space. As he was drawing his hand out he thought he heard a sniffle. A tingle of excitement ran through him. “Bethany?”

The sniffle was repeated.

“Bethany?” Fargo said again.

“The girl is alive?” Wendy exclaimed, and was off his horse and up the knoll beside him.

Fargo motioned for quiet. Bending lower, he thought he detected movement. “It's Skye, Bethany. You know me.”

The movement coalesced into a pale face streaked with tear tracks and dirt. “Skye?” she said timidly.

“We've been looking all over for you,” Fargo said. “Didn't you hear us calling?”

Bethany nodded.

“Why didn't you answer us?”

“I was scared.”

“Of the bear?”

Bethany nodded, and gulped.

“She's gone. It's just Mr. Wendolyn and me. It's safe for you to come out.”

“Where's my ma?”

“Oh,” Fargo said, jolted by the realization that she didn't know.

“Where is she? Why isn't she with you?”

“God,” Wendy said.

“Bethany,” Fargo said softly. “I'm afraid it's just the three of us—” He got no further.

The girl's face disappeared and racking sobs came out of the hole. “No, no, no, no, no.”

Wendy sat on a small boulder and leaned on his elephant gun. “I've never wanted to kill anything as much as I do this bloody beast.”

Fargo waited for Beth to cry herself out. It was a long wait. When all he heard were sniffles, he turned to the hole. “Bethany? You need to come out now.”

She didn't respond.

“Please.”

“Go away,” Bethany said.

“Not without you. You can't stay here by yourself. You'll starve or the bear will get you.”

“I don't care.”

“Don't talk like that.”

“Ma is gone. Abner's gone. Thomas is gone.” Bethany mewed in despair. “I'm all alone.”