She heard her father's cry of apprehension, and the
next moment she caught sight of the remaining rebel
scuttling like a startled iguana towards the dense
plantation, where it would have been quite possible for
him to have eluded pursuit. But before he reached it
there was a sharp ping. He threw up his hands and fell
dead on his face. Douglas had made sure of him.
"It's all right, dad, and I'm not hurt," said the girl
reassuringly, as her father ran towards her with a look
of anguish on his face. "You just came in the nick of
time; they were going to ambush you. Don't let the horses
go too near the corral, as they will be stampeded again.
A dead bear is lying there."
In a few minutes she had told her father what had occurred,
and he had explained the delay. It had been as the two
rebels had said. The horses had gone off the trail into
a deep snowdrift, and it had required a great deal of
hard work to get them out. They had not heard the shot
which Dorothy had fired at the bear, for the very sufficient
reason that two bluffs intervened, and the fairly strong
chinook wind carried away all sound. They had not thought
there was any reason to be apprehensive about her, but
they had worked toilsomely to get back. Bastien had proved
a pleasant surprise in this respect--he had, doubtless,
by no means incorrect views regarding Riel's powers of
pursuit and revenge. That the two rebels should have come
back, and that a bear--a sure harbinger of spring--should
have made itself so intrusive were contingencies the
party could hardly have foreseen.
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