Part 6
Mason’s first thought was to fire above them. Then he saw how tightly the dogs were pressing the bear against the drop and how close Dean stood to the line of fire. He needed light, noise, and a few seconds of confusion. He took the flare launcher from his pack and fired high into the open sky.
Red light unfolded over the ravine.
The dogs broke their circle and scattered a few yards. The bear swung its head toward the light. Eli turned his flashlight on Mason; the beam shook across his chest. Drew called out his name before Dean could place him.
The flare drifted down beyond the treetops, making every trunk throw a long shadow. Mason could see the scrape where the bear had tried to climb the bank and slid back toward the drop. Its shoulder was wet with blood. The animal was upright, still fighting, but there was no room behind it. He remembered the ice shelf at the creek: a creature could be strong enough to survive and still be trapped by the shape of the ground. This time he could not break the obstacle with a rifle stock. He needed the dogs and the men to give it a path.
“Pull the dogs back,” Mason said. “I’ve reported the camp.”
Dean came up the slope with his rifle ready. “You were told to stay out of this.” The bear had not escaped. In the flare’s failing glow, one dog crept forward again, another darted at the animal’s hind leg. Mason backed sideways to keep a tree between himself and Dean’s barrel. He called to Eli, who had the lead ropes. Eli shouted for the dogs, but none would leave the bear while the others remained loose.
Dean told Drew to take the open side of the ravine. Mason heard brush tearing under the younger man’s boots. If the hunters fanned out, there would be no clear path into the spruce. He had one flare left. He could use it to mark his own position for the people Ruth might be bringing, or to open a path for the bear now. The red light was already dying; there might never be a better moment.
Eli held one lead in his hands, calling the closest dog by name. The animal looked at him and then at the bear. Drew’s flashlight picked out the other two circling back. Mason asked Eli again to gather them. “I’m trying,” Eli snapped, his voice frayed. He had followed Dean into the forest, but here he seemed to understand how quickly a dog could be killed or a man struck while trying to save it. Dean had eyes only for the hide. Mason saw the disagreement forming among them and kept talking, giving Eli a reason to stay with the dogs rather than join the line of guns.
“My wife has the camp location,” he told Dean. “Your names, too.”
“Then she can come collect what’s left of you.” Dean raised the rifle. Eli said something low and urgent, but Dean kept walking. Mason wanted to believe Ruth had reached somebody. Wanting it did nothing to steady his hands.
The largest dog sprang at the bear’s shoulder. The bear struck out, sending the dog tumbling into the snow. Drew yelled. Dean turned his barrel toward the movement, and Mason fired the second flare past the animal into a clear patch of ground beyond the dogs. It hissed red against the snow. All three dogs broke away. Dean flinched as the light burst across his sight line.
The bear lunged through the gap and vanished into the spruce.
Mason heard branches crack, then only the thin whine of a dog finding its handler. The animal had not turned on any of the men. It had taken the way out.
He kept his gaze on the opening until he was certain nothing large was coming back. One dog limped toward Eli, favoring a front paw; another stood over the spent flare and barked at it. Mason had no wish to see an animal hurt on either side of the clearing. He told Eli to secure the dogs. Eli knelt and clipped on a lead with shaking fingers. Drew, who had moved to block the escape, stared after the bear instead of lifting his gun again. For a few seconds the danger seemed to recede with the animal. Then Dean turned toward Mason.
Dean recovered first. He came toward Mason with his rifle raised. The launcher was empty, and Mason’s own gun was slung where he could not reach it without moving both hands. Eli grabbed Dean’s coat at the shoulder. “It’s gone. Let it go.” Dean pulled free. Drew stood halfway down the slope, unwilling to come closer.
Mason thought of the cup Ruth had poured into that morning, a plain white mug. There were things he had left unsaid for so long that he could no longer remember his first reason for holding them back. Dean sighted along the barrel. Mason heard a low mechanical hum through the trees and mistook it for wind until the sound rose and divided into two sirens.
Lights moved along the forest road above the ravine. Ruth had found them. Eli stepped back from Dean and raised an empty hand. Drew called for the dogs. Dean held his aim another long second, then cursed, lowered the gun, and ran east after the others toward their vehicles.
Mason did not follow. He knelt beside the spent flare launcher until he could breathe without shaking. An Idaho Fish and Game truck came through the trees with a county sheriff’s vehicle behind it. Two officers moved down the slope, identifying themselves and asking him where the armed men had gone. He pointed east, told them about the parked vehicles, and drew the map from his pack with fingers that would hardly close around it.
The conservation officer asked, “Are you injured?”
For the first time he could not answer immediately. His cheek burned where a branch had cut it. One knee felt unreliable. Beneath the noise of the arriving vehicles, he heard a dog barking far upslope and caught himself searching the darkness for a bear that was already gone. The officer waited without pressing him. Mason touched his chest and arms, found no blood of his own, and finally shook his head.
“No.” Mason looked toward the dark spruce where the bear had disappeared. “There’s an animal out there with a wound and three dogs after it.”
“We’ll deal with the men first,” the officer said. Another unit was already on the logging road. Mason understood then that the sirens had not arrived by chance. Ruth had made the calls, supplied the photographs, and kept telling the dispatchers what she knew until they sent help.
To read the rest of the story – CLICK the NEXT button 👇👇👇