"So do I. I'd let him have it straight in the eye. Have you had breakfast?"
"I'm as hungry as a bear--as this bear who probably wants me for his breakfast. O Tom, if I was only back at Green Mountain Mills once more, I'd be content to live and die there, and all the gold in California wouldn't bring me out here again."
Tom stood silent and perplexed. While he was considering whether he could do anything to help his friend, the bear slowly rose, approached the tree, and, grasping it between his paws, prepared to climb. He was evidently tired of waiting.
"He's coming, Tom!" shouted Onthank. "O Lord, what shall I do?"
Mr Onthank's reflections when the grizzly was slowly but steadily climbing the tree were by no means pleasant.
"If he once grips me, I am gone," he said, despairingly.
"Shall I shoot?" asked Tom, looking on in excitement.
"You might hit me," said Ebenezer, who knew nothing of Tom's skill as a marksman.
"I think I'll swing off," said the Yankee, "and join you."
Whether this was or was not a wise thing to do Tom did not feel qualified to decide. It was evident that Onthank must do something speedily, or he would be in the power of the bear. He waited nervously till Bruin was uncomfortably near, and then, seizing the branch with his hands, swung to the ground. The height was considerable, and the fall jarred him; but, quickly recovering himself, he ran towards Tom.
"Now we must run for our lives, Tom," he said, suiting the action to the word.
Tom fully understood the necessity, and followed suit, first hazarding a glance at the discomfited bear.
When the grizzly witnessed the escape of his victim he showed no excitement, nor did he accelerate his motions. He began deliberately to back down the tree. This required some little time, which Tom and his friend made the most of.
"I can make better use of it," said the Yankee.
"I don't know about that," said Tom. "At any rate I will keep it."
He felt that it was hardly reasonable to expect him, in the presence of such a danger, to give up his only instrument of defence.
"You are only a boy," said his companion, discontented.
Onthank was not in general an unreasonable man, but danger makes men selfish.
"Give it to me," he said, in a tone of authority, and he tried to wrest it from Tom's hands.