156 THE STORY OF THE TRAPPER 



hands, &quot;what is done to my eyes? Is the fire out? I 

 cannot see! &quot; 



Then the man who had fought like a demon armed 

 with only a hunting-knife fainted because of what his 

 hands felt. 



Traitors there are among trappers as among all 

 other classes, men like those who deserted Glass on the 

 Missouri, and Scott on the Platte, and how many 

 others whose treachery will never be known. 



But Ba tiste s comrades stayed with him on the 

 banks of the river that flows into the Missouri. One 

 cared for the blind man. The other two foraged for 

 game. When the wounded hunter could be moved, 

 they put him in a canoe and hurried down-stream to 

 the fur post before the freezing of the rivers. At the 

 fur post, the doctor did what he could; but a doctor 

 cannot restore what has been torn away. The next 

 spring, Ba tiste was put on a pack horse and sent to 

 his relatives at the Canadian fur post. Here his sis 

 ters made him the curtain to hang round his helmet 

 and set him to weaving grass mats that the days might 

 not drag so wearily. 



Ask Ba tiste whether he agrees with the amateur 

 hunter that bears never attack unless they are at 

 tacked, that they would never become ravening crea 

 tures of prey unless the assaults of other creatures 

 taught them ferocity, ask Ba tiste this and something 

 resembling the snarl of a baited beast breaks from the 

 lipless face under the veil: 



&quot;S s sz! &quot; with a quiver of inexpressible rage. 

 &quot; The bear it is an animal! the bear! it is a beast! 



