out Van Sant sprang to Fitz's side, and again we heard him say: "Run,
Fitz! Over here. Make for the rock. I'll stop her."

It was the outcrop where Ward had been. Fitz jumped to make for it. He
hugged his camera as he ran. We thought that Van Sant would make for it,
too. But he let Fitz pass him, and he stood. The old bear was coming,
crazy. She only halted to scratch where a twenty-two pellet had stung
her hide. Van Sant waited, steady as a rock. He lifted his little rifle
slowly and held on her, and just as she was about to reach him he
fired.

"Crack!"

Headfirst she plunged. She kicked and ripped the ground, and didn't get
up again. She lay still, amidst a silence, we all watching, breathless.
Beyond, Fitzpatrick had closed his precious camera as he ran, and now at
the rock had turned.

"Shoot her again, Van!" begged Scout Ward.

"I can't," he answered. "That was my last cartridge. But she's dead. I
hit her in the eye." And he lowered his rifle.

Then we gave a great cheer, and rushed for the spot--except Major Henry;
he was the first to think and he rushed to see to little Jed Smith.
Fitzpatrick shook hands hard with Red Fox Scout Van Sant and followed
the major.

Yes, the old bear was stone dead. Van Sant had shot her through the eye,
into the brain. That was enough. Ward and I shook hands with him, too.
He had shown true Scouts' nerve, to sail in in that way, and to meet the
danger and to be steady under fire.

"Oh, well, I was the only one who could do anything," he explained. "I
knew it was my last cartridge and I had to make it count. That's all."

Then we hurried down to where the Major and Fitz and Kit Carson were
gathered about little Jed. Jed wasn't dead. No; we could see him move.
And Fitz called: "He's all right. But his shoulder's out and his leg is
torn."

Little Jed was pale but game. His right arm hung dangling and useless,
and his right calf was bloody. The whole arm hung dangling because the
shoulder was hurt; but it was not a fractured collarbone, for when we
had laid open Jed's shirt we could feel and see. The shoulder was out of
shape, and commencing to swell, and the arm hung lower than the well
arm. (Note 58.)

We let the wound of the calf go, for we must get at this dislocation,
before the shoulder was too sore and rigid. We knew what to do. Jed was
stretched on his back, Red Fox Scout Ward sat at his head, steadying him
around the body, and with his stockinged heel under Jed's