“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Tod said casually from his spot next to Nancy.
“I thought they were rare,” Nancy said.
Tod shrugged. “To the rest of the country, maybe. Not around here.” He grinned. “One of my buddies had one for a while.”
George’s eyes got round. “A bald eagle? You mean as a pet?”
“Yeah, a little one. For a while. He had a coon, too, but it got to be a pest.” He grinned broadly, and Nancy noticed that he was missing a tooth. “Made a nice cap.”
“A cap?” Nancy asked in disgust. “He skinned it?”
“Naw.” Tod grinned. “I skinned it.” He pulled a six-inch switchblade out of his pocket and began flicking the blade in and out. “Butchered and skinned it, all with this knife.” A flick of his hand brought the blade out again. “Sharp as a razor.” He grabbed Nancy’s arm and turned it over. “Bet I could kill a bear with this knife,” he boasted, touching the sharp-honed blade to the blue veins of her wrist.
Nancy jerked her arm away, staring at Tod. His eyes looked innocent, but she had seen plenty of criminals who looked that way. She would have to keep a watch on him.
But at the same time, she had the feeling that several people were keeping a watch on her. She could feel Paula’s amber eyes constantly on her. And from the other raft, both Mercedes and Max seemed to be watching her, too. Why?
After another hour and a half, Paula began to paddle the raft out of the current, toward shore. “Lunch break,” she called. She beached the raft on the sandy bank, where a small creek came gurgling out of a narrow canyon to join the larger river.
Paula pointed. “There’s a huckleberry patch a little way up that creek, under those willows. If you’ve never eaten wild huckleberries, why don’t you go try some while Max and I fix lunch?” She handed over a bucket for the berries.
“I’m ready for some huckleberries,” George said enthusiastically. “It’s been a long time since breakfast back at that motel.”
“Oh, Ned, this sounds like such fun!” Sammy exclaimed, clutching Ned’s arm.
Ned cast a look at Nancy, but Nancy glanced stubbornly away. If he was going to fall for Sammy’s ridiculous little game, let him! She watched him follow Sammy up the creek. Then she and the others trailed behind. The huckleberry patch was fragrant. Most of the kids feasted while they picked, and their faces and hands were stained with purple huckleberry juice. Bess sighed contently, bending over the dense bushes next to Nancy.
“Almost as good as the beach?” Nancy teased.
“Well, not quite,” Bess admitted. “Still . . .”
Suddenly she was startled by the crackling twigs and the loud rustle of leaves nearby. Bess looked up in alarm. She clapped her hand to her mouth. Then she gave a loud, shrill shriek.
“What is it?” cried Nancy.
Bess gasped.
Nancy whirled around, and there, rising up before her on its hind paws, its teeth bared in a fierce snarl, was a huge black bear!
Chapter Six
Nancy’s heart nearly stopped beating as she looked, terrified, into the ferocious mouth of the bear, its teeth gleaming yellow against the darkness of its throat. For a moment, like a slow-motion scene in a horror movie, the bear seemed to tower over them, claws outstretched, mouth open, roaring.
Ned and Sammy were a dozen paces away, picking berries. Ned looked up, horror in his eyes. “Get back, Nancy!” he shouted.
“Ned!” Sammy cried as Ned crept toward Nancy. “Don’t leave me!” She lunged for him, and they both fell sideways into the berry bushes.
“Scat! Shoo! Beat it! Get out of here, you stupid bear!” Suddenly Max was in front of Nancy and Bess, between them and the bear, clapping his hands and shouting. He snatched off his cap and flapped it under the bear’s astonished nose. “Scram! Shoo! Go!”
For a moment, the bear hesitated. Then its surprise turned to panic and it wheeled, dropped to all fours, and loped off into the bushes without a backward look.
“Wow!” Bess sank down weakly onto a nearby boulder and mopped her forehead with the tail of her blouse. Her face was white. “I have never been so scared in all my life!”