A MIDNIGHT BEAR HUNT

"I have heard," Tommy said with a wink, soon after the departure of the boys, "that the best time to get a grizzly bear rug for a Boy Scout club room in Chicago is at moonrise."

"I think I've heard something like that, too," Sandy answered, with a grin. "That is," he went on, "if you want to get a grizzly bear rug for a Boy Scout club room in Chicago in the month of September."

"Yes," Tommy admitted, "I think the month of September was mentioned in the information I received on the subject."

"And the best place to get a grizzly bear rug for a Boy Scout club room in Chicago," Sandy laughed, "is in a range of foot hills built mostly of limestone. You see," the lad continued, "water washes out limestone and leaves caves and holes which the bears occupy. Sometimes these caves and holes furnish accommodation for a whole family of baby bears, I have heard, so we may be able to take a pet cub back to Chicago with us. That would be pretty poor, I guess!"

"Well," Tommy said, rummaging the provision box, "if we start out to get a couple of grizzly bear rugs for a Boy Scout club room in Chicago, we probably won't get back before sunrise, so we may as well take a little something to eat with us."

"Trust you for always taking something to eat with you!" laughed Sandy.

"It's a sure thing you'll never starve to death."

The boys provided themselves with plenty of sandwiches and a couple of cans of pork and beans and, after seeing that the fire was safe and not likely to spread to the tents and provisions, and after changing the feeding ground of the burros so that they had plenty of gra.s.s, started away toward the foothills.

"Of course," Tommy said as they walked along, "we may find Wagner while we are looking for bear, and Will and George may find bear while they're looking for Wagner. I've heard of such things before now."

The boys crossed the valley to the foothills and clambered up the slope not far north of the spot where their chums and Chester had gained the summit. They descended into the gulch, too, and turned to the left.

"Now," Tommy said, seating himself on the slope, "the moon ought to be up in half an hour. I've heard that at the time the moon comes up bears leave their beds in search of food. We'll just sit here on the slope and watch the line of foothills."

"And I suppose," Sandy scoffed, "that you've got a notion in your nut that a couple of grizzly bears will come walking out into the gulch, take off their hides, and make you a present of them in a nice little speech."

"Now don't get smart, Freshy!" exclaimed Tommy. "According to all accounts, the walls of many of these foothills are punctured with limestone caves. There's where the bears live. From where we sit we can see a long ways to the north, as soon as the moon rises and we may be able to catch sight of a grizzly coming out for an early lunch."

The lads were seated not very far from the entrance to the cavern which had been occupied by Wagner and his son, but they had no knowledge of the fact. It was not their purpose to investigate one cavern at a time, but to watch the valley for anything that might come out of any one of them.

They could see only a short distance when they halted but presently the moon lifted into the sky and diffused a faint light over the hills. It would be some minutes before the direct rays would, strike into the gulch, and so the boys waited, hiding in the shadows, for that time to come.

"I guess we've got one already," Tommy observed, whispering the words excitedly in his chum's ear.

"I don't see anything that looks like a grizzly."

"Can't you see that there's a movement in the shadows about a hundred feet, to the north?" asked Tommy.

"I see something moving but I can't tell what it is."

"It's a bear!" shouted Tommy, taking no pain now to control his voice.

"Yes," exclaimed Sandy, "and it's two bears, if anybody should ask you, and they're coming this way!"

"Then we'd better get back a little ways," advised Tommy.

"I should say so!" cried Sandy. "At least we want to get into a position where they can't get in behind us."

The boys turned back a few paces and sought a position where their backs would be supported by the almost perpendicular wall of the bluff to the west. Then Sandy grinned as he pointed to the south.

"I guess this is a bear convention," he said. "There's another grizzly old scout coming from the other way."

"Three bear rugs," chuckled Tommy.

"Say, look here!" Sandy exclaimed. "Do we stand here and let these brutes come up and smell of our clothes before we do any shooting?"

"We don't do any shooting from here," Tommy answered moving back to the south. "If we should wound those big brutes without shutting off their motive power, they'd chew us into rags, in about three minutes. We've got to get some place where we can run!"

"Then what'd you back up against this rock for?" demanded Sandy.

"I didn't know how many bears there were in the world," grinned Tommy.

The boys moved a few paces and stopped at the mouth of a cavern. Tommy threw his searchlight into the interior and saw only bare walls. On his right as he looked in, appeared to be some sort of connection with the cave beyond.

"Gee--whiz!" he exclaimed. "There seem to be pa.s.sages and corridors in this big bear tenement building. I wonder if there isn't an elevator, too."

"I wouldn't mind going up a few hundred feet!" suggested Sandy.

The bears came lumbering along toward the cavern where the boys stood, apparently not much interested in the visitors. When the moon rose they snuffed about the crevices along the slope, and finally fixed their attention on the spot where the boys were standing.

Both boys, realizing that a mistake had been made, dashed into the cavern and kept firing as the animals came into view, rather sharply outlined now against the growing moonlight.

"Now you have done it!" cried Sandy.

"Aw, what have I done?" demanded Tommy. "We came out to get grizzly rugs for our clubroom in Chicago, didn't we?"

"Yes, and you went and fired without killing them, and now we've been chased into a hole! If they've got the sense to stand there and wait for us to come out, they'll have a feast of boy flesh in a few hours."

"Huh!" exclaimed Tommy, "I didn't see you bringing down any of the bears, and you shot as often as I did."

"It sure was b.u.m shooting," admitted Sandy.

The bears were now out of view, but the boys knew that they were still watching the entrance to the cavern. Tommy's searchlight showed the entrance to the connection between the two caverns, and the boys lost no more in changing their position. Tommy looked out of the entrance to the hiding place and saw that the brutes had shifted their quarters and were watching from a new position.

"I guess we've got into the kind of a mess Will predicted," Tommy declared. "This looks like we'd have to stand a siege."

Tommy moved to the side of his chum and fired a couple of shots at the sentinel outside.

"Look here," Sandy advised. "You'd better save your bullets!"

"All right!" Tommy answered. "I suppose that's what we're here for--to save bullets!"

"Well, you needn't be throwing them away where there's no chance of hitting anything," grumbled Sandy.

Tommy retreated into the cavern and began investigating the wall with his searchlight.

"If we could only find another corridor in this steam-heated old collection of bear traps," he said, "we might get out of sight of the brutes. I wish we could find a hole leading up to the roof!"

The boys finally found a small opening which led into the wall on the south. After investigating and finding that it connected only with the cavern they had just left, the boys turned back.