"Hope those sillies won't think to steal them off again. They might trap one of that lumberman's kids, and then the penitentiary for theirs, for sure," said Jerry, as he made sure the cover was secure on all sides.

"I rather think they've had a lesson this time, and won't be in any hurry to repeat the dose," laughed Frank; "come along boys."

Somehow Jerry seemed to lag behind the others.

"What's the matter with him?" asked Will, turning his thumb backward over his shoulder.

"Perhaps conscience is at work. Jerry has queer freaks, you know. Wait and see what develops," answered Frank, mysteriously, and, although his companion tried to get him to say more he absolutely declined.

It was a short time after this that they heard the boom of a gun.

"Hunters abroad, somewhere around. There goes a second, yes and a third.

Game must be plenty where they are," remarked Will.

Frank did not reply, but the other saw that he was smiling as if his thoughts might be pleasant just then.

"I just bet he's thinking of my sister Violet," was what pa.s.sed through the mind of the boy; but for once he was wrong.

They finally arrived at a point not a quarter of a mile from camp.

Frank turned to see if Jerry was coming along, for he had not heard a sound from him.

"How about that venison you insisted on carrying? I hope you didn't leave it in that miserable pit, now, for I was calculating on having a feast for supper?" he asked, seeing that Jerry still plodded along close by.

"I've got it on my back all right, so don't worry, boys. And honest, now, come to think of it, I really believe the bundle saved me from a worse shock than I got. I landed on it, if you please. Don't know how it beat me down, but it served as a fine old buffer. I look on that blessed deer as my best friend."

"Listen!" exclaimed Will just then.

All of them could hear what seemed to be shouts ahead. They certainly came from the direction of the home camp.

"Now what do you suppose has happened there this time? Can't we ever take a little saunter through the woods without the camp being made the theater for all sorts of strange dramas--wildcats, lunatics, and now what?" exclaimed Jerry.

"I think it would be just as well for us to sprint along and find out.

That Toby seems fated to get into the queerest sc.r.a.pes ever heard of.

Here goes!" with which Frank began to run.

The others kept close at his heels, and as the outcries increased they even put on additional speed, bursting out of the timber to see as strange a spectacle as ever greeted the eyes of woodsmen returning to their camp.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHAT BLUFF DID

"Why, it's a bear!" exclaimed Jerry, as the three boys came to a standstill on the border of the camp.

"It sure is, and nothing less," admitted Frank, his face beginning to pucker up with the advance stages of a laugh.

"Oh! if I can only get my camera on him--what glorious luck!" breathed Will, as his trembling fingers worked to drag the little black box out of its cover.

The bear was busy just then, in fact, exceedingly engaged. He had taken to turning things over around the fire just as though some one had given him a sheriff's search warrant, and he meant to use it to the limit.

"He's hungry, all right; look at him getting away with the corn Uncle Toby was just going to cook for supper. Say, that must be the same old critter I interviewed while I was caged in that tree," said Jerry, tickled at the thought.

"What makes you think so?" demanded Frank.

"He's so curious and so persistent, you see. Besides, I don't believe there's another bear within ten miles of here. Oh! it's my old friend, you just bet. And that means I ought to have the privilege of slaying him."

"Don't be piggish, Jerry. Let some of the rest of us do something or other," remarked Frank, with a touch of satire in his voice.

He had his own gun handy, and meant to have a share in getting a supply of bear meat for the camp larder.

"Do you see Uncle Toby? I'll be blessed if he hasn't gone and made a ladder, and has used it to climb up in that tree yonder," declared Jerry, snickering.

"Sensible old Toby. If I had to make shift to be a monkey as often as he has, I think I'd have a ladder, too. Saves considerable trouble, you see, and the wear and tear on his clothes counts, too. But didn't we leave Bluff in camp--I don't see anything of our pard, do you, boys?"

A sharp "click" close to Frank's ear announced that Will was at his old tricks again. He had snapped off a view of the s.h.a.ggy visitor squatted there with the open kettle between his paws, scooping up its juicy contents with evident relish. Canned corn was a treat that did not come his way every day, and Bruin meant to make the most of his opportunity.

"I thought I had a glimpse of something moving over there back of the tent, and it might be Bluff. I hope he don't try to shoo the old varmint off before we get a whack at him. I've only got bird-shot in my gun but at close quarters that ought to do as well as a bullet, eh, Frank?" asked Jerry, excited at the prospect.

"Wait I've a notion that you may be surprised yet. I've also a hunch, my boy, that there will be another claimant for the honors of this campaign. Sometimes surprises spring out of the very earth. Watch!" said Frank, laying a hand on the gun of his chum, as though impelling him to hold his fire.

Suddenly there was a loud bang!

The bear rolled over in a heap regardless of the congregated tinware that was consequently sent scurrying to the right and to the left.

"Who fired?" shouted the amazed Jerry.

"Look out, fellows, the old rascal's up again, and I guess I'd better get behind a tree with my camera!" exclaimed Will, suiting the action to the words with commendable rapidity.

Bang! went a second discharge at this juncture, and the bear now turning bit savagely at its hindquarters as though its wounds smarted severely.

Immediately a third discharge followed the others. Bruin had by this time apparently sighted the party from whom all these stinging cuts must have proceeded. He gave a roar of rage and lumbering awkwardly across the s.p.a.ce started to try and climb a little tree just alongside one of the tents.

"It's Bluff, and he's up in that tree!" shouted Will, as he peeped around his own shelter, and took in the picture with another "click."

"But--he's got a gun!" stammered Jerry.

"Of course he has. Didn't he bring one with him? Perhaps a good fairy may have given him a tip as to where it could be found. There! he has fired again, and that time he missed, for the range was too close."

Frank, as he was speaking, commenced to advance into the open.

"Looky out, Ma.r.s.e Frank, he chaw yuh up, clean suah!" bawled Uncle Toby, from the crotch in the tree where his ladder had allowed him to reach. "Git up heah, honey, whah he can't reach yuh. Dat b'ar am ma-ad clar t'rough!"

"Four times he's shot--didn't I say he couldn't hit the side of a barn.

Think of him carrying a Gatling gun," said Jerry.