There was a chorus of shouts as the boys felt themselves falling, followed by a heavy thud as they brought up on the floor of the attic in a blinding cloud of dust and plaster.

They had been so close together that they all came down in a heap, in a waving confusion of arms and legs.

Fortunately the distance had been only a few feet, but it was enough to knock the breath out of them, especially out of Jimmy, who had the misfortune of finding himself at the bottom of the heap.

For a minute or two they were too dazed by the suddenness of the fall to speak coherently, or in fact to speak at all. Then gradually they disentangled themselves and got to their feet.

Their first sensation had been that of alarm and the second of shock.

But after they had in some measure recovered from these, there came a third sensation of immense relief.

For what had seemed at first a disaster revealed itself as a blessing in disguise when they realized that at least they had escaped from their pursuer. They were inside the house and had a number of ways of escape through the doors or windows available to them. The tables had been turned, and now it was the bear that was at a disadvantage.

They rubbed their eyes to get the dust out of them, and had barely begun to see clearly when they heard a voice calling from outside the house. The accents were foreign and they could not catch clearly what was said, but the words, whatever they were, were promptly followed by a scratching and clawing that seemed to indicate that the bear was sliding down one of the pillars of the porch to the ground.

"We must warn him!" cried Bob. "The bear will get him, sure!"

They rushed down the stairs to the ground floor and looked through one of the front windows. At a few yards' distance stood a man, short and stocky and of a swarthy complexion. A bandana handkerchief was wound around his head and earrings dangled from his ears.

As they looked, the great body of the bear dropped from the lower part of the pillar to the ground, and the beast turned and rushed toward the man.

"He'll be killed!" yelled Joe, in great apprehension. "Killed right before our eyes! Why doesn't he run? Can it be that he is blind?"

They all shouted in unison to warn the newcomer of his danger.

Then an amazing thing happened. The man not only stood his ground, but advanced toward the bear. The huge brute reared on his hind legs and threw his great paws over the man's shoulders. But even while the boys shuddered at the nearness of the tragedy that seemed about to be enacted, the man laughed joyously and pa.s.sed his hand caressingly over the s.h.a.ggy head and playfully pulled one of the brute's ears.

The boys looked at each other in amazement. The look gradually changed from one of wonderment to one of sheepishness. Then Bob turned the lock of the front door, threw it open and stepped out on the porch.

"h.e.l.lo there!" he called.

The man turned around and looked at him in surprise. It was evident that he had not known until that moment that there was anybody in the house.

"h.e.l.lo, you'sel'!" he replied, with a smile that showed a row of gleaming white teeth.

"Is that your bear?" inquired Bob, while his comrades, who had also come out on the porch, taking care, however, to leave the door open in case a quick retreat should seem desirable, cl.u.s.tered about him.

"Sure data mya bear," was the response. "He verra gooda bear. He dance an' maka tricks while I sing and we maka lota da mon. Mya name Tony Moretto. I coma from da Italy two, nearly tree years ago. I spika da Inglis good," he continued, with evident pride in his accomplishments.

"Doesn't he ever get cross and ugly?" asked Bob. "He looks as though he could eat you in two mouthfuls."

"What dat?" asked Tony, in a tone of aggrieved surprise. "Bruno get ugly? Nevair! He verra tame." And to prove it, he thrust his hand into the bear's mouth and took hold of his tongue.

Instead of this evoking any protest, Bruno took it as part of a game, and acted just as a big good-natured mastiff might while romping with his master.

"You see," said Tony, with evident pride. "He lova me. I show you how he minda me."

He gave a word or two of command and began a monotonous chant, to the notes of which the bear began to dance with an agility that was surprising in so clumsy an animal. Then he lay down and played dead, turned somersaults and went through his whole repertoire of tricks for the edification of the boys, who looked on with very different emotions from those they had felt only a little while before.

"What I tella you?" said Tony complacently. "Bruno verra nice bear."

"What made him chase us then?" asked Joe. "We thought he was going to eat us alive."

"He chasa you?" said Tony, in surprise. "No, no. You mus' be mistake.

He wan' to maka frens--to playa wi' you. Dat' ees it. He tink eet was a game."

"I wish we'd known that half an hour ago," murmured Joe to his companions. "It would have saved us a whole lot of trouble."

"How did he come to get away from you?" asked Herb.

"I verra tired," answered Tony. "I go sleepa in de woods. When I waka up I no finda him. He hunt for grub in da woods. Den he seea you and try to maka frens wi' you."

He took a chain from his pocket and fastened it to a collar on the bear's neck.

"Coma, Bruno," he said. "We go now."

"Wait," called Bob, and he and his companions emptied their pockets of what loose change they had and pressed it on the Italian, who at first shook his head.

"No," he said. "Bruno maka you much trubbeel."

"Never mind that," replied Bob. "You've given us a good show, and this will buy some grub for Bruno. He's a good old sport, and we don't bear him any malice, even if he did give us the scare of our lives."

He was so insistent that Tony finally pocketed the money, and with a smile and another flash of his white teeth trudged off through the woods with Bruno lumbering along clumsily beside him.

The boys watched the pair until they were out of sight and then turned and looked at each other. Then the comical aspect of the whole affair appealed to them and they burst into inextinguishable laughter.

"Stung!" cried Bob, when at last he could get his breath. "Stung good and plenty."

"Running away like all possessed when the bear was only lonely and wanted company," gasped Joe, wiping his eyes.

"He lova us, he wanta maka frens with us," chuckled Herb, and again they went into convulsions of mirth.

"Well, fellows," said Bob, when they had regained some degree of composure, "there's no doubt but that the joke is on us. But, after all, we've nothing to reproach ourselves for, because we're not mind readers and couldn't be supposed to know Bruno's intentions when he came galloping toward us. There isn't a man on earth who wouldn't have done just as we did under the circ.u.mstances."

"We can't say we haven't had excitement enough for one day," remarked Jimmy. "Gee, I feel as though I'd been drawn through a knothole. When you fellows came down on me in the attic, I felt sure that you'd drive me through the floor."

"We showed good judgment in letting you fall first," said Joe, with a grin. "It was as good as falling on a rubber cushion."

"I guess I was born to be the goat," sighed Jimmy. "I'll bet I'm black and blue all over."

"It's a safe bet that we're all pretty tired and sore," said Bob. "And that's too bad too, for we've got a lot of work to do before we leave this old shebang. And we won't have any more than time to do it, for it's getting on pretty late in the afternoon."

"What do you mean?" asked Herb. "Seems to me we've worked hard enough for one day."

"All the same we've got to fix up that roof before we go," explained Bob. "It wouldn't be fair to leave it open to the wind and rain after we smashed it in."

"I tell you what!" exclaimed Herb, struck with a bright idea. "Jimmy's the one to do that to the queen's taste. He's had a lot of experience in his father's carpenter shop, and he could make a far better job of it than any of us could. It'll be a real treat to see him go at it."

"Sure," said Jimmy sarcastically. "Just the thing. I told you that I was the goat. But all the same don't you try to hold your breath till you see me do it."