The campfire was stamped out with care, so that there would be no danger of a conflagration in the forest so close at hand, and then the five lively chums leaped into the saddle once more and started off in the direction in which Ben had said he had seen the game.

“What made you think they were a couple of bears?” questioned Dave, as they rode along as rapidly as the roughness of the trail permitted.

“They looked as much like bears as they looked like anything,” answered his chum. “Of course, they were quite a distance away, and I may have been mistaken. But anyway, they were some sort of animals, and quite large.”

“Were they standing still?”

“No. They appeared and disappeared among the rocks and bushes. That’s the reason I couldn’t make out exactly what they were.”

“Perhaps they were deer,” suggested Phil.

“I think they were too chunky for deer—and even for goats. Besides that, they didn’t leap 143from one rock to another as deer and goats do.”

“Could they have been bobcats?”

“No. They were larger than that.”

The chums soon had to leave the regular trail, and then found themselves in a section of the mountainside sparingly covered with bushes and an occasional tree. The rocks were exceedingly rough, and in many places they had to come to a halt to figure out how best to proceed.

“Say, we don’t want to get lost!” remarked Phil.

“I don’t think we’ll do that, Phil,” answered Dave. “Roger and I know the lay of the mountains pretty well around here. And besides, I brought my pocket compass along. Just at present we are northeast of the construction camp.”

They could not go in a direct line to where Ben had noticed the game, and it therefore took them the best part of an hour to reach the vicinity.

“Now I guess we had better be on the watch,” announced Dave, and unslung the shotgun he carried, while Roger did the same with the rifle. Seeing this, the others looked to their automatic pistols, to make certain that the weapons were ready for instant use.

For fully half an hour the five chums rode up and down along the side of the hill and had Ben point out to them just where he had seen the two animals.

144“It looks to me as if they had cleared out,” said Phil in a disgusted tone of voice. “And if they have, we have had a pretty nasty ride for our pains.”

“Oh, don’t let’s give up yet!” pleaded Shadow. “I want to get a shot at something—even if it’s nothing more than a squirrel.”

“If you don’t watch out, you may have an elephant crashing down on you,” laughed Phil.

“Humph, I suppose you don’t care whether we bring down any game or not!” retorted Shadow. “You put me in mind of a fellow who went hunting. He came back at night, and his friends asked him if the hunting was good. ‘Sure, it was good!’ he declared. ‘I hunted all day long, and not a bit of game came anywhere near me to disturb my fun!’”

“One thing is certain,” broke in Dave. “You’ve got to be quieter if you expect to find any game at all. You don’t suppose a bear is going to come out on the rocks just to listen to stories.”

“That’s right! He couldn’t bear to do it!” cried Roger gayly.

“My, my, but that’s a bare-faced joke!” cried Phil; and then there was a general laugh over the little puns.

After that the youths became silent, and the only sound that broke the stillness was the clatter 145of the horses as they passed over the rocks between the brushwood. Thus another half hour passed, and still nothing in the way of game was brought to view.

“I guess we’ll have to give it up and continue our trip,” said Roger at last.

To this the others agreed, and then all started off in another direction to hit the regular trail where it wound off towards the railroad station.

“I think we can make a sort of semicircle,” said Dave. “And if we don’t lose too much time we’ll be able to get back to the construction camp by seven or eight o’clock.”

All were disappointed that they had not seen any game, and the others began to poke fun at Ben, stating that his eyesight must have deceived him.

“It didn’t deceive me at all,” insisted the son of the Crumville real estate dealer. “I know I saw them as plain as day. But what the animals were, I can’t say.”

“Oh, well, never mind!” cried Phil gayly. “If we can’t bring down any game, we can have a good time anyway. Let’s have a song.”

“All right, boys. Everybody go to it!” cried Dave. “Oak Hall forever!” And then all present began to sing, to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, a song they had sung ever since they had first gone to Oak Hall.
146“Oak Hall we never shall forget,
No matter where we roam;
It is the very best of schools,
To us it’s just like home.
Then give three cheers, and let them ring
Throughout this world so wide,
To let the people know that we
Elect to here abide!”

They sang it exceeding well, Dave and Roger in their tenor voices, Phil and Ben filling in with their baritone, and the long and lanky Shadow adding his bass voice, which every day seemed to be growing deeper. Then, after the verse was finished, at a signal from Roger, all let up the old school cry:
“Baseball!
Football!
Oak Hall
Has the call!
Biff! Boom! Bang! Whoop!”

“Oh, my! wouldn’t it be grand if we were all going back to school to-morrow?” burst out Phil.