“Gracious!” Tom Wagstaff, “let’s run!”
“I agree with Tom,” added Jim, glancing around, as though he expected to see the dreadful beast rush out of the woods after them.
“You’re a fine set of hunters, aint you?” Bob; “after coming out to hunt game you want to run when you strike the trail of the very creature you’re looking for.”
“I aint looking for bears,” said Tom, “I haven’t lost any.”
“And besides,” added Jim, “there isn’t any fallen tree here where we can crawl under to get out of the way.”
“But there’s plenty of trees which you can climb—there he comes now!”
Tom and Jim each glanced affrightedly around, not knowing which way to run to escape the .
But it was a joke of Bob’s, and he made the woods ring with his laughter, while, as may be supposed, the others were in no mood.
“I don’t see any fun in that sort of thing,” Tom.
“You may do like the boy in the , who shouted ‘Wolf!’ once too often,” added Jim, ashamed of his weakness.
The next instant Tom Wagstaff shouted: “There he comes and no mistake!”
Tom and Jim were on one side of the streamlet, facing Bob on the other side, so that his back was turned toward the point at which they were gazing.
The expression on the of the couple was that of extreme alarm, though such a brief time had elapsed since Bob had given them a scare that they had not yet recovered from it.
“You’re right!” Jim added, instantly, as he and Tom wheeled and dashed off at the top of their speed through the woods.
Bob was they should not fool him. He laughed again in his fashion, throwing back and shaking his head.
“You can’t come that, boys!” he called, “it’s too soon after my little joke on you.”
“But, Bob, we aint joking,” shouted back Jim, looking over his shoulder, but still running; “the bear is coming as sure as you are born.”
“You can’t fool me.”
Bob had not the remotest suspicion that his friends were in earnest, but the sight of them climbing the same tree led him to think they were pushing their poor joke with a great deal of .
At this same moment he heard a crashing and among the bushes behind him, and, checking the words on his lips, turned his head.
The bear was coming!
An enormous fellow of the ordinary black species had been by Tom and Jim when less than a hundred yards away, and he was advancing straight toward the spot where the three were standing.
They were in dead earnest, therefore, when they fled, calling to Bob the news.
Had not Bob just played a joke on them he would not have doubted their , so that in one sense his was a punishment for his own misdoing.
It need not be said that the laughter on Bob Budd’s lips froze, and he made a break after his companions, who had so much the start of him.
“Gracious!” he muttered, “I didn’t think they were in earnest; I’m a goner this time sure.”
Nevertheless he had no thought of sitting down and waiting to be by bruin, who along in his awkward fashion, rapidly drawing near him.
Bob’s hat went off, his gun was flung from his hand, and with one bound he landed far beyond the edge of the streamlet and made after his friends, throwing terrified glances over his shoulder at the brute, which took up the pursuit as though it was the most enjoyable sport he had had in a long time.
Once more the vines got in the way, and the panic-stricken fell on his hands and knees, bounding instantly to his feet and making for the tree where his friends had secured refuge.
By this time the bear was almost upon him, so close indeed that he reached out one of his paws to seize his victim.
No words can picture the terror of Bob Budd when he felt the long nails scratching down his back and actually tearing his coat, but bruin was a few inches too short, and the youth made such good time that he struck the tree a number of paces in advance of his pursuer.
The fugitive, however, did not stop, for before he could climb the brief distance necessary to reach the limbs, the beast would have had him at his mercy. He therefore continued his flight, yelling in such a of fright that he really did no............