“If you were on dry land you’d be burnt to a crisp right now,” said Joe, scornfully. “We saved your worthless life at all sorts of risk to ourselves, and then you repay us by trying to dump our radio apparatus into the water.”
“I suppose you’d like to save that junk even if you let me drown, wouldn’t you?” whined Buck.
“It seems to me that it’s worth a lot more than you are,” snapped Herb. “If the choice were left to me, I’d say save the radio, every time.” Of course, he did not mean this, but he spoke in anger.
Buck gave him a black look, but made no further reply, and when he saw that the boys were determined not to allow him on the raft, he contented himself by hanging to the side, as the others were doing. Indeed, as Bob had said, this was the best way, after all, for it was the only escape from the fierce heat of the atmosphere. The Radio Boys took off their tattered coats and spread them over the radio outfit in order to protect it from the blistering air.
The boys pushed the raft further and further from shore, as the fire reached the water and burned fiercely. As they rounded a bend in the shore, they became aware that they were not the only living creatures who had sought refuge in the lake. Dotted about over the surface were the antlered heads of several deer, together with a number of smaller animals. But in addition to these harmless creatures the boys could see several shaggy black heads that undoubtedly belonged to members of the bear tribe.
“There’s a chance for you, Jimmy,” said Herb, unable to refrain from his jokes even in the face of this new danger. “You were telling us how you enjoyed killing bears for breakfast. As far as I can make out, there are enough bears in this immediate neighborhood to satisfy the most ambitious hunter. How will you take ’em—one at a time, or all together?”
“Gee, willikins!” exclaimed Jimmy. “I’ll steal some of Buck’s thunder, and tell you what I’d do to ’em if we were all on dry land. Seeing we’re all in the lake, the only thing I can think of is to call loudly for assistance.”
“Now you’re stealing Buck’s stuff again!” Herb pointed out, and, in spite of their desperate situation, the boys could not help laughing at the ludicrous expression on Buck’s face, half of anger and half of shame. However, they had little time for laughter. Several of the bears had sighted the raft and were coming over to investigate.
Now, in times of fire or flood, the wild creatures seem to forget their savage instincts for the time being, and in the common peril seem to pursue a policy of “live and let live.” The bears in the lake were too terrified to have any desire to attack the boys, but they were tired of swimming and wanted some place where they could rest. The raft looked inviting, and as the boys were unarmed it was hard to see what effective resistance they could make to the powerful animals. Once let them start to climb aboard, and the raft would inevitably be swamped and all the radio apparatus lost.
The boys were not slow to realize this, but that was of little avail unless they could think of some way to drive the animals off. All this flashed through their minds as they gazed blankly at each other, while the bobbing black heads came steadily closer. Buck Looker did not even try to think, and could only gaze terror-stricken at the approaching brutes while his teeth chattered from fright and he whimpered like a whipped puppy.