“Aw, cut out that blubbering, can’t you?” exclaimed Bob, impatiently. “How can we think of anything when that noise is going on?”
“B-but they’ll kill us all,” moaned Buck. “We’re as good as dead already.”
“Say, you’d be a lot better dead than alive, seems to me!” exclaimed Joe, contemptuously. “If you can’t do anything else, keep quiet, as Bob says. If you give us a chance we may save your worthless life once more to-day.”
“If we only had a gun or two!” said Herb. “I haven’t even a jackknife to put up a fight with.”
“We’ve got about the most powerful force in the world to-day right at our command, haven’t we?” demanded Bob, with a note of suppressed triumph in his voice.
“What do you mean?” they demanded, all together.
“Why, electricity, of course,” said Bob. “That raft is loaded down with it. We’ve got two fully charged storage batteries there, haven’t we? And any number of induction coils? If we work fast, we may be able to give the bear family the shock of their lives when they arrive.”
The others caught his idea in a flash.
“You mean connect up the batteries with the primary coil and give the bears high voltage juice from the secondary coil, is that it?” questioned Joe.
“That’s just it,” replied Bob. “But we’ll have to step lively, or they’ll be here before we can get ready for them. You and I can do the hooking up, Joe, while the others keep the raft steady and try to scare the bears off for a little while. I’ll climb aboard first, while you fellows put your weight on the far side so that our ship won’t tip too much.”