"We might have sneaked away while they were eating that fine supper!" Sandy said, in a tone of disgust. "I think we ought to have medals made out of a cow's ear! That would be a good medal, wouldn't it, for boys who showed such courage in the face of the enemy?"
"Never you mind!" Thede answered. "I guess the bears are next to their job. We wouldn't have gone far before they'd been after us."
As the bears appeared in the light of the fire, now blazing fiercely and fast climbing from one dry limb to another, the lads saw the Indian raise his rifle to his shoulder and fire.
Instead of taking to their legs, the bears grouped themselves around their fallen mate and snarled savagely up into the tree.
"Oje will get another one in a minute," Thede ventured, overjoyed at the success of the first shot, "and then we can open fire with our automatics."
"Holy Moses!" cried Sandy. "Here we've been sitting here watching the panorama with our guns in our pockets! I guess we don't know much about hunting bears, when it comes down to cases."
"Well, it isn't too late to shoot yet," Thede declared.
"It's getting pretty hot here, anyhow," said Sandy, "and we'll have to drop in a minute, whether we shoot or not. This old tree seems to be as dry as tinder!"
"Yes," Thede agreed, "I guess you started something when you made such good use of that one match."
The boys moved about on the limb in order to get at their automatics. They noted then, for the first time, that the perch upon which they rested was burning close to the trunk. They called out to each other, almost simultaneously, to shift to the trunk of the tree.