“Two of them!” burst out Ben, in a low tone. And then he added quickly: “I’ll bet they are the two animals I saw when I was taking those pictures!”
“Perhaps so, Ben,” answered Dave in a whisper; “although we are a pretty good distance from where you spotted them. However, that doesn’t matter just now. The question is—what are we going to do?”
“Shoot ’em!” came promptly from all of the others in a breath.
Evidently the horses had either scented or sighted the bears, for they showed great uneasiness. The bears, however, did not seem to be aware of the presence of their enemies. Both were bending down on the rocks, as if examining something intently.
“They are eating something,” said Roger, a moment later. “See how eagerly they are lapping it up.”
“Maybe it’s some wild honey,” suggested Phil. “I understand bears are all crazy about anything that is sweet.”
The shipowner’s son was right. The bears had come upon the remains of a “bee tree” which had been blown down by the recent high winds. A section of the tree containing a large portion of the honey had struck the rocks, and the honey had spread in every direction. Now the two animals were frantically lapping up the sweet stuff, each trying to get his fill before the other got it away from him.
“I guess Roger and I had better fire first,” said Dave. “I’ll take the bear on the left, and you, Roger, take the one on the right. Then, as soon as we have fired, you other fellows can let drive for all you are worth with your automatics while we are reloading. Then, if the bears are not dead by that time, we’ll try our best to give them another dose of lead.”
So it was arranged, and a moment later the crowd of five dismounted and tied their horses to some trees. Then they crept forward, keeping as much as possible behind the rocks, so that the feeding bears might not see them.
Ordinarily the bears would have been on the alert, and their quick sense of smell would have made it impossible for the youths to get within shooting distance. But now both animals were so absorbed in lapping up the honey spread around on the rocks, that they paid absolutely no attention to anything else. It is also possible that the smell of the honey was so strong that it helped to hide every other odor.