"A fox?"
"Worse than that."
"You don't mean a bear, do you?" queried Whopper, with a shiver, and a hasty glance over his shoulder.
"Yes; and there he is!" shouted Snap, and ran for the trees. Helter-skelter the others came after him, Whopper pitching headlong in his flight.
"Hi! hi! Save me!" roared the fallen one. "Don't—-don't let the bear chew me up!"
"Where is the bear?" demanded little Giant, catching up his gun.
Then he looked at Snap, who was grinning broadly. "You're fooling!
Boys, it was only a joke!"
"A joke?" spluttered Whopper. "Do—-do you mean to say there is no bear?"
"Not here. But there may have been one last night."
"Snap Dodge, you ought to be—-be hung, drawn and quartered, and tarred and feathered in the bargain," said Whopper, severely. "it's an outrage to—-to——-"
"Let it drop, Whopper. Seriously, though, some wild animal has been here and eaten up part of our stores. The question is, could it have been a bear?"