Finally the wearied youth drifted into dreamland, slightly chilled but on the whole fairly comfortable. He became cramped and as a consequence awoke before the night had fully passed. He shifted his posture and noticed that the risen moon lighted the plain and showed the dark line of the forest on the farther side. He had reached the point of half consciousness, with his nerves at the highest tension, when he was startled by hearing a footfall among the shadows at his side.
“Somebody is prowling near,” was his thought as he sat upright and listened. He heard again the sound of rustling leaves, which showed he was not mistaken.
“Hello out there!” he called in a guarded undertone; “who are you?”
The noise ceased and there was no reply. Once more the rustling was noticeable.
“Why don’t you answer me? What do you want?—Great heavens!”
Well might he utter the exclamation, for there was an ominous growl and a big black body lumbered from the wood in the moonlight and swung toward the aeroplane.
“A bear, as sure as I live!” gasped Harvey, leaving his seat at a bound and taking care to land opposite the intruder. The latter stopped, looked at him and rearing on its hind legs, reached out one of its huge paws and drew the bag of sandwiches from its place. He must have scented the meat between the slices of bread.
The food dropped to the ground and he clawed the paper into strips, thrusting his snout among the tidbits, which he began devouring with the gusto of Bohunkus Johnson himself. No doubt he found them delicious, but the drawback was that the supply only whetted his appetite for more and there was none to be had. Again he rose on his hind feet and began exploring the framework of the machine.
“Confound you!” shouted the alarmed Harvey; “you’ll smash things all to pieces!”
It looked the next moment as if the bear meant to climb into the seat and take charge of matters. The grim humor of the situation struck the boy.