He walked on and they followed. Pud was saying nothing, but he was having his troubles keeping up. He looked ahead at Mr. Waterman, who was apparently sauntering along, and he wondered how he did it. Fortunately for him, Mr. Waterman was very observant, for he noted Pud's distress and slackened his pace or stopped to point out some great pine tree or other object worth noting.
"Do you smell him?" suddenly said Mr. Waterman, as he stopped and looked around carefully.
"Smell whom?" asked Pud, stopping in his tracks.
"The bear," said Mr. Waterman. "Can't you smell something in the air? I can. A bear has been here not very long ago. Ah, there are his tracks." He pointed to an old pine stump, which had been clawed recently. The boys looked at the stump, but they saw no tracks.
"Come here," said Mr. Waterman, as he strode over the stump. "Bears like grubs, ants, and things of that kind, so you will often know that bears are around by noting stumps, hollow trees, etc., when they have clawed at them."
The boys came over. Bob looked at the stump and then down at the ground.
"There's a track," said Bob, as he pointed at a rather big print in the soft earth on the lower side of the stump. Sure enough, they could plainly see the footprint of the bear.
"Will he come after us?" inquired Pud, looking around rather anxiously, with his eyes resting finally on Mr. Waterman's rifle.
"I'll answer your unasked question first," replied Mr. Waterman. "No, this gun would be worse than nothing for a bear. It would only wound him, and that would only make sure of an attack. As for your real question, there is not one chance in a hundred that the bear will come for us. The bears in this part of the country are well-known black bears and they have hardly ever been known to attack men unless wounded or backed into a corner. Judging by the fact that I smelt this bear even before I noticed this stump, I would guess that we disturbed him and that as soon as he smelt us, away he went, and he's probably a mile away by this time."
They then went on, and after a good climb they came out on the top of the mountain. Mr. Waterman first led them to the southern side. The slope fell quite abruptly to a little lake far below.