“Buster,” Frank spoke clearly, enunciating plainly so that he would be perfectly understood, “there’s a bear between us and yourself. Make a noise and attract his attention. But don’t shoot. Just make a loud noise so that he will look away.”
Buster let out a howl as if a wild ghost had gotten loose from some age-old graveyard. It had the required effect. The animal turned to see what was the cause for the noise, whereupon all three of the boys within the cave, led by Frank, charged at it with a set of wild howls and cries, all calculated to scare the animal before it could get ready to fight.
The effect was ludicrous. Like a child in the dark which is suffering from fear, the animal jumped—and then scurried to one side of the cave with a howling grunt.
Crack! Frank raised his rifle and fired point-blank, inducing another wild howl from the animal which they heard stumbling and grunting as it ran heavily through the darkness of the cave.
The three boys got to the mouth of the cave and one by one went through the hole, Frank remaining until last, facing back into the cave to watch for another charge by the animal. But the scare had been sufficient.
“We followed his tracks and we found him—I’ll say we found him!” exclaimed Lanky, laughing heartily over the tight place in which they had been.
“The uncomfortable part was that he almost found us, eh?” added Paul.
Around the hill or small mountain the boys trudged through the packed snow, finally deciding there was little more to be gained. The adventure through which they had been was, they concluded, just exactly enough for the day. Back by the way they had come they hiked, watching their signal rags, picking them up as they went, knotting them together for further use.
At the cabin everything was as they had left it, with the fire just dying down, the rooms all comfortably warm, though the temperature had dropped to a small extent, the skies turning to a leaden-color as the day waned.
Having gotten together a meal, all of them taking part in the necessary labor of preparation, they started plans for the next day. It was left to Frank to decide on the procedure.