"I fired two shots, but the first toppled him," insisted Hal. "Come, look here."
Hal Overton halted under the trees, pointing with his torch.
It was certainly a fine, sleek, heavy buck to which Hal pointed.
"But you didn't need all of us to carry it in, did you?" demanded one of the men.
"Not exactly," laughed Hal happily. "Swing on to the buck, a couple of you, and come along. I'll tell you the rest. Just after I fired the second shot I heard a growl close to me. Less than a hundred yards away I heard a sound of paws moving toward me. Then I saw him. There he is."
Sergeant Overton's torch now lit up the carcass of a dead brown bear, one of the biggest that any of them had ever seen.
"And right behind him," went on Hal, "was Mrs. Bruin. I can tell you, my nerve was beginning to ooze. But I fired—and here's the lady bear."
Sergeant Hal led his soldier friends to the second bear carcass.
"But it wasn't more than a second or two later," laughed Hal, though some of the soldiers now noticed the quiver in his voice, "that I began to think some one had locked me in with a menagerie and turned the key loose. Just beyond were a he-bear and two more females, and they were plainly some mad and headed toward me."
"Whew!" whistled Lieutenant Prescott. "What did you do?"