“Alex!” called Clay, in a minute, “is it safe for the Rambler to come down there? What kind of a ledge is it you and the dog and the bear are on? You might look around, while you are there,” he added, with a laugh, “and see if you can find a fish for supper!”
“Oh, come on with the boat!” roared Alex. “I’m getting tired of holding the rowboat, and Captain Joe is worrying the bear to death.”
“Have you honestly got a bear?” asked Gran “What are you going to do with him? He might bite us,” he added, thoughtfully.
The boys heard Alex laughing and so understood that he was in no serious predicament. Captain Joe seemed to be talking confidentially to the bear.
At last the motors were ready, and the Rambler dropped cautiously down stream, under full control of the power and the helm. She passed the ledge where Alex and the dog and the bear were, picking them up with her flashlight as she went by, then pushed slowly up stream again, coming to the ledge with the current against her. At last her prow struck on a rocky bottom, and then she was held against the force of the stream by half power.
What the flashlight revealed was a boy, white bulldog, and a bear cub, all in a huddle on a level surface of rock about six feet in length and about half that width. Alex had evidently been tipped out of the boat when the ledge was struck, but had managed to hang on to the short line, so the boat was safe. Captain Joe was down at the water’s edge with his great paws on the back of the baby bear, which was trying its best to get its teeth into action on the dog’s leg.
The broken boatline was very short, and so Alex was pretty close to the water too. When the flashlight illumined the scene the bear cub gave a savage spring and almost passed from under the paws of the dog.
Alex was heard to laugh and seen to grab at the bear, and then the whole three rolled off into the river and the boat, thus released, swept past the Rambler and went bobbing out of sight. No effort was made to stop it, for Alex and the dog were drifting too, both clinging to the bear!
CHAPTER IX.—THE MAKING OF A CEDAR CANOE.
“Drop down! Drop down stream!” Case yelled, excitedly, as Alex, Captain Joe, and the baby bear swept by on the current. “If they get out of sight they’ll drown!”