“Say,” he said, with a chuckle, “if we don’t find that roll, we’ve got someone to lay it to. Eh? We can charge it to the bear!”
“You may charge our present plight to me!” Alex said. “If I hadn’t laid my automatic aside for a minute, I might have killed the bear, and all these complications never would have happened.”
“It was to be!” observed Clay.
“You bet it was!” Case added.
“You just say that to make me feel better,” Alex replied, almost in tears. “I’m a blunderer, anyhow.”
“We wouldn’t know what to do without you!” responded Case, tapping the boy on the shoulder. “Now, brace up. Things have got to change for the better before long!”
At that instant they saw Jule walking dejectedly up the river.
“I don’t see any boat with him,” Case commented.
CHAPTER IX
THE RAMBLER HEARD FROM