"What can it be?" wondered Jack, round-eyed, gazing at the disturbance.
The mystery was soon explained and in no very pleasant way. Out into an open space there suddenly emerged the huge, clumsy form of an enormous bear. It was almost as big as a colt, and shaggy and ferocious looking.
"O-o-oh!" cried Sandy, his cheeks turning white.
There was good reason for the boys to feel scared. The bears of Kadiak Island are the largest in the world. The specimen the boys were now gazing at with awestruck faces was a giant even among his own kind.
"Cracky!" cried Jack. "That fellow could eat us all without salt. What'll we do?"
"Get back to the hut as soon as possible. We must make a detour to avoid him," decided Tom quickly.
"Is he after us do you think?" asked Sandy.
"No, I guess he's come after salmon. See, he's heading for the creek."
"Wow! Christmas!" yelled Jack suddenly. "Look, there come two more!"
Out of the brush from which the first bear had emerged there came two more shaggy, lumbering brutes. One was quite tiny, plainly a cub. The larger animal, which was a sort of yellowish-gray color, the boys guessed to be the little fellow's mother. It certainly was an exciting moment as, crouching behind a friendly patch of brier bushes, the boys watched the mother and cub join the head of the family.