“Just a minute, and I’ll be with you,” came the voice again, unmistakably Sandy’s but for some reason half-choked and indistinct.
Then, out of a big snowdrift a hundred yards from camp, popped Sandy, covered from head to foot with snow. Dick and Toma ran to meet him, overjoyed at his safety.
“I thought those bears had finished you sure,” Dick said, much relieved.
“Well, they weren’t far from doing just that,” Sandy retorted drily. “I was looking through the packs for a tin of tea, a little while ago, when I felt that something was behind me. I looked around and there were those two bears looking at me as if they were hungry. They weren’t more than thirty feet from me, and I’d left my rifle in the igloo. You can bet I didn’t stand in that spot very long. I made a flying start right straight ahead, and when I reached those holes in the snow where the dogs have been sleeping, I dived head first right into a big one, and dug myself further in. Maybe I wasn’t scared. I expected every minute to hear those bears digging in after me. About when I was pretty near smothered in the snow I heard you start shooting. Say, you came just in time. I’d have suffocated in that burrow in about two minutes more. And I believe I’d have passed out right there rather than show myself to those bears.”
“Don’t forget to keep your rifle close to you after this,” Dick cautioned, though now that the danger was over he was amused at Sandy’s excited relating of his unique escape from the bears.
“Bear meat heap good eat,” Toma spoke up. “Maybe one them bear die somewhere in rocks. We go see, huh?”
“Not on your life,” Sandy declared emphatically. “I’ve seen all the bears I want to for to-day. I’ll be dreaming about bears chewing on me for a month.”
Dick laughed. “I don’t blame you, Sandy, but I think Toma’s idea about following the bears is a good one. We need meat, you know, and you can see by the blood on the snow around here that one of them at least might have been wounded bad enough so that he’ll die later.”
“All right, you fellows go ahead. I think I’ve had about all the trouble I’m going to have today, so you needn’t worry about me.”
“I guess you have, alright,” Dick called over his shoulder as he set out after the bears. “We won’t be gone long.”