"I had my heart set on bear steak. The only thing is, will old Bruin come now, after all this rumpus?" said Jerry disconsolately.
"If half that I've heard about his liking for wild honey is true, a dozen rackets like that couldn't keep him away. Joe, you know. Tell us if that isn't so?" asked Frank.
"Oh, he'll come, all right, if he smells that honey," returned the boy confidently.
"That settles it, then. We stay a while, at any rate," declared Frank.
Jerry was secretly pleased. Perhaps he did have a little streak of envy in his composition, for it galled him to have others succeed in his beloved sport while fortune denied him a fair share of the honors. But, taken all in all, Jerry was square enough, and would quickly change places with a companion in a boat when it appeared that all the fish were lying at his end.
Frank moved his position a little. Then they settled down to wait. Of course, every one of the three boys cast rather frequent and apprehensive glances up into the branches overhead. Sometimes these panthers hunted in pairs, and how were they to tell but what the mate to Frank's victim might be even then watching for a chance to leap down upon them?
An hour passed. Then Jerry heard a grunting sound somewhere close by. It was accompanied by a rustling in the bushes.
His pulses thrilled, while Joe, who had taken up a position alongside him after the adventure with the panther, put out a hand and nudged Jerry several times.
"Bear!" he said, in the lowest of whispers.
Again and again came the grunting and the swishing of bushes. Bruin was sniffing the delightful aroma of honey. It was so strong that his usual caution was apparently thrown to the winds, and he pushed forward straight toward the spot where the broken tree hive had scattered much of its delicious contents over the ground.