"I am just as sorry as I can be, Bluff, really I am, and I'd give the world if I hadn't played that trick. At first I was going to own up, but when you went off after the Lasher crowd it—well, I didn't see how I could do it. But after I got it back I hoped every hour that you would look into the box and discover the gun. Oh, say you'll forgive me!" added Jerry, pleadingly.
"Well, I feel a bit raw about it yet, but this is no time to show resentment, with such a glorious trophy at my feet. Yes, we'll call it quits, Jerry, only after this you might forget to sneer at a gun that happens to be different from yours."
"I agree, and that ends it," said Jerry, as he squeezed the other's hand.
CHAPTER XXV
BREAKING CAMP
And they had bear steak for supper.
Honestly, none of them thought a great deal of the treat, only that it seemed to be the proper thing for hunters to enjoy the results of their prowess with their guns.
Bluff was the happiest chap in camp, unless Will be excepted; he fondled that recovered gun almost the whole evening, and while Jerry winced every time he saw it, he dared not lift up his voice in protest after the great work which the so-called Gatling gun had done in the hands of a greenhorn.
Jerry with all his skill in the line of shooting had never been given the opportunity to kill a bear, and he felt that the time had gone by for him to class Bluff as a "come-on."
They spent a joyful evening, though, going over the exciting incidents of the last forty-eight hours again and again.