“Here I am,” Jerry’s voice rang out, so startlingly close that Sandy almost lost his hold on the branch. The sight of Jerry swaying back and forth on an adjacent limb at least five feet above him, arms and legs wrapped tightly around it like a monkey, made him weak with relief. In spite of their precarious position, he had to smile.
Jerry was appalled. “He’s hysterical. Stark, raving mad,” he cried. “Sandy! Snap out of it.”
“I’m fine,” Sandy said. “It’s just that I didn’t expect to see you up there.”
“Where did you think I’d be? Back there, Indian-wrestling with old Smokey so you could escape?”
“I don’t know how you got up there so fast. I didn’t even see you pass me.”
“Brother,” Jerry said huffily, “if you had been as close to that critter as I was you’d be back in Valley View by now.”
As yet there was still no sign of the bear on the ground below them. Sandy searched the rocky shelf where they had encountered him, but it was empty. The clatter of horses’ hoofs drew his attention back to the side of the ravine they had come from. Professor Stern and the other two men came galloping into view and reined in their horses.
“Here, in the tree!” Sandy hailed them. “We’re up in the tree.”
Stern’s face reflected his relief—and not a little amazement. “What on earth are you doing in a tree? And what were those shots we heard?”
“We shot the bear. Then he came to life again and chased us up here.” Sensing the professor’s understandable confusion, he grinned. “I guess that sounds pretty wild, doesn’t it?”