“If you lead the way, I’ll go along with you to that spring,” replied the other quietly. “We might fill our hats and perhaps that’ll be enough. I never saw a bear drink water, but in hot summer weather I should think they’d want it as well as any other animal. Come along, Arthur.”
Billy seemed in doubt whether to offer to accompany his comrades or remain there. He did not altogether like the idea of finding himself left alone with the bear. The rope looked thin and worn, and might break. So as soon as the others had departed, and he could hear their voices growing fainter as they hurried on toward Arthur’s pet spring, Billy proceeded to climb the tree against which he had been leaning.
“Gives a fellow a better outlook, for one thing,” he told himself, as he straddled the lower limb, “and then in case the sly old rascal did break loose, why I’d have a halfway chance to kick at him, and keep him down below till they came back and Hugh tied him up again. Scouts should be cautious as well as brave; that’s always been my motto. There, Hugh went and left that loaf of bread when he took Arthur with him to get the water. See that bear sniffing as hard as anything, would you? One thing sure, if he did break loose he’d start in to gobble that bread, and let me alone.”
Listening he could hear the other two talking some little distance away. It was from this that Billy judged they had arrived at the spring, and were proceeding to fill their campaign hats. Although this idea of Hugh’s might seem a little strange on the face of it, there was really nothing uncommon about his desire to relieve the sufferings of the thirsty animal. Scouts are taught to do just these helpful things whenever the opportunity comes along; and many a fellow has found a chance to turn his reversed medal over for the day by an act of mercy toward dumb beasts,—horses, cows, or even dogs in pain or trouble of any sort.
Given time, Billy might have thought to the same end himself, but his brain did not work as rapidly as that of some of the other boys, and as a rule he made slow progress.
He sat there, keeping a wary eye on the performing bear and guessing at the progress of his chums by catching the sound of their voices coming louder and louder with every half minute.
Then Billy breathed more freely when he saw their figures flitting carefully among the trees near by, so as not to spill more of the water than could be helped.
“Good for you, boys!” he called out as he hastened to slip down from his elevated perch, but not soon enough to escape the sharp eyes of Arthur, who immediately took him to task for deserting the solid earth.
“Wise old Billy, ain’t it?” he remarked, jeeringly. “He wasn’t going to take any chances of being nibbled at by the tame bear, was he? Climbed a tree, didn’t you, son? Just as if bears couldn’t shin up a trunk like hot cakes! You’re a bright one, I must say, Billy.”
“That’s all right and I am not ashamed to admit it, either,” asserted the other stoutly. “A scout should never be rash, the rules say. Why should I take unnecessary chances, when I knew that bear had his eye on me, and thought I’d make a good lunch? If he’d been tackling you, Arthur, I’d show you what I’d do if I had to grab him from the back, and wrestle with him like his master does; only he hasn’t his muzzle on right now, and that’d be bad. Does he drink, Hugh?”