The guide gaped at him open mouthed. “Great smoke, sonny,” he drawled, “yer look as if yer was th’ one thet had met a bar, not us.”
“I have, Jim, I have! It’s in there!” yelped Billy.
The guide peeped into the hollow, and a long drawn whistle of astonishment escaped him. Then abruptly his face sobered and he cast an apprehensive glance back at the forest.
“Must hev been three cubs,” he said, reaching in and catching the whimpering little bear by the scruff of the neck. “Bars don’t generally hev but two, but I’ve heerd say thet sometimes they has three. This leetle chap must hev strayed off while his mother was a-clawin’ fer thet honey. I reckon we better be movin’ right along. It ain’t goin’ t’ be no ways healthy round these parts when Mrs. Bar misses this leetle chap.”
Wrapping the cub in Billy’s jacket once more Big Jim set the pace for camp at a rate that kept the smaller boys on a dog trot, not without many a fearful glance behind them.
Camp was reached safely, where the news of Billy’s capture spread like wild-fire, and for once he found himself the hero he had so often pictured himself; wherever he went he was the center of an admiring group.
The doctor was petitioned in a round robin signed by every member of the camp for permission to keep the cub as a pet. This was granted, and “Honey,” as he was called, soon became one of the most important members of Woodcraft, where his droll antics were a constant source of amusement.
The Delawares were jubilant, for Billy’s prize scored them fifty points, and when a few days later the second bee tree was successfully lined out and this time the honey obtained without adventure, Billy’s popularity was secure for all time, for this also added fifty points, as he had foreseen it would.
“He was a harum-scarum before, and this sure will be the ruin of him,” Woodhull bewailed to his chum, Seaforth.
But Woodhull was wrong. There was a change in Billy. He was the same lovable, light-hearted boy as before, but the careless, reckless spirit that had so often led him into mischief was lacking. For the first time he seemed to have a serious purpose in life. And it dated back to the morning after the lonely night in the forest. Billy was finding himself.