They dismounted stiffly, aching in every joint, and tied the horses in the shade. Dumplin’ flopped to the ground with a groan. “My knee’s all stiff,” he complained, “and the blood’s all clotted on my leg. Gee, I’ve got six tears in my pants!”
The boys looked themselves over. Their clothes were torn, their hands and faces scratched and covered with blood, and their thighs and knees sore with the bruising trees. They were, in fact, a woe-begone looking lot.
“And I could drink a barrel of water, and eat a ton of food,” sighed Bennie.
“If you talk about water, I shall cry!” Dumplin’ exclaimed. “My mouth’s full of cotton.”
“Go to sleep, and forget it,” said Spider.
“If the bear comes, wake me up,” Dumplin’ answered, closing his eyes at once.
While Dumplin’ was slumbering Bennie and Spider debated what they should do. It seemed pretty stupid to sit there all the morning doing nothing, when they had come 3,000 miles to Oregon for a taste of the real wilderness. But, as Spider pointed out, if they tried to follow the hunt again they would only get more hopelessly lost. Finally they decided the only thing to do was to wait till they heard some sound of it again and then make toward the sound. Unless the bear went clear around the mountain, sooner or later he ought to come within sound of them again, they reasoned. He would try to get back to his familiar hunting ground. They waited one hour, two hours, getting more and more thirsty, when Spider suddenly cried “Hark!”
Far off, somewhere, he and Bennie couldn’t yet tell where, they heard the deep, silvery bugle of one dog, apparently old Ben, who had the deepest voice. The hunt was coming their way again! Quickly they roused Dumplin’, and all three listened. Yes, there was no mistake! It was the bay of a hound, and it was coming nearer!
“There’s only one dog, though,” said Bennie. “What’s the matter with the others?”
“Probably old Ben has got ahead of the others, or they’ve got off on another track,” said Spider. “Let’s wait and see if it stops in one place. That’ll mean Ben’s treed the bear, I guess. Then we can go there and not get lost again.”