“There’s nothing for us to do but wait for the rest,” said Bennie. “Golly, he’s a big bear! I wonder what he weighs?”
“I hope he stays where he is,” Dumplin’ put in.
“Come on, let’s tie our horses and sit down and wait. Oh, boy, we beat the others to the bear!”
“No, sir, I sit here. My horse can go faster’n I can. Two dogs aren’t big enough, all alone, to tackle that bear if he starts coming down.”
“Maybe you’re right at that,” Bennie admitted. “But, say, we’ve sure got one on the rest when they show up! We’ll tell ’em we kept right on old Ben’s heels, and beat ’em to it!”
“We’ll tell ’em so,” Spider grinned. “But if you think you can put it over on Mr. Vreeland you’ve got another guess coming.”
So they attempted to sit on their horses near the tree, but the horses had something to say about that. Some downward current of air brought a sudden bear scent to them, and they began to rear and back and wheel, so that all three boys jumped off as quickly as they could, and led the twitching animals a long way down the slope and tied them. They hadn’t realized before how much a horse fears the smell of bear.
“I nearly got spilled before I could get my foot out of the stirrup,” Bennie said. “Thought I was a goner for a minute.”
“Me too,” said Dumplin’. “This isn’t so much fun as it’s cracked up to be. Gee, I wish I knew how to ride the way Mr. Vreeland does! He’d just have made his horse stand still.”
As they were walking back they heard at last the bay of the other two dogs, and then the far-off sound of a horse crashing through lodge-poles. In two minutes the other dogs joined Ben in a dance below the big tree, and in two minutes more Mr. Vreeland and Tom rode up. Behind them, down the mountain, could be heard Pep’s and Mr. Stone’s and the doctor’s horses.