Dumplin’ gave his father one look of scorn.
“Bed!” he groaned.
“Bed!” said Bennie.
“Bed!” said Spider.
But Pep, who had stayed to dinner with them, said, “I’ve got to hunt up the editor of the Star, and tell him about this hunt—good story—more advertising for Bend.”
“Don’t forget to tell him how the three brave boys, alone and unarmed, got to the bear long before the skilled hunters,” said Bennie.
“I’ll tell him exactly how they did it,” Pep laughed, as he said good night.
CHAPTER XX
Bennie Achieves a Dog, and the Party Puts Out a Forest Fire
The next day, Sunday, they stayed in Bend, and, to tell the truth, the boys were just as well pleased. They were all three sore and stiff. Dumplin’ had a cut on his knee, Spider’s shoulder ached where a dead pine limb had torn both his shirt and his skin, and Bennie had three big black and blue bruises on his legs. The two scouts spent most of the day writing letters home, and also writing up the account of their long hike at Crater Lake, to Mount Scott, as part of the examination for a merit badge in hiking. Spider also studied his government pamphlet on Oregon trees, which he had bought at the Crater Lake Inn. Uncle Billy said that when they got into the heart of the Cascades they would encounter a great number of different kinds of trees, and Spider was determined to identify them.
While they were busy with this, Uncle Billy was busy at the telephone, arranging with a man who lived at Sisters, a little town nearer the mountains, to meet them Monday morning with a pack train, and take them in to Mount Jefferson.