Phil Bradley's Mountain Boys Part 7

"Ethan--don't you see, he came down the chimney!" gasped Lub.

"Just what he must have done," added Phil, who was gripping the only firearm they owned, and wondering what effect a peppering of its tiny missiles would have on the tough hide of a black bear.

"I bet you he was nosing around up there, and smelled our grub,"

suggested X-Ray, a sudden gleam of light dawning upon him.

"And leaning too far over while he sniffed, he just _fell in_; that's what you mean, don't you?" demanded Lub.

"Looks that way," a.s.sented the other; "but what under the sun are we going to do about it, I'd like to know? He don't mean to crawl up again like he came down. See how he acts; I bet you he got scorched, because there's still some red coals in the fireplace, you notice."

The four boys were huddled in a bunch. It seemed like a case of "in union there is strength" with them just then. And the bear stood where he had been at the time of first discovery. He had his snout thrust out, and was "sniffing" at a great rate. Perhaps it was the human odor that interested him, though Lub got an idea in his head it may have been the food that was so close by.

"Phil, do you think he'll attack us?" Lub asked.

"I hardly think so," replied the other, steadily, after closely examining the appearance of the intruder; "that is, if we keep from making him more furious than he is now."

"Guess he's some surprised to find himself shut in with four husky boys?" suggested Ethan.

"And say, he looks kind of small to me," observed X-Ray.

"I was just going to tell you that," Phil went on to say; "I believe it's only a two-thirds grown cub after all."

"But even at that he's a dangerous customer, with those sharp claws, and his ugly white teeth," protested Lub.

"That's right," added Ethan. "If we tackled him, chances are we'd be sorry for it, unless we had something to knock him on the head with.

That makes me think of my bully little camp hatchet. Watch me sneak it right now!"

He started to move softly toward the spot where he had discovered the article in question. The bear began to growl more fiercely than ever.

"Careful, Ethan," cautioned Phil; "take it slow, and duck back just as soon as you've hitched on to the hatchet. Stop and wait till he cools down. Now, only one more step; then you can lean over and reach it."

All of them fairly held their breath, for it was a toss-up as to whether the suspicious bear would conclude to attack Ethan or not. The growls and sniffing continued, but the boy managed to get his fingers fastened upon the handle of his tool.

"Now, back up!" Phil told him.

Step by step Ethan pushed away from the dangerous locality. The bear did not attempt to follow, but resumed his former way of pus.h.i.+ng out his snout, and sniffing. Something evidently smelled mighty good to him, Lub thought.

"This is all very well," ventured X-Ray Tyson, who had also managed to arm himself with a billet of wood, "but somebody tell me what the end's going to be. Do we have to camp outside in the cold, cold world; or will we invite Mr. Bear to skip? That's what I want to know. Phil, how about it?"

By now Phil had realized that unless they did something to provoke the bear to extremes they did not need to fear an encounter with his sharp claws. A bright idea had struck him, which he hastened to bring to the notice of his chums.

"If ever we go to tell this story, lots of fellows will give us the merry laugh, you understand, boys," he remarked; "and if you're all willing, I'd like to settle it so we'd have the best of proof that a bear _did_ come down our chimney in the night time."

"Phil, do you mean that you want to snap off a flashlight picture of the beast backed up against our fireplace?" demanded X-Ray Tyson, as quick as anything.

"That's what I meant," he was immediately told. "See, here's the whole apparatus ready for business. All I'd want you to do would be to turn down the lantern when I gave the word."

"I'll look after that part of it," agreed X-Ray, instantly.

"And I'll hold my hatchet, ready to whack him square between the eyes if he tries any football rush on us," Ethan remarked, grimly.

"What can I do to help?" demanded Lub, weakly, yet evidently not relis.h.i.+ng the idea of being utterly ignored in all these valorous preparations.

"If you want to have a place in the lime light, Lub," ventured X-Ray, sarcastically, "s'pose then you just step up and engage the bear in a catch-as-catch-can wrestling match. It'll be a splendid chance to prove to every fellow at home how you had more nerve than any of the rest of us!"

Of course Lub knew this was all spoken in satire.

"You'll have to excuse me this time, X-Ray; I wouldn't want to run a chance of spoiling Phil's picture for anything. Guess I'll crawl up in my bunk again, so as not to take up so much s.p.a.ce. I'm afraid that if Ethan gets to swinging that wood chopper around recklessly he might gouge me."

Meanwhile Phil had arranged his little apparatus as he wanted, aiming directly at the bear. He knew that it was focussed just right for a short distance, because all that had been fixed previously, it being his intention to have small animals snap off their own pictures at about the same focussing point, by pulling at a baited trigger that was attached to the flashlight cartridge by a cord.

"All ready, X-Ray?" he asked, presently.

"Yep--let her go, Phil!"

As he spoke the holder of the lantern turned down the flame. Immediately the interior of the cabin became almost pitch dark. The bear could be heard sniffing as before, and evidently regaining some of his courage, which must have received a rude jolt following that plunge down the chimney.

Suddenly there was a blinding flash. It was all over in a second, but the boys could hear the bear scrambling on the hearth. Perhaps the coals burned his feet again, and forced him to abandon any idea of trying to escape by the same means he had employed in reaching the interior of the shack.

"Light up again!" ordered Phil; "it's all over!"

So X-Ray again turned up the wick of the lantern. The bear was standing there, growling, and looking more belligerent than before. Evidently he did not altogether like this sort of treatment. That dazzling flash had blinded him. It may have made him think of the lightning that went with a storm; and there was now no friendly hollow tree into which he could creep; only those strange, two-legged creatures whom instinct told him were enemies of his race.

"Looks almost ready to tackle us, don't he, Phil?" chirped Lub, from the security of the second-story bunk.

Ethan was swinging that s.h.i.+ning hatchet wickedly back and forth.

"He'd better not, if he knows what's good for him," he was saying, with determination written upon his set jaws and flas.h.i.+ng eyes; "I'd just like to get one good belt at him square between those wicked little eyes of his. We'd have bear steak for breakfast, let me tell you."

"But remember that the law is on bears yet, and if we killed him we might run up against a game warden and be arrested!" Lub warned him; for Lub was always well posted on all matter that pertained to the law, as became the son and heir of a well-known judge.

"We don't want to fight except there's no other way," said Phil; who wished to restrain both Ethan and X-Ray; for he knew they were apt to be impulsive, and it would not take much to precipitate a battle royal with the four-legged visitor.

"But what's the answer, then?" demanded the latter chum, indignantly; "do we sit down and watch him gobble all our fine grub without lifting a hand to stop him? Say, I'd be ashamed to tell the story afterwards; and him only a half-grown bear in the bargain."

"He don't seem to like that smoke you made, Phil?" remarked Lub, who had an unusually fine place for observation, being elevated above the heads of his crouching chums. "Couldn't you keep that going, and just force him to climb up the chimney again?"

"My flashlight cartridges are too valuable to be wasted like that, Lub,"

he was informed by the other boy.

"Then isn't there some way he could be made to retreat?" asked X-Ray.

"What if the whole four of us started to advance, shooing with our hands, and whooping things up, wouldn't he just understand that he _had_ to climb, whether he got his toes scorched again or not?"

Phil shook his head.

"I've got another idea, and it's so simple I only wonder n.o.body thought of it before," he told them. "The rest of you stay here where you are."

"I object, if you're meaning to tackle the varmint alone and single-handed, Phil!" X-Ray burst out with.