CHAPTER VIII
A MIDNIGHT BEAR HUNT
"I have heard," Tommy said with a wink, soon after the departure of theboys, "that the best time to get a grizzly bear rug for a Boy Scout clubroom in Chicago is at moonrise."
"I think I've heard something like that, too," Sandy answered, with agrin. "That is," he went on, "if you want to get a grizzly bear rug fora Boy Scout club room in Chicago in the month of September."
"Yes," Tommy admitted, "I think the month of September was mentioned inthe information I received on the subject."
"And the best place to get a grizzly bear rug for a Boy Scout club roomin Chicago," Sandy laughed, "is in a range of foot hills built mostly oflimestone. You see," the lad continued, "water washes out limestone andleaves caves and holes which the bears occupy. Sometimes these caves andholes furnish accommodation for a whole family of baby bears, I haveheard, so we may be able to take a pet cub back to Chicago with us. Thatwould be pretty poor, I guess!"
"Well," Tommy said, rummaging the provision box, "if we start out to geta couple of grizzly bear rugs for a Boy Scout club room in Chicago, weprobably won't get back before sunrise, so we may as well take a littlesomething to eat with us."
"Trust you for always taking something to eat with you!" laughed Sandy."It's a sure thing you'll never starve to death."
The boys provided themselves with plenty of sandwiches and a couple ofcans of pork and beans and, after seeing that the fire was safe and notlikely to spread to the tents and provisions, and after changing thefeeding ground of the burros so that they had plenty of grass, startedaway toward the foothills.
"Of course," Tommy said as they walked along, "we may find Wagner whilewe are looking for bear, and Will and George may find bear while they'relooking for Wagner. I've heard of such things before now."
The boys crossed the valley to the foothills and clambered up the slopenot far north of the spot where their chums and Chester had gained thesummit. They descended into the gulch, too, and turned to the left.
"Now," Tommy said, seating himself on the slope, "the moon ought to beup in half an hour. I've heard that at the time the moon comes up bearsleave their beds in search of food. We'll just sit here on the slope andwatch the line of foothills."
"And I suppose," Sandy scoffed, "that you've got a notion in your nutthat a couple of grizzly bears will come walking out into the gulch,take off their hides, and make you a present of them in a nice littlespeech."
"Now don't get smart, Freshy!" exclaimed Tommy. "According to allaccounts, the walls of many of these foothills are punctured withlimestone caves. There's where the bears live. From where we sit we cansee a long ways to the north, as soon as the moon rises and we may beable to catch sight of a grizzly coming out for an early lunch."
The lads were seated not very far from the entrance to the cavern whichhad been occupied by Wagner and his son, but they had no knowledge ofthe fact. It was not their purpose to investigate one cavern at a time,but to watch the valley for anything that might come out of any one ofthem.
They could see only a short distance when they halted but presently themoon lifted into the sky and diffused a faint light over the hills. Itwould be some minutes before the direct rays would, strike into thegulch, and so the boys waited, hiding in the shadows, for that time tocome.
"I guess we've got one already," Tommy observed, whispering the wordsexcitedly in his chum's ear.
"I don't see anything that looks like a grizzly."
"Can't you see that there's a movement in the shadows about a hundredfeet, to the north?" asked Tommy.
"I see something moving but I can't tell what it is."
"It's a bear!" shouted Tommy, taking no pain now to control his voice.
"Yes," exclaimed Sandy, "and it's two bears, if anybody should ask you,and they're coming this way!"
"Then we'd better get back a little ways," advised Tommy.
"I should say so!" cried Sandy. "At least we want to get into a positionwhere they can't get in behind us."
The boys turned back a few paces and sought a position where their backswould be supported by the almost perpendicular wall of the bluff to thewest. Then Sandy grinned as he pointed to the south.
"I guess this is a bear convention," he said. "There's another grizzlyold scout coming from the other way."
"Three bear rugs," chuckled Tommy.
"Say, look here!" Sandy exclaimed. "Do we stand here and let thesebrutes come up and smell of our clothes before we do any shooting?"
"We don't do any shooting from here," Tommy answered moving back to thesouth. "If we should wound those big brutes without shutting off theirmotive power, they'd chew us into rags, in about three minutes. We'vegot to get some place where we can run!"
"Then what'd you back up against this rock for?" demanded Sandy.
"I didn't know how many bears there were in the world," grinned Tommy.
The boys moved a few paces and stopped at the mouth of a cavern. Tommythrew his searchlight into the interior and saw only bare walls. On hisright as he looked in, appeared to be some sort of connection with thecave beyond.
"Gee--whiz!" he exclaimed. "There seem to be passages and corridors inthis big bear tenement building. I wonder if there isn't an elevator,too."
"I wouldn't mind going up a few hundred feet!" suggested Sandy.
The bears came lumbering along toward the cavern where the boys stood,apparently not much interested in the visitors. When the moon rose theysnuffed about the crevices along the slope, and finally fixed theirattention on the spot where the boys were standing.
Both boys, realizing that a mistake had been made, dashed into thecavern and kept firing as the animals came into view, rather sharplyoutlined now against the growing moonlight.
"Now you have done it!" cried Sandy.
"Aw, what have I done?" demanded Tommy. "We came out to get grizzly rugsfor our clubroom in Chicago, didn't we?"
"Yes, and you went and fired without killing them, and now we've beenchased into a hole! If they've got the sense to stand there and wait forus to come out, they'll have a feast of boy flesh in a few hours."
"Huh!" exclaimed Tommy, "I didn't see you bringing down any of thebears, and you shot as often as I did."
"It sure was bum shooting," admitted Sandy.
The bears were now out of view, but the boys knew that they were stillwatching the entrance to the cavern. Tommy's searchlight showed theentrance to the connection between the two caverns, and the boys lost nomore in changing their position. Tommy looked out of the entrance to thehiding place and saw that the brutes had shifted their quarters and werewatching from a new position.
"I guess we've got into the kind of a mess Will predicted," Tommydeclared. "This looks like we'd have to stand a siege."
Tommy moved to the side of his chum and fired a couple of shots at thesentinel outside.
"Look here," Sandy advised. "You'd better save your bullets!"
"All right!" Tommy answered. "I suppose that's what we're here for--tosave bullets!"
"Well, you needn't be throwing them away where there's no chance ofhitting anything," grumbled Sandy.
Tommy retreated into the cavern and began investigating the wall withhis searchlight.
"If we could only find another corridor in this steam-heated oldcollection of bear traps," he said, "we might get out of sight of thebrutes. I wish we could find a hole leading up to the roof!"
The boys finally found a small opening which led into the wall on thesouth. After investigating and finding that it connected only with thecavern they had just left, the boys turned back.
Tommy, who was in the lead, sprang back when he came to the main cavewith a suddenness which almost threw his chum to the floor.
"Now we've gone and done a fine thing!" he cried. "The bears are outthere in the cave we're shut in good and tight!"