n.

Jerry went in the dinghy to try the fishing where the water was deeper,
and it was not half an hour before they heard him yelling with delight
as his little shallop was being towed around this way and that by a fish.

"Another shark! He'd better cut loose!" exclaimed Will, in some alarm.

Joe shook his head.

"No shark this time. I think he has got fast to a big channel bass. It
runs and then stops, then runs again. Shark keeps on all the while," he
explained.

It proved to be the case, for when Jerry came back he proudly exhibited a
monster bronze-backed prize that must have weighed more than thirty
pounds.

Of course it was hung up, and a picture taken, with the gallant victor in
the contest standing alongside, stout rod in hand.

So the evening came at last, and they turned their thoughts to big game.

Will and Bluff were elected to remain on board, as a penance for having
voted against staying over.

"We'll stand for that, all right; but if you should keel over a Bruin,
don't you fellows think we're going to let you fool us out of our share
of the prog," said Bluff.

It took two trips of the dinghy to land the three hunters. Of course, Joe
had only gone along to see the fun, for he had no gun.

Still, he was capable of advancing some good suggestions, calculated to
be of value to them while lying in ambush for the expected bear. It was
to be expected, for instance, that Bruin would make his appearance from
the dense thicket beyond the bee tree, so the boys hid themselves in
a semicircle, with the broken honey storehouse in plain view.

A fire had been started at a little distance, for otherwise they must
have been in absolute darkness. Joe said a little thing like that would
not keep the bear from coming after he had gotten a good whiff of the
powerful odor of sweetness that filled the air.

The bees had been hard at work carrying a portion of their store to some
new hive, but there were gallons of it still there. Everything was
smeared with the sticky substance, and Frank felt sure that if a bear
existed within miles of the spot that odor would be a magnet to draw the
animal straight to the spot.

Talking was positively prohibited, and all the boys could do was to sit
as still as the hovering mosquitoes would allow, and watch.

Once or twice, Frank thought he heard a slight rustling somewhere near.
It was not what a lumbering bear would be apt to make, however, and
he concluded that in all pro