o crush
the life out of Phil's body, and gleaming teeth with which to tear his
flesh.

On he came, and, waiting his time, Phil once more plunged the prongs
deep into his chest, where they remained fast. A second later the bear
had shattered the pole with his paw, and, rushing at his enemy, had
beaten him to the ground and fallen upon him--dead.

It was a narrow shave, as Jim remarked.

"You're the biggest, yes, the biggest idiot I ever see, young un," he
said severely, as Phil lay in his bunk. "Here you go and attack a bear
as is always pretty wild, and only with a thing as is little better than
a toothpick. I can't make yer out. If it was me as was laid under that
there beast I might see some reason for it, though even then you'd be
pretty mad, I reckon; but when it's Tony, who's always a-naggin' at yer,
why, it fairly does for me."

"I didn't think of that, though," answered Phil cheerfully, for by a
piece of good fortune he had escaped with a severe shaking and a fright.
"There was the bear killing someone, and I was the first on the spot
and therefore bound to do something."

"Get on with yer! Bound to do something! Yes, it's run away most of us
would do--least--I don't know, though; I expects we'd have had a try to
drive the brute off. But for you, a kid like you, Phil, to tackle the
job all alone, and with only a pitchfork too, why, it just knocks all
the stuffin' out of me. Give us yer flipper, mate. You're a true un,
and don't you go a-telling me yer didn't know it was Tony as lay there.
I heard yer shout it. So no more of them fibs."

Jim got quite indignant, and then shook Phil's hand, squeezing it so
hard that he could have shouted with the pain.

"And that chap Tony's goin' to live too," he went on. "If he don't say
summat out o' the ord'nary, blest if I won't set to work and give him
the biggest hidin' he ever had. That is, when he's strong again. Now,
young un, turn over and get to sleep. You've had a roughish time, and a
go of grog ain't sufficient to pull yer round."

Phil obediently curled himself up and promptly fell asleep, but only to
dream that it was. Joe Sweetman who lay helpless upon the ground, while
the figure that was crouching over him, and that rushed at himself when
he ran to the rescue, was none other than "old Bumble", rendered furious
by the joke played upon his statue. It was an awful moment when Phil
plunged the fork into the old gentleman's massive chest, and