e about to
climb the trees and again attack them. They hesitated, however, and
kept moving angrily about from tree to tree. Sam and his comrade in the
third tree were soon discovered, and two or three of the bears made a
pretence of climbing it, but soon desisted and dropped back to the
ground.

In the meantime the rest of the Indians out in the canoes had heard the
growlings and fightings among the bears, and had paddled in much nearer
to the shore. By their expressive calls the Indians in the trees had
given to those in the canoes some idea of how the conflict stood, and
that they were still able to defend themselves.

The bears at length seemed to have come to some arrangement among
themselves, for they so divided that they began attacking the three
trees at once. The two that had come last attacked the tree in which
Sam and his comrade were ensconced; two of the other three began
climbing the tree in which were Alec and his comrade; while Frank and
his companion had only to face the remaining one.

"Strike them on the nose," was still the cry of the Indians. And
although the bears made the most desperate efforts to defend their
tender nostrils while they still advanced, they eventually had to give
up the attempt, one after another, and drop back to the ground fairly
howling with rage and pain. Angry bears have a great deal of
perseverance, and so this phase of the fight was not over until each
bear had tried every one of the three trees in succession ere he seemed
discouraged. After moving round and round, and growling out their
indignation, they tried the plan of as many as possible of them climbing
up the same tree together. However, as the trees were not very large
this scheme did not succeed any better, and they were again repelled.

"What trick will they try next, I wonder?" said Frank.

"Get your guns handy," was the answer, "for you may soon need them."

And sure enough the bears, after talking in their whining, growling way
to each other again, rushed to the attack; and while three of them began
each to climb one of the trees, in which were our friends; the other two
began climbing a couple of other trees, whose great branches interlaced
with those of the trees in which were two of the boys.

The Indians were quick to notice this ruse, and said:

"The bears must never be allowed to get up those trees above us, for if
they do it may go hard with us."

Very cunning were the bears, for they tr