e some sort of connection with the
cave beyond.

"Gee--whiz!" he exclaimed. "There seem to be passages and corridors in
this 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 they
snuffed about the crevices along the slope, and finally fixed their
attention on the spot where the boys were standing.

Both boys, realizing that a mistake had been made, dashed into the
cavern and kept firing as the animals came into view, rather sharply
outlined 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 rugs
for our clubroom in Chicago, didn't we?"

"Yes, and you went and fired without killing them, and now we've been
chased into a hole! If they've got the sense to stand there and wait for
us 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 the
bears, 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 still
watching the entrance to the cavern. Tommy's searchlight showed the
entrance to the connection between the two caverns, and the boys lost no
more in changing their position. Tommy looked out of the entrance to the
hiding place and saw that the brutes had shifted their quarters and were
watching from a new position.

"I guess we've got into the kind of a mess Will predicted," Tommy
declared. "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 the
sentinel outside.

"Look here," Sandy advised. "You'd better save your bullets!"

"All right!" Tommy answered. "I suppose that's what we're here for--to
save bullets!"

"Well, you needn't be throwing them away where there's no chance of
hitting anything," grumbled Sandy.

Tommy retreated into the cavern and began investigating the wall with
his searchlight.

"If we could only find another corridor in this steam-heated old
collection of bear traps," he said, "we might get out of sight of the
brutes. 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 the
sout