e up following the
trail farther, and all three were retracing their steps when the
elder of the chums cried:

"The rifle! Tom, you forgot to pick up your rifle."

"Which shows I was some scared," and he smiled apologetically.

"But it's a worse one on Larry and me," protested Horace. "There's
some excuse for you. But the bear wasn't charging us."

"Oh, well there's no harm done," returned Larry, pleased at the
spirit Horace's words showed. "We can go back and get it. It's a
mighty good thing, though, that we thought of It before we reached
the ponies. From the looks of the sky and the shadows it won't be
long before dusk, and Mr. Wilder told us night comes quickly in the
mountains."

Ere Larry had finished speaking they had started back to the scene
of their encounter.

Yet when they reached the spot Tom's rifle was nowhere to be seen.

In dismay the boys looked at one another. Already the mountains
were turning purple-black in the twilight, the shadows transforming
the trees and rocks into weird figures.

"Perhaps it's under the bear," hazarded Horace, his low voice
evidencing the awe which the silence and the surroundings inspired
in him.

"Then give a hand while we move him," commanded Larry. "It won't
do to stay here long or we may lose our way as well as the rifle."

Little relishing the thought of wandering through the woods in the
dark, the boys seized one of the paws and pulled with all their
might.

But, to their surprise, they could move the carcass scarcely at all.

"My, but he's a monster!" gasped Larry. "It's only a waste of
valuable time to try to lift him or even move him. The only thing
we can do is to try to feel under him with our hands."

Dropping to their knees, the lads thrust their arms under the
shaggy fur, being able to reach far; enough to make sure that the
much-wanted rifle was not beneath the body of the bear.

"Bet he knocked it over the cliff," declared Horace. "From which
side did he strike it, Tom?"

"More than I know. All I could see was paws. The air was full of
them and they seemed to come from all directions at once."

This explanation brought laughter to Larry and Horace, which ceased
abruptly, however, as from somewhere on the mountains there
suddenly rang out a low wail, more like the howl of a coyote than
anything else, yet with a certain difference that even the chums
were able to distinguish.

"Whatever that is, I don't care to meet it," excl