ick of the lantern. The bear was standing
there, growling, and looking more belligerent than before. Evidently he
did not altogether like this sort of treatment. That dazzling flash had
blinded him. It may have made him think of the lightning that went with
a storm; and there was now no friendly hollow tree into which he could
creep; only those strange, two-legged creatures whom instinct told him
were enemies of his race.

"Looks almost ready to tackle us, don't he, Phil?" chirped Lub, from the
security of the second-story bunk.

Ethan was swinging that shining hatchet wickedly back and forth.

"He'd better not, if he knows what's good for him," he was saying, with
determination written upon his set jaws and flashing eyes; "I'd just
like to get one good belt at him square between those wicked little eyes
of his. We'd have bear steak for breakfast, let me tell you."

"But remember that the law is on bears yet, and if we killed him we
might run up against a game warden and be arrested!" Lub warned him; for
Lub was always well posted on all matter that pertained to the law, as
became the son and heir of a well-known judge.

"We don't want to fight except there's no other way," said Phil; who
wished to restrain both Ethan and X-Ray; for he knew they were apt to be
impulsive, and it would not take much to precipitate a battle royal with
the four-legged visitor.

"But what's the answer, then?" demanded the latter chum, indignantly;
"do we sit down and watch him gobble all our fine grub without lifting a
hand to stop him? Say, I'd be ashamed to tell the story afterwards; and
him only a half-grown bear in the bargain."

"He don't seem to like that smoke you made, Phil?" remarked Lub, who had
an unusually fine place for observation, being elevated above the heads
of his crouching chums. "Couldn't you keep that going, and just force
him to climb up the chimney again?"

"My flashlight cartridges are too valuable to be wasted like that, Lub,"
he was informed by the other boy.

"Then isn't there some way he could be made to retreat?" asked X-Ray.
"What if the whole four of us started to advance, shooing with our
hands, and whooping things up, wouldn't he just understand that he _had_
to climb, whether he got his toes scorched again or not?"

Phil shook his head.

"I've got another idea, and it's so simple I only wonder nobody thought
of it before," he told them. "The rest of you stay here where you are."

"I object, if