re hardly out of his mouth before a succession of low,
angry growls came to the ears of the boys, and the next moment they
saw Oje springing into the lower branches of a great fir tree.

"I guess he knows what's good for his health!" shouted Sandy. "Me
for a tree, too!"

The boys probably never made quicker motions in their lives.

"Have you got a searchlight with you?" asked Thede.

Sandy shook his head sadly.

"Then we can't see to shoot the beasts," wailed Thede, "and it
looks to me like one of those long, cold nights in a tree!"

CHAPTER XVIII

A PILLAR OF FIRE

"Can you build a fire with one match?" asked Thede, after a short
silence, during which the boys had been trying in vain to get a
shot at the bears.

"Of course I can!" answered Sandy. "What's the good of going
through all those Boy Scout examinations, if a fellow can't build a
fire with one match? Of course I can build a fire with one match!"

"Can you build a fire with one match up in a tree?" asked Thede,
with a suspicion of mirth in his voice.

"Of course I can!" answered Sandy.

"Up in a tree in the darkness, on a windy night?" asked Thede.

"If this thing is going to your head, you'd better drop down and
make a run for the camp!" advised Sandy.

"Honest, now," asked Thede, "can you make a fire with one match in
a green tree, in a high wind, on a dark night?"

"Cut it out!" roared Sandy.

"Because if you can," Thede explained, "I think I can show you a
way out of this mess!"

"Well, go on and show it, then!"

"All you've got to do," Thede went on, "is to build a fire and drop
the burning brands down on top of the bears. That will bring them
out into the light for a second or two, and perhaps we can drop
them with our automatics."

The boys heard the Indian moving softly about in the branches of
the tree he had selected as a refuge, but paid little attention to
what he was doing. Afterwards, they discovered that he had dropped
his rifle at the foot of the tree, and was trying to secure it.

"Why did you say build a fire with one match?" asked Sandy. "I
always carry a lot of matches," the boy added, feeling in his
pocket.

"Find any?" asked Thede.

"Not a match!"

"I knew you wouldn't!" Thede said.

"How'd you happen to know so much?" grunted Sandy.

"Because," Thede replied, "I saw you feeling in your pocket for a
match and bring your fingers out empty while at the cabin. Then
you went to a match box and la