ispered.

"Whoof!" it answered.

"Bear! Look out! There's a bear around!" said the camp, from bed to bed.

Down came the silk tent on top of Apache, and out from under wriggled
the Red Fox Scouts, as fast as they could move. Their hair was rumpled
up, they were pale in the moonlight, and Van Sant had his twenty-two
rifle ready. That must have startled them, to be waked by a big thing
like Apache forcing a way into their tent.

"Who said bear? Where is it?" demanded Van Sant.

"Don't shoot!" ordered Major Henry, sharply, sitting up. "Don't anybody
shoot. That will make things worse. Tumble out, everybody, and raise a
noise. Give a yell. We can scare him."

"I see it!" cried Ward. "Look! In that clear spot yonder--up along the
lake, about thirty yards."

Right! A blackish thing as big as a cow was standing out in the
moonlight, facing us, its head high. We could almost see its nostrils as
it sniffed.

Up we sprang, and whooped and shouted and waved and threw sticks and
stones into the brush. With another tremendous "Whoof!" the bear
wheeled, and went crashing through the brush as if it had a tin can tied
to its tail. We all cheered and laughed.

"Jiminy! I ought to have tried a flashlight of it," exclaimed Fitz,
excited. "If we see another bear I'm sure going to get its picture. I
need some bear pictures. Don't let's be in such a hurry, next time."

"That depends on the bear," said little Jed Smith. "Sometimes you can't
help being in a hurry, with a bear."

"Guess we'd better dig the burro out of our tent," remarked Scout Ward.
"He smelled that bear, didn't he?"

He certainly did. If there's one thing a burro is afraid of, it's a
bear. No wonder poor Apache tried to crawl in with us. We hauled him
loose of the tent, and helped the Red Fox Scouts set the tent up again.
Apache snorted and stared about; and finally he quieted a little and
went to browsing, close by, and we Scouts turned in to sleep again.

When I woke the next time it was morning and the bear had not come back,
for Apache was standing fast asleep in the first rays of the sun, at the
edge of the camp.

We could catch no fish for breakfast. They paid no attention to any
bait. So we had the last of the meat, and some condensed sausage that
the Red Fox Scouts contributed to the pot. During breakfast we held a
council; old Pilot Peak stuck up so near and inviting.

"I've been thinking, boys, that maybe we ought to climb Pilot, for a
record, now