Finally came the sharp report. They saw the bear roll over, try to
stagger up again, struggle vehemently, and then gradually grow weaker.

"Hurrah, Jerry! He's your bag!" shouted Frank, as genuinely happy as
though it had been his own shot that did the business; perhaps more so.

"Oh! what a night! Bring on your bears and panthers, your crocodiles and
tomcats!" cried Jerry. "We can take care of a whole menagerie. Talk to me
about your hunting preserves! Did you ever meet up with anything that
equals this?"

Realizing that the boys on board the motorboat must be consumed with
eagerness to know what the result of these two shots might be, Frank now
proposed that they go aboard.

"We want some sleep, you see. In the morning we'll be able to attend to
these fellows. I guess nothing will bother them until then," he said.

He and Joe entered the little dinghy, and it was ferried across the water
to the anchored boat. There they were met by both Will and Bluff, who,
being aroused by the first shot, had sat there, swathed in blankets,
watching for the return of the mighty Nimrods.

"What luck?" called Bluff, evidently repenting that he had not
accompanied them.

"Oh, Jerry got his bear, all right," sang out Frank indifferently, while
he kept on pushing the smaller boat closer to the other.

"But didn't you shoot? Will declared it was your shotgun that awoke us
first--it must have been hours ago," went on Bluff curiously.

"Why, yes. I had a shot at a gray visitor who threatened to jump down on
me from the tree." And Frank began climbing aboard so that Joe could go
back after the other chum.

"What! Do you mean a panther?" burst out Bluff.

"Sure! Wait till you see the chap, in the morning. Looks like a dandy,"
replied Frank, trying to appear unconcerned.

"Then you got him?"

"It was a case of getting him before he got me." And then, taking pity on
the boys, who were fairly burning with eagerness to hear, he told how he
had happened to discover the crouching beast that had crept into the tree
without their knowledge.

Presently Jerry came aboard. Both of the hunters, as well as young Joe,
were too sleepy for further conversation.

"You'll see it all in the morning. And Will, we can hang up the game so
that you'll have a fine shot at the scene, bee tree and all. Every time
we look at it our mouths will water at the thought of all that fine honey
going to waste," and with this parting remark Frank crawled under