e we sit we can
see a long ways to the north, as soon as the moon rises and we may be
able to catch sight of a grizzly coming out for an early lunch."

The lads were seated not very far from the entrance to the cavern which
had been occupied by Wagner and his son, but they had no knowledge of
the fact. It was not their purpose to investigate one cavern at a time,
but to watch the valley for anything that might come out of any one of
them.

They could see only a short distance when they halted but presently the
moon lifted into the sky and diffused a faint light over the hills. It
would be some minutes before the direct rays would, strike into the
gulch, and so the boys waited, hiding in the shadows, for that time to
come.

"I guess we've got one already," Tommy observed, whispering the words
excitedly in his chum's ear.

"I don't see anything that looks like a grizzly."

"Can't you see that there's a movement in the shadows about a hundred
feet, to the north?" asked Tommy.

"I see something moving but I can't tell what it is."

"It's a bear!" shouted Tommy, taking no pain now to control his voice.

"Yes," exclaimed Sandy, "and it's two bears, if anybody should ask you,
and they're coming this way!"

"Then we'd better get back a little ways," advised Tommy.

"I should say so!" cried Sandy. "At least we want to get into a position
where they can't get in behind us."

The boys turned back a few paces and sought a position where their backs
would be supported by the almost perpendicular wall of the bluff to the
west. Then Sandy grinned as he pointed to the south.

"I guess this is a bear convention," he said. "There's another grizzly
old scout coming from the other way."

"Three bear rugs," chuckled Tommy.

"Say, look here!" Sandy exclaimed. "Do we stand here and let these
brutes come up and smell of our clothes before we do any shooting?"

"We don't do any shooting from here," Tommy answered moving back to the
south. "If we should wound those big brutes without shutting off their
motive power, they'd chew us into rags, in about three minutes. We've
got to get some place where we can run!"

"Then what'd you back up against this rock for?" demanded Sandy.

"I didn't know how many bears there were in the world," grinned Tommy.

The boys moved a few paces and stopped at the mouth of a cavern. Tommy
threw his searchlight into the interior and saw only bare walls. On his
right as he looked in, appeared to b