ike notes, and were answered
by a chorus of angry yelps from the rest of the pack, which had been
shut up in the barn and were to be left behind.

"Now, I call this rather a formidable expedition," said Don, as David
came up. "If that bear is there to-day I wouldn't take a dollar for
my chance of shooting him. One bullet and three loads of buckshot
will be more than he can carry away with him. Here are the axes to
build the trap with, if we don't find him on the island; there's a
bag of corn for bait, an auger to bore the holes and the pins with
which to fasten the logs together. Bert and I worked in the shop last
night until ten o'clock, making those pins. I think we have
everything we wan't, so we'll be off."

The canoe having been hauled alongside the wharf, and the articles
which Don had enumerated being packed away in it, the hounds jumped
in and curled themselves up in the bow, David took his place at
the oars and the brothers found comfortable seats in the stern.
Altogether it was a heavy load the little boat had to carry, and
she was so deep in the water that her gunwales were scarcely three
inches above the surface; but there were never any heavy seas to be
encountered in that little lake, and so there was no danger to be
apprehended.

David sent the canoe rapidly along, and presently it entered the
bayou that led to Bruin's Island. As it approached Godfrey Evans's
cabin Dan arose from the bench on which he was seated in front of the
door, and ran hastily around the corner of the building. He did not
mean that Don and Bert should see him again, even at a distance, if
he could help it. He remained concealed until the canoe was out of
sight, and then came back to his bench again.

While on the way up the bayou the young hunters stopped once, long
enough to pick up a brace of ducks which Bert killed out of a flock
that arose from the water just in advance of them, and at the end of
an hour came within sight of the leaning sycamore which pointed out
the position of Bruin's Island. There was no one to be seen, but that
was no proof that the island was deserted. There was some one there
whom the three boys did not expect to see or hear of very soon, and
that was Godfrey Evans. He was waiting for Dan to come with the canoe
and the tobacco and other articles he had been instructed to purchase
at the store. He had watched for him until long after midnight, then
retreated to his bed of leaves under the lean-to for a