ht be sniffing the air in order to locate the place where
the food was kept.

It began to strike Thad as really comical, now that his own little panic
was in the past. He also noticed certain things that had not appealed to
him before, no doubt chiefly because he was too busy at the time to pay
attention.

But fancy the horror of poor Bumpus when, raising his head presently,
consumed by a horrible fascination he could not control, he actually saw
the bear _looking straight at him_! That settled it, and he just knew
that the savage beast had already picked him out as a tender morsel. Oh!
why was he so unlucky as to be born to plumpness? If only he could be
more like the skinny Giraffe, or Step-hen, perhaps this awful beast
would have passed him by.

He let out a roar as he saw the bear start toward him another step,
moving his forepaws as though growing anxious to embrace him.

"Keep away! Just you try to get one of them other fellows! They're the
ones you want, not me, I tell you. Scat! Get out!"

But the bear only advanced still another half hesitating step, and
Bumpus, unable to look longer, wriggled vainly in the endeavor to
withdraw within the shelter of the tent, and then dropped his face to
the earth again.

He believed that his time had come, and he might as well be saying his
prayers before he made a late supper for a wild bear.

About this time a glimmer of the truth began to work in upon Thad's
brain. He realized in the first place that no ordinary bear of the wild
woods would act in this remarkable fashion. No doubt, had it ventured
into the camp at all, it would have come on all four legs, "woofing" its
displeasure that human beings had disturbed the loneliness of its
haunts.

And by the way, as a rule wild bears were not in the habit of going
around dangling chains behind them, which was just what he discovered
this animal did. He had heard the peculiar jangling sound as the beast
first rushed the camp; but at the time was hardly stopping to
investigate its cause.

And perhaps that was why Allan was laughing to himself, rather than
because of the queer looks of the party perched in the surrounding
trees. He had already guessed the truth.

But the situation afforded no comfort to those other boys who stared,
and wondered what under the sun they could do if the creature selected
their tree to climb. Most of them were trying to remember whether bears
really did climb trees or not; and hoping that