“I’ve got it on my back all right, so don’t worry, boys.  And honest, now, come to think of it, I really believe the bundle saved me from a worse shock than I got.  I landed on it, if you please.  Don’t know how it beat me down, but it served as a fine old buffer.  I look on that blessed deer as my best friend.”

“Listen!” exclaimed Will just then.

All of them could hear what seemed to be shouts ahead.  They certainly came from the direction of the home camp.

“Now what do you suppose has happened there this time?  Can’t we ever take a little saunter through the woods without the camp being made the theater for all sorts of strange dramas—­wildcats, lunatics, and now what?” exclaimed Jerry.

“I think it would be just as well for us to sprint along and find out.  That Toby seems fated to get into the queerest scrapes ever heard of.  Here goes!” with which Frank began to run.

The others kept close at his heels, and as the outcries increased they even put on additional speed, bursting out of the timber to see as strange a spectacle as ever greeted the eyes of woodsmen returning to their camp.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHAT BLUFF DID

“Why, it’s a bear!” exclaimed Jerry, as the three boys came to a standstill on the border of the camp.

“It sure is, and nothing less,” admitted Frank, his face beginning to pucker up with the advance stages of a laugh.

“Oh! if I can only get my camera on him—­what glorious luck!” breathed Will, as his trembling fingers worked to drag the little black box out of its cover.

The bear was busy just then, in fact, exceedingly engaged.  He had taken to turning things over around the fire just as though some one had given him a sheriff’s search warrant, and he meant to use it to the limit.

“He’s hungry, all right; look at him getting away with the corn Uncle Toby was just going to cook for supper.  Say, that must be the same old critter I interviewed while I was caged in that tree,” said Jerry, tickled at the thought.

“What makes you think so?” demanded Frank.

“He’s so curious and so persistent, you see.  Besides, I don’t believe there’s another bear within ten miles of here.  Oh! it’s my old friend, you just bet.  And that means I ought to have the privilege of slaying him.”

“Don’t be piggish, Jerry.  Let some of the rest of us do something or other,” remarked Frank, with a touch of satire in his voice.

He had his own gun handy, and meant to have a share in getting a supply of bear meat for the camp larder.

“Do you see Uncle Toby?  I’ll be blessed if he hasn’t gone and made a ladder, and has used it to climb up in that tree yonder,” declared Jerry, snickering.

“Sensible old Toby.  If I had to make shift to be a monkey as often as he has, I think I’d have a ladder, too.  Saves considerable trouble, you see, and the wear and tear on his clothes counts, too.  But didn’t we leave Bluff in camp—­I don’t see anything of our pard, do you, boys?”