Jerry laughed aloud.

All his recent troubles, as viewed from the pleasant seat by the campfire, with his three chums around him, seemed to fade into insignificance.

“Well, I reckon I am.  There was a bear, too,” he said, nodding.

“What! a bear—­you ran across a bear?” ejaculated Will, drawing in a big breath and shaking this head as if he deplored the loss of an opportunity to embellish his album of the camping-out trip with more fetching views.

“Well, perhaps you could hardly call it that, seeing that he came looking for me, trying to push into the hollow tree where I had sought shelter from the storm.”

“That sounds mighty interesting—­trying to get in, too, was he?  And I suppose you objected vigorously?” suggested Frank, falling down by the fire and assuming a listening attitude.

“I knew I hadn’t lost any bear, you see; and, besides, there wasn’t room for two in that old stump.  So I asked him to please go away,” said Jerry, with a wink.

“Of course he did just that?” queried Will.

“After I had shouted, and fired my gun through the hole.  He was somewhat surprised at such a rude reception, for I guess that stump was one of his dens, and he thought he had the first claim on it.”

“Well, start in now with your getting over at the camp of Jesse, and give us all the thrills you want.  You’ve got proof about the deer and the wild dogs; but perhaps we’ll have to consider the story about the bear,” laughed Frank.

“And Andy Lasher’s repentance; that is the most surprising of all,” declared Bluff, shaking his head as though he could not understand it at all.

They sat there spellbound while Jerry skimmed over the entire account of his adventures since quitting the camp.  As the reader already knows what befell him, it would be useless repeating the story.  The three chums, however, listened and exchanged looks with one another as some particularly thrilling incident came along, as though they could imagine Jerry facing that big yellow brute that chased him round and round the tree until he was dizzy enough to drop ere he remembered that he had a gun in his hand.

“I move we go out there right after lunch and get the balance of the venison.  We may not have another chance to lay in a stock of fresh meat all the time we’re up here,” proposed Will, finally.

“Oh!  I can see that you’re doubting my story about the dogs, and wondering where under the sun I ran across these four tails.  All right, fellows, I’ll do the best I can to take you to the place.  Perhaps if we went to old Jesse he could guide us there much better,” declared the mighty hunter, calmly.

“He talks as though he courts an investigation,” remarked Frank; “and in justice to his reputation, I think we ought to settle this matter without delay.  So I’m in favor of going, for one; besides, I confess to a curiosity to see the dead dogs, and, perhaps, if fate is kind, look into the identical hollow tree in which Jerry passed most of that stormy night.”