“How do you know the bears are out there in the cave?” Sandy asked, as Tommy drew back into the smaller cavity.

“Just take a peek out, if you don’t believe me.”

Sandy did take a peek out, and sprang back with a face which looked as white as a sheet of paper under the rays of Tommy’s electric searchlight.

“One of ’em took a swipe at me!” he said.

The boys turned their searchlights on the entrance and waited patiently for some moments for the bears to present themselves in the illuminated circle, but the animals seemed to understand that there was danger under the light, and remained around the angle of the wall.

“What are you going to do?” asked Tommy, presently.

“Blessed if I know!” answered Sandy.

“We might rush out and fill ’em full of lead,” suggested Tommy.

“Not for me!” the other answered. “They’d get in one good crack at us before we could pull the trigger, and then it would be ‘Good-night!’”

“How long do you think they’ll stay here?” asked Tommy.

“The bear has the reputation of being a stayer,” replied the other.

“Well, in time,” Tommy said, “we’ll have to make a break. We’ve got about enough provisions for breakfast, and after that, we’ll be on the verge of starvation as long as we remain here. So far as I can see, we may as well make a break right now.”

“I’m game for it,” replied Sandy. “We’ll dazzle their eyes with our searchlights, and fire a whole clip of bullets without stopping. Perhaps that’ll bring them down or cause them to run away.”

“All right!” Tommy agreed. “We’ll round the corner together with our searchlights held in front and begin shooting.”

“And don’t make any mistake about shooting straight!” advised Sandy. “I don’t want Will and George to know that we ever got into a mess like this. You know what they said about our coming away tonight, anyhow!”

“Sure, I know!” admitted Tommy. “And I’d rather have one of the bears bite off an arm than to have them know we got into a scrape we couldn’t get out of without their help.”

“Well, here goes, then!” cried Sandy.

Without waiting for his chum he sprang around the corner or the wall, his electric advanced, his automatic ready for instant use. As he turned the corner one foot caught on a loose rock and he half fell to the ground. As he did so, Tommy saw a hairy paw shoot out with vicious force and brush and scrape across the boy’s shoulder.

Tommy heard the boy’s coat ripping and tearing under the clutch of the great claws, and heard his chum utter a piercing scream as the wicked claws touched the flesh.

It seemed to Tommy that the figure of his chum, now lying prostrate on the floor of the cavern with the head extending outward, was being drawn away from him by the claw which still clung to the shoulder.

He raised his automatic to fire and pushed his searchlight forward. The bear’s eyes closed for an instant under the strong finger of light, and the bullet caught him, exactly in the center of the forehead.

He dropped with a savage growl, scrambled, to his feet again and dashed toward Tommy, who fired shot after shot at the advancing animal, but apparently without avail. In a moment all three bears, doubtless excited by the smell of blood, sprang before the entrance to the little cave where Tommy stood. For the moment the animals paid no attention to Sandy, still, lying prostrate on the floor, blood oozing from the wounded shoulder. Tommy fired shot alter shot as the bears came on.

For the first time in his life Tommy realized that the next moment might be his last. He saw Sandy lying bleeding on the floor. He saw three savage, pain-maddened animals rushing upon him and worked the trigger of his automatic until the clip was spent. Then he hurled the useless weapon at the nearest animal and seizing Sandy by the feet, dragged him farther into the cavern.

“I guess it’s all off now,” he mused as the bears stood hesitating and apparently ready for a spring. “I wish we’d left a note for Will.”

He heard the clatter of sharp claws on the rocky floor, saw the pig-like eyes of the animals shining red under the light, heard their spasmodic breathing, and was about to make a desperate rush forward when the outer cavern was flooded with a racing light which grew and grew as Tommy looked. Then he heard the sound of feet.

Next came a volley of shots, followed by the shouts of men and the call of a voice that he knew.

“Tommy!” the voice cried.

The boy did not answer instantly, for his eyes were fixed upon the squirming figures of the bears. They had fallen under the shots and were weaving about the floor, snarling and snapping at each other and at themselves in their blind rage.

Several more shots came, and then the animals lay still.

“Tommy!” came the voice again.

“That’s Will!” said Sandy faintly.

“Cripes! Are you alive?” demanded Tommy.

“I wouldn’t be talking if I was dead, would I?” asked Sandy, speaking in a very faint tone of voice.

“Sandy!” came the voice again.

“Hello!” called Tommy.

“Come on out!” cried Will.

“We’re coming!” Sandy answered.

The next moment the flashlights carried by Will and George swept into the cavern, revealing the true condition of affairs.

The two boys sprang to Sandy’s side and raised him into a sitting position. Sandy smiled weakly but said nothing.

“Where is he hurt?” asked Will, facing Tommy.

Tommy pointed to the boy’s bleeding shoulder.

“One of the bears swatted him,” he said.

The cowboys now gathered in front of the little cavern and gazed at the group with excited interest.

“What’s coming off here?” the sheriff asked.

“This kid’s coat’s coming off, for one thing,” answered Will, with a slight smile as he drew away at one sleeve. “He’s been cut by the bear, and we want to see how badly he’s wounded.”

Seth stepped forward to assist in the removal of the coat, but the sheriff laid a hand on his arm and drew him back.

“If those two boys have guns,” he said, “get them away from them!”

“What’s that?” demanded Tommy, gazing at the sheriff indignantly.

“You’re all under arrest,” thundered the officer, “and I demand that you give up your weapons.”

“You’ll find my gun out there in the cavern somewhere,” Tommy answered. “I threw it at the bears after the last bullet had been fired.”

Will put his hand into Sandy’s pocket as if feeling for a gun but found none there. “I dropped it in the cavern,” the boy said. “There are no bullets in it, anyway. I shot ’em all at the bear.”

Sandy’s wound proved to consist only of several scratches in the flesh of the shoulder, but Will explained to the sheriff that it would be necessary to take him out to where water could be obtained in order that the injury might be properly dressed.

“Come along, then,” the sheriff consented. “We’ve had enough of this underground hole, anyway.”

Tommy looked longingly at the three dead bears as he passed out.

“I’m coming back here to get those rugs,” he whispered to Will.

“And I’m coming back here and get some bear steak,” George contributed.

“What are you boys talking about?” demanded the sheriff.

“Aw, what’s eating you?” demanded Tommy, who did not at all understand the situation. “You want to keep your clam closed.”

The sheriff turned back and eyed the boy with anger and amazement depicted on his rather heavy features.

“You’re one of these Boy Scouts, I presume?” he snarled.

“Yes, sir,” answered Tommy. “Proud of it!”

“Then perhaps you can tell me where those train robbers are hiding.”

“I would if I could!” replied the boy.

“What are you kids out at this time of night for, anyway?” was the next question. “You ought to be in bed.”

“We came out to gather a couple of bear rugs for a Boy Scout clubroom in Chicago,” answered Tommy, with a slight grin in Will’s direction.

“And what did those boys come out for?” the sheriff asked, pointing at Will and George and the boy in whose interest they had left camp.

Tommy had no means of knowing what stories the boys might have told regarding their presence in the mountains, and so he decided to dodge the question. This seemed the only safe way.

“Ask them!” he said after a short silence.

By this time the whole party was out in the gulch, standing full in the moonlight. The men conferred together for some moments, and then the sheriff turned to the other members of the party.

“Get your ropes, boys,” he said. “We haven’t got time to fool with these boys any longer.”

“I protest against this action,” shouted Seth. “You, Pete, are sheriff of this county, and it is your duty to enforce the laws. If you permit this lynching to take place in your presence, you’ll be guilty of the crime of murder, and I warn you that you’ll be prosecuted.”

Tommy and Sandy looked at their chums questioningly. They did not at all understand what was going on. Will and George were binding up the wound with bandages which they had long carried for use on just such an occasion as this.

“I think I know my duty,” answered the sheriff. “Wyoming officers are being made the laughing-stock of the whole world because of the frequency of these train robberies. In nearly every instance, lately, the outlaws have escaped, principally because of assistance given them by such people as we have here under arrest.”

The men removed ropes from under their coat and began to unwind them. Seth drew his revolver and waited.