“Snap must have been dreaming,” grunted Whopper.  “I guess he ate too much supper last night.”

After a look around, the boys went to sleep again, and nobody got up until after seven o’clock.  Then Giant began to stir around among the stores.

“Well, I declare!” he shouted.  “Come here, fellows!”

“What is it?” asked Snap, running forward, followed by the others.

“Struck a gold mine?” queried Whopper.

“We had a visitor last night.”

“A visitor?” cried the others, in a chorus.

“Yes.  That must have been the noise Snap heard.”

“I knew I heard something,” murmured Snap.  “But what kind of a visitor did we have?”

“A four-legged one,” answered Giant.  “He rooted among our stores for something to eat.”

“Some animal!” ejaculated Whopper.  “It’s a wonder he didn’t try to chew us all up.  Is anything gone?”

“Is anything gone?  Well, I rather guess?”

“All the fish for one thing!”

“And the rabbits and turkey!”

“And that crust of bread!”

“And about half of the sugar!”

The young hunters gazed about in consternation.  Evidently the visitor had rooted around their stores to his heart’s content.

“Do you know what I think it was?” came from Shep.

“A fox?”

“Worse than that.”

“You don’t mean a bear, do you?” queried Whopper, with a shiver, and a hasty glance over his shoulder.

“Yes; and there he is!” shouted Snap, and ran for the trees.  Helter-skelter the others came after him, Whopper pitching headlong in his flight.

“Hi! hi!  Save me!” roared the fallen one.  “Don’t—–­don’t let the bear chew me up!”

“Where is the bear?” demanded little Giant, catching up his gun.  Then he looked at Snap, who was grinning broadly.  “You’re fooling!  Boys, it was only a joke!”

“A joke?” spluttered Whopper.  “Do—–­do you mean to say there is no bear?”

“Not here.  But there may have been one last night.”

“Snap Dodge, you ought to be—–­be hung, drawn and quartered, and tarred and feathered in the bargain,” said Whopper, severely. “it’s an outrage to---to-----”

“Let it drop, Whopper.  Seriously, though, some wild animal has been here and eaten up part of our stores.  The question is, could it have been a bear?”

“Let us look around for tracks,” put in Giant, and got down on his hands and knees.  The others began the hunt also, and soon they came upon some large tracks, leading deep into the woods and up the rocks beyond.

“It was certainly a bear,” said Snap, and now his voice had something of seriousness in it.  “Boys, I must say I don’t like this.”

“No more do I,” answered Shep.  “Why, that bear might have killed us all while we slept!”

“It’s queer he didn’t visit us,” put in Giant.

“I don’t know but what he did,” said Snap.  “Perhaps he woke me up and then ran away.  I certainly heard something or felt something.”