"To tell you the truth, Roger," he finally explained, "I'd rather not waste my powder and ball on the old fellow. He'd be too tough for us to use as food, and besides, the sound of the report might bring some of the Indians down on us." "I suppose you are right, Dick," commented Roger; "but it looks as if we might have to do something to frighten the bear away. There he starts again, trying to thrust the stump aside, and as sure as anything, Dick, the breach is getting a little wider every time he works at it." "It seems so," agreed Dick, "and, as you say, we ought to do something to put a stop to his scratching and dragging. Wait a minute, I've an idea I can fix it!" With these words he put his long rifle behind him so that it was safe in Roger's hands. In case of actual necessity the latter would know what to do with the fire-arm; but just then he was very curious to learn what Dick had arranged. He could hear him moving, and he seemed to lean forward until his hands were perilously near the small opening at which the nose of the bear was working just as the snout of a hog might be used to move an obstacle. The champing of teeth, along with the loud sniffing, continued. "What are you doing, Dick?" asked Roger, finally, unable to stand the suspense any longer. "Oh!" came the cheery reply, "I have wasted a charge or two of powder, placing it as near the opening as I can, and running a thread this way. Now I have my flint and steel ready, and, as soon as he starts to poking his nose in at the hole again, I'll strike fire, and explode the powder in his face!" Roger saw the object of this, and was considerably interested in the outcome. "I hope he gets the full benefit of the flash," he observed. Dick saw his chance just then, and he could be heard striking the flint and steel rapidly together after the manner of one whom long experience in this line had made almost perfect. There came a little shower of descending sparks, and then a sudden brilliant flash that lit up the interior of the hollow tree as though the sun had found a means of ingress. "Hurrah!" cried Roger, clapping his hands in glee, "that was the time you gave old Eph the scare of his life! Hear him plunging off, will you, Dick? It seems as if he'd lost all desire to make the acquaintance of his new lodgers. And I don't think we'll be bothered any more by Mr. Bear, do you?" Dick also laughed softly as he replied: "He must have had his nose singed that time, and got a bad fright in the bargain, so I reckon we'll not be annoyed again." "This powder smoke is choking me, Dick." "But it's slowly rising in the tree, and things are getting better right along," Roger was told. "We'll wait awhile until the air is purer, and after that we'll drag the old stump back to where it was before the bear moved it." "And then?" queried Roger. "Go to sleep again, if you feel like it, because we have some hours of the night still ahead of us," Dick calmly told him.