by the fragrant needles. Squirrels chattered in the trees and chipmunks
slipped like shadows between the trunks. As they were passing a monster
oak, Bert's observant eye noted something that brought him to a sudden
halt.

"Look there, fellows," and he pointed to a place on the bark about
fifteen feet from the ground.

"Well, what about it?" demanded Tom.

"Those scratches on the trunk," said Bert. "What made them?"

They looked more closely and saw two rows of scratches that had torn
deeply into the bark. Each row consisted of five marks at an equal
distance apart. It was as though two gigantic rakes had been drawn along
the rough surface, each tooth of the rakes peeling off a long vertical
strip.

The boys looked at each other in wonder. Then they peered into the
surrounding woods a little uneasily.

"Some animal made those marks," said Bert at last. "And, what's more,
there's only one animal that could have done it."

"And that's a grizzly bear," said Dick.

Again the boys looked at each other, and it almost seemed as though they
could hear the beating of their hearts. Then Tom measured again with his
eye the distance from the ground to where the scratches began.