frightened as Dan was.

"What was that, Don?" asked Bert, in an excited whisper. "You heard
it, didn't you?"

"I should think so," was Don's reply, and the words were followed by
the clicking of the locks of his gun.

After that came a long pause. Don and Bert waited for the warning
growl to be repeated, and stooping down, tried to peer through the
cane in front of them, in the hope of obtaining a view of the animal,
which had been disturbed by their approach, while Dan, crouching low
in his place of concealment, looked first at his father and then
glanced timidly about, as if in momentary expectation of seeing
something frightful. He could hardly bring himself to believe that
the noise, which so greatly terrified him, had been made by his
father, but such was the fact.

If there was a person in the world, Godfrey did not want to meet face
to face, that person was Don Gordon; and when he first became aware
that the boy was close at hand, and that he was about to explore the
island, he was greatly alarmed and utterly at a loss how to avoid
him. If Don saw him there, of course he would tell of it, and that
would set the officers of the law on his track (no evidence that
could be produced was strong enough to convince Godfrey, that he had
nothing to fear from the officers of the law) and compel him to look
for a new hiding-place. The conversation he overheard between the
brothers, regarding the capture of the bear, which had so long held
possession of the island, brought a bright idea into his mind, and he
acted upon it at the right time, too. It was the only thing that