CHAPTER XXII

FIGHTING OFF THE BEARS

Jimmy’s warning came not a moment too soon, for the words were hardly out of his mouth before two of the bears came splashing toward the raft. Buck Looker gave a yell of terror and started swimming away as fast as he could. Jimmy and Herb had to let go, too, and swim out of the reach of those big paws that were propelling the bears forward at surprising speed. The largest one was soon close to the raft, and Bob could see one big paw lifted in preparation to climb aboard.

With one hand Bob depressed the key that completed the circuit through the primary coil and held the end of the high tension lead, which he had lashed to a long stick, close to the bear’s moist black nose. Then he released the key.

With a hiss and a snap a long blue spark crackled between the terminal and the bear’s nose. Bob worked the key rapidly up and down, and at each break another high voltage spark jumped to the animal’s sensitive snout. Each spark had the force and effect of a heavy hammer blow, and the bear half roared and half squealed in pain and fright. One big paw came up and tried to brush away that agonizing, stunning thing, but this only transferred the sparks to his paw. With a terrified squeal he turned about and swam off at top speed. The other bear was puzzled at the behavior of his companion, but he could see no reason why he should not get up on the raft, even though the other, for some incomprehensible reason, had failed. Accordingly he made a rush, but was even less fortunate than his predecessor, for by now Joe had gotten his outfit to working properly, and the animal had to face two streams of sparks instead of one. They tore through him with paralyzing force, and he slipped back into the water, hardly able even to swim.

Meanwhile the other three bears had been swimming about the raft, growling and grunting. The fate of their two companions made them suspicious and puzzled them, but at last they seemed to muster up courage all at the same time, and as though through a preconcerted signal they charged down on the raft at once. For a few minutes it was nip and tuck, and it looked as though the bears might win by sheer weight of numbers. One actually dragged himself half way up on the raft, tilting it at such an angle that it was all Bob and Joe could do to keep their footing. Once Joe’s stick was knocked out of his hand, and Bob had to stand off all three until he could recover it. Herb and Jimmy swam about, almost crazy with the desire to help their hard-pressed comrades, but of course unarmed as they were, there was nothing that they could do. Indeed, they were taking big risks by remaining close to the raft, for there was no telling when one of the bears, infuriated by the baffling electric discharges, would attack one of them by way of venting its fury. Luckily, however, the animals were so dazed and frightened by the novel defense put up by these strange beings on the raft that there was little fight left in them, and their only thought was to get away from that stinging, hammering torment as soon as possible. With grunts and squeals they turned tail to the raft, their going accelerated by a string of writhing blue sparks that hissed and snapped after them as long as Bob and Joe could reach them with their long poles.

The discomfiture of the big brutes was so sudden and complete that the boys were actually surprised at their own success. But the victory had not been won so easily as they had supposed. The bears, it is true, had been driven off, but they had gone no great distance when they stopped and began circling about the raft, growling fiercely and evidently meditating a further attack.

“If they all come on at once, we’d better all be on the raft to ward them off,” said Bob. “We can rig up two more electrodes, and we may need them all before we get through.”

“That suits me,” said Jimmy, proceeding with considerable alacrity to climb up on the raft. “It isn’t hard to see that those fellows can swim about ten yards to my one, so if they ever took the notion to go after me, they’d probably get me.”

“And a nice, juicy meal they’d have, too,” said Herb, as he clambered up on the raft. “I know if I were a bear, Doughnuts, I’d go after you first thing.”

“Well, naturally,” retorted his friend. “No bear would waste his time going after a bean pole like you. You wouldn’t make a square meal for a cub.”

“Hey, can’t you fellows ever cut out that funny stuff?” demanded Joe. “Suppose you cut out the phony humor and get busy hooking up some wires here. It won’t be any joking matter if those brutes come for us again before we’re ready for them.”

“Oh, sure,” said Herb. “Anything to oblige. Just give me a pair of cutting pliers and watch my speed.”

Joe uttered a grunt that might mean anything, but handed him the pliers, and they all fell to work with a will. Buck came swimming back to the raft, and the boys helped him aboard, although he could do nothing useful and was only in the way. It was in times of stress such as this that the difference between boys like the Radio Boys and those of Buck Looker’s stamp became most apparent. All their lives they had engaged in clean, healthful sports and occupations that had developed their strength and resourcefulness until they were equipped to meet the emergencies in life in an efficient manner. Buck, on the other hand, had just loafed around with friends as idle as himself, killing time and jeering at the efforts of others to be of some use in the world. Then when some emergency arose demanding quick thinking and strong, active muscles, he was completely at a loss and had neither the resource to plan nor the ability to execute.

So at the present time, although he was ashamed of having been so cowardly and would have liked to help in the defense of the raft, he did not know how to do any of the necessary things, and so could only sit and watch the others as they deftly performed their tasks, doing everything quickly and efficiently without any lost motion. Buck was not so stupid as to be entirely insensible to his shortcomings, and even formed some vague resolutions to try to do better in the future.

But those on the raft were afforded little time for idle thoughts. The bears kept circling closer and closer, and, to make it still worse, their numbers had been augmented by two new arrivals who had not had a taste of the induction coil and were proportionately brave. The boys had barely made their last connection when the bears, with a chorus of growls, made for the raft, their mouths open and little eyes twinkling viciously.

The sight was a fearsome one, but there was no way of retreat open even had the boys been so minded, which was far from the case. They were resolved to save their radio outfit, and moreover were encouraged by the success of their former defense.

This time they had a harder rush to stem, as they soon found. The bears flinched away from the stream of sparks emitted by the four high tension terminals wielded by the boys, but they could attend to only four at a time, and meanwhile the other bears were attempting to get a foothold on the raft.

Fortunately, this was not an easy thing to do, as the logs were slippery and difficult to climb up on. For several minutes the result seemed in doubt. Jimmy’s pole was swept out of his grasp and thrown twenty feet by one sweep of a big black paw. Fortunately the wire broke under the blow, otherwise the whole coil would have been dragged into the lake, and the boys would have been helpless against the attack. As it was, this cut down the number of the defenders, and it seemed as though the bears would surely overwhelm the frail raft. Jimmy worked like a madman trying to connect up another wire, but before he could get one in operating condition the fate of the battle had been decided. The bears, bewildered and stunned by the mysterious force that shot through them like the stabs of red hot wires, and that all their tremendous strength was powerless to ward off, finally gave way. First one and then another turned tail and paddled away, splashing and whimpering, baffled by the weapon wielded by these beings who seemed so puny to look at, compared to them, and yet held lightning in their hands. One big fellow persisted when all the others had given up their attempt, but the boys concentrated three crackling blue spark streams on him, and that proved to be more than he could stand. With a cross between a growl and a squeal he splashed away in the wake of his companions, who were snorting and charging through the water like a fleet of ferryboats.

Left in undisputed possession of the raft, the boys drew long breaths of relief and took stock of damages. Herb had four deep furrows on his left hand, where a bear’s claws had grazed it. Jimmy, now that the excitement was over for the time, discovered that his wrist had been badly sprained when the bear had knocked the stick from his hand, but aside from these comparatively minor injuries, the boys were in good shape.

The raft had suffered more, in its way, than they had. The efforts of the big animals to climb aboard had loosened several of the outside logs, and broken some of the strands of wire that bound them together. However, there was plenty more wire on the raft, and the boys immediately set to work to repair the damage. Now that the bears had gone, they began to realize that the heat, which in the excitement of the fight they had hardly noticed, was again growing intense, and they were glad enough to plunge once more into the lake to make repairs on the raft.

“While we’re about it, we might as well make a thorough job of it,” observed Bob. “There’s no telling how long we may have to stay out here in the lake, and we might better take a little more trouble now and make everything as secure as possible.”

The others had no objection to make to this, except Buck Looker.

“Aw, what’s the use of bothering with it,” he observed. “I guess these old logs will hold together as long as we need them.”

“Yes, but guessing isn’t quite good enough for us,” observed Joe. “When we finish a job, we want to _know_ that it will do the work it’s intended to do. You have to take enough chances in this world, no matter what you do, without making more chances by your own carelessness.”

“That’s the stuff!” cried Bob approvingly. “If a job is worth doing at all, it’s worth doing well, as somebody remarked about ten thousand years or so ago.”

They wound the wire again and again about the logs, and then tightened it by looping other strands between each pair of logs and drawing the wire on opposite sides of the raft as taut as they could get it. They made a good job of it, even though they were working under tremendous difficulties, and the time was not far away when they had good reason to congratulate themselves on the fact that they had done so.