Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/194

 "What have you found that is so very interesting?" inquired Tom, who knew that he ought to open the conversation in some way.

"Oh, here you are," exclaimed Hastings. "We could not imagine what had become of you. Until we heard you call out there in the woods, we supposed that the bear had come back, and that you had gone after him in Joe's boat."

"Not by a long shot!" cried Tom, who saw very plainly what Arthur was driving at. "I haven't seen the bear since I lost sight of you, and if I had, I should have gone away from him and not toward him. I have no ambition to shine as a bear hunter, and consequently I am here safe and sound."

"But Joe's canoe isn't," said Roy.

Tom looked, and sure enough the place where Joe had left his boat when he went into the woods was vacant. With much apparent anxiety and uneasiness he turned toward his canoe as if to satisfy himself that his own treasures were safe, when Roy broke out with— "Oh, you're a sufferer the same as the rest