The boy waited a long time, but the cub did not return. Now and then he could hear him moving about in the thicket.
"He's just laughing in his sleeve at me!" complained the boy. "I wish I had hold of him!"
Directly a sound other than that made by the bear came to the ears of the listening boy. Some one was creeping towards his shelter. He could see no one, for the shadows were thick at the point from which the sounds proceeded, but presently, he heard a voice.
"They went back to the boat," some one said gruffly.
"That's all the better for us," another spoke.
"I don't know about that," the first speaker said.
"Why, we'll just cut her out and take boys and boat and all."
"That's easier said than done," was the reply. "Those boys are no spring chickens. They have guns and they know how to use them."
"Well," the other chided, "it isn't my fault that they went back to the boat. If you hadn't been giving your confounded signals, they would have slept by the fire and everything would have been easy."
Alex listened with his heart beating anxiously. There was no longer any doubt that the right construction had been placed on the signals which had been heard. The outlaws who had attacked them in the cove were now on the peninsula, ready to make trouble.
While the boy listened for further conversation, a rustling in the thicket at the base of the cliff told him that Teddy, the cub, was still in that vicinity. He chuckled at the thought which came to him.
"I wish I had the little rascal here," he mused. "I think he might be able to do something in the line of giving those fellows exercise! I wish I could get over to him."
The boy started in the direction of the sound, but paused when he heard one of the men saying:
"Down on the river shore," was the reply.
"Then what is all that noise?" demanded the other.
"I don't hear any noise," was the surly reply.
"There is some one moving in the bushes."
"Then it must be one of the boys," Alex heard, "and I think we had better investigate. It would be luck to catch one of them."
"It wouldn't be any luck for me to be caught," thought Alex, "and so I'll just make a sneak back to the boat. I've learned all I wanted to know, anyway."
He started away, but almost at his first motion a stone became detached from the ledge at his side and went thundering down toward the spot from which the voices had proceeded.