 Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, showing rare courage in the face of disaster, in the air, on horseback or in a screaming squad car. Ranger Bill, his mind alert, a ready smile, unswerving, loyal to his mission, and all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. I think the room's already open for you, Henry, but I'd better go along and just check. Thanks, Sam. Sure is nicer the school to let us use this classroom for our club meetings. Yep. I was sort of surprised that they did. They don't do it for everyone, you know. Sure is dark along this corridor at night. Yep. I can't put the lights on for you. Oh, it is. I guess the school board wants to save as much money as possible. It's not hard to figure out why. It must cost a lot to keep a school up. Yep, a good figure. Good figure. You're right, though. It is pretty dark. I hope the fellows will be able to find their way along here, alright? I guess they will, though. Went over pretty thoroughly at our last club meeting. How come you decided to use the classroom? Well, we were meeting in the homes of the fellows. But the club sort of grew too big to bother anybody with the meeting. Careful! Hurt yourself? Not much. Somebody should have put that chair back all the way. Uh-huh. Maybe I can give you a hand. Where does it go? Oh, just anywhere back all the way there. I wouldn't want one of the other fellows to trip over it. That's fine, it's fine. Good thing we got that night light up ahead there, though. Lottie wouldn't know where it was, but for that... That'll be better once we get the light on in the classroom. Some of the light will spill out here in the hall and help. Right now it's so dark that you... Huh? Oh, uh, here early tonight, huh, Roddy? Aw, how'd you know it was me? Haha, who else? Yeah, kids. Caria? Not a bit. I scared him. Here's a room. Hey, that's better. Mmm, that light almost hurt your eyes. Thanks a lot, Sam. That's okay. Now you kids be careful in here and don't leave the place all messed up. I don't want to have to clean it all up before classes start in the morning. Oh, don't worry, Sam. We'll be careful. Yeah, you won't even know we were here. I'd like to see that. You'll clean up any mess you make now. What does he get paid for, anyhow? Shhh. Well, that's no way to talk. Yeah, but he... Well, we aren't paying him anything. We aren't even paying anything to use the room. So anything we do to cause him trouble is extra. Hey, you're coming again. Hey, now we can get started. Right. Hey, you guys! All right, good night, fellas. Remember, next week now be sure to bring your nature study projects. We've got plenty of room in here to set things up. Good night. Yeah, be on time. We'll have a lot to do. Good night, Henry. See you next week. Ask your thing, Ronnie. What kind of a nature study project are you going to bring to the club? I'm going to bring a bear. Good night, Ronnie. Good night. Well, for this week, at least. How do you know you were still around, Sam? I thought I might just well start cleaning this place up right away. Makes less for me due to mom. Huh, you sure I mustn't have done much in here. Why do you say that? The place is still clean. Well, we just had a few games and some woodsmanship lessons and a devotional time. I had the fellas clean up after themselves. They really appreciate the school letting us use this room. Well, I gotta admit I'm surprised. I figured the place would be as shambles. Well, next week it just may be a little more trouble. Huh? Why is that? Well, bring in nature study projects. Some of the fellas have collected birds' nests and things like that. What'll the birds do? Per nests. No, not ones that are being used. They collected them after the birds went south. Anyhow, with all the fellas bringing nature study projects, the room just might be a little more cluttered. No, you'll still have them clean up. Oh, sure. What's funny? I was just thinking that that last kid who left just before I came in. Oh, Ronnie? Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, I'd like to see him clean up after himself next week. What do you mean? I heard him tell you he was gonna bring a bear to your meeting. Boy, this sure is a swell way to mark a trail that Henry showed us last week at the meeting. I can follow right where I went two days ago. Just by looking for the markers. Oh, where's where I turned right? I wonder if I marked my way way into the woods. If I could follow the trail backwards and find my way out. I'll have to ask Henry tomorrow night at club. He knows everything. Probably because he hangs around with the rangers all the time. Boy, they sure know their way around. Hey, what's that dog doing back in there? Looks like he's sleeping. Wait a minute. That isn't a dog. It's a bear. A little cob bear all alone here in the woods. I didn't think there were any bears this close to town. Say, I wonder if I could catch him. Oh, that'd be great. Then I really would have a bear for tomorrow night's club meeting. So these two fellers went out to hunt for some bear. But they couldn't figure out who was going to do the hunting and who was going to do the skinning. Well, they decided to take turns. One day, one feller would go out from the cabin and hunt for the bear, and the other would stay in the cabin and skin the bears that the other feller brought. And the next day, they'd each do the other... You follow all this? Well, anyhow, comes the daybreak and one feller sets out, gun in hand, to hunt up a couple of bears. While the other feller waits around the cabin for him to bring them back. Well, a mountain hour goes by and all of a sudden, way back in the woods, the feller in the cabin hears his buddy is shouting, opens to the door and opens it just in time to see his friend to tear it out of the woods with a bear not too far behind him. Wow. What happened? Well, then rushes the feller and writes straight on out one of the winders. Then he runs around, and as soon as the bear runs into the cabin, he slams the door, leaving the bear and his buddy inside. And then he shouts out, You got busy skinning this one and I... Oh, that's pretty good, old-timer. I'll say. You should come over and tell some of your nature jokes to my club tomorrow night, Stumpy. Well, now, at last I found one you fellers liked. I knew I'd hit on it if I kept at it. I am feeling Stumpy going to be hard to be with for the next few days. You have a hard time fitting through doors. Say, about your club meeting, Henry. Yes, Bill? I spoke to the principal about leaving a little more light on in the halls for you boys. Oh, I really appreciate that, Bill. What did he say? Well, I'm afraid he wasn't too hopeful, pal. It seems that they've just had that school rewired in such a way that most of the lights work on a master switch. That way, they don't have to worry about the lights being left on. So after the last school function of the day, they just throw the main switch, and that's that. The lights work in the room we're in. Well, he said that a couple of rooms have been left on an independent circuit for just the kind of thing you fellas are doing. The few rooms that are still working separately and the night lights are the only ones that can be turned on after school hours. So that lets out the more light idea, huh? I'm sorry, pal. Oh, that's okay. Most of the boys are pretty well behaved anyhow. I'd just better get there real early each time and be sure that the hallway leading to the room is cleared of chairs and stuff. Yeah, good idea. It was not completely out of the blue. I tripped over one on the way to the room last week. Hey, how'd that new room work out for our club meeting, Henry? Oh, real well, Gray Wolf. It sure was good to have a little room to stretch. It'll be especially good tomorrow night. Oh, why that? The boys are bringing their nature study projects to the meetings. Hey, that ought to be real interesting. Well, I hope so. We sure are glad for all that desk space to spread all the things out. What kind of projects you young fellas working on? Well, I don't know about too many of them. Most of them have been working on their own. The assignment was to collect some samples of something from nature and give a little talk about what you've collected. Uh-huh. That way everyone learns from everyone else, huh? Yeah, about a good idea. Well, the boys seem to go for it. We'll see just how good of an idea it was tomorrow night at the meeting. I'll be especially interested in what of the projects. Which one is that, pal? Well, you know Ronnie Edwards? That little whippersnapper that's always into some sort of trouble? Well, he manages to keep pretty well out of it these days, but he sure has an overworked imagination. Well, what Ronnie Edwards do? I asked him what kind of a project he was working on for club, and he growled. He growled? That's right. He said he was bringing a bear as a project, and he growled. There. That ought to hold you till tomorrow night. Yeah, they always laugh at me when I get an idea, but this time they'll see. They always think I don't mean what I say when I decide to do things. I always do. Just doesn't always work out. But this time, oh boy, I can hardly wait to see everybody's faces tomorrow night when I show up with this real bear. Ronnie! You better stay here tonight. You ought to be safe up here in the garage. Dad always locks the garage at night, so no one will bother you. I'll bring some food up to you later, but I'll have to sneak it out. I don't want anyone to know about you before tomorrow night, and I'll come back later with some food. Oh, boy! Oh, club sees you. I can hardly wait. Bill Jefferson speaking. Bill, this is Sam Barnworthy, the school janitor. Oh, sure. Hello, Sam. Isn't it kind of late to be at school? It's three in the morning. I know what time it is, and I ain't at school. I'm home. Well, anyhow, what can I do for you, Sam? You can do something to keep bears out of town. That's what you can do. Bears? That's right, bears. I just saw one walk through my front yard. That's a little hard to believe, Sam. We don't even spot them in the forest closer than about 10 miles from here. I ain't concerned with how hard or how easy it is to believe. I just saw a bear, a big black bear, walking through my front yard, and I want you or somebody to do something about it. Are you sure it was full-sized? Of course I'm sure. What do you ask? Well, I was just thinking that once in a while we do catch a cub that's wandered a little too far from home, but even that's rare. This was a full-sized black bear, and he was walking. Throw your front yard, I know. I don't know what to make of it, Sam. Maybe one of the bears at the zoo escaped. Ever think of that? I doubt it. Whenever there's an escape over there, I'm one of the first ones they notify, and no one has called me here tonight. Besides, if a bear escaped over there at the zoo, the first place he would head for would be the hills. No, I think we can rule out a zoo escape. I'll call him later to check for sure, but I doubt that that's it. Now, if you really saw a bear... What do you mean, if? I did see a bear. Okay, okay. And the bear you say you saw must have come out of the woods, which is what I can't understand. What's hard to understand about that? They never come out unless there's a very good reason. I'm hungry. No, the woods are full of meals for hungry bears. They don't often prowl this late at night anyhow. Uh, Sam. Yeah? Now, hold on to your temper. I really do want to get to the bottom of this. Well? I just looked outside. There are a lot of fast-moving clouds breezing past the moon. Are you sure what you saw wasn't just a big shadow moving across your lawn and not really a bear at all? Shadder, huh? That's right. Now, think hard. Try and remember exactly what it looked like. Well, it looked like a bear. That's what it looked like, but it might have been a shadder. I said it just might have been. Didn't say it was. Uh-huh. Forest, you know, if it was lost or something, wouldn't its mother follow it and try to get it back? Well, that's why when a cub does wander out, now we return it as quickly as possible. There's nothing quite so hard to handle as an angry mother bear. That's what I thought. Well, what if a cub has wandered out? What if I saw was its mother looking for it? Well, again, Sam, it's possible, but not probable. Not defined isn't a good place for a cub bear to hide. It'd be spotted almost right away and reported. And again, I've had no such reports. Oh, what a shadder, then. I don't know. Sure looked like a bear, though. I know. You probably had bears in your mind and were sleepy enough to... Yeah, I was thinking about bears a little while before going to bed. That was probably it. Sure. I was thinking that tomorrow night was the night that Club of Henry Scots met over at the school and one of them, their kid, said he was gonna bring a bear to the meeting. That was funny how a thing like that can play tricks with your mind, isn't it? Well, sorry I bothered you, Bill, but I feel better. Good. I got a good rest, Sam, and I wouldn't look too hard for tracks in the morning. That's a good one. Good night, Bill. Good night, Sam. Well, I'm much the big hurry this morning, Ronnie, or more excited than I've seen you in a long time. I wish the day would speed by. I can hardly wait for Club tonight. That's all? Yeah. It's all we. Well, there must be some Club to hold your interest this well. I must remember to compliment Henry next time I see him. What do you do with those meetings? You know all sorts of stuff. We have games and tips on good woodsman chef. I even know how to go in the lot woods and not get lost in my thing. Sounds good. But I'd be just as happy if you didn't try that out quite yet. Not by yourself, at least. I mean, after a time we talk about God and pray. Henry says we should never forget whose woods we're walking in. Well, all sounds lovely. I'm glad so many of your friends go. It's a sure thing with that kind of Club. They won't turn out like whoever was around last night. Huh? That's where your father went, down to the police station. Wow, why? Well, it looks as though somebody tried to break into the garage last night. What? Well, there's nothing for you to worry about, Ronnie. Your father's handling the whole affair. What happened? Tommy, what happened? I don't get so excited. Did someone really break into the garage? Well, they didn't actually get in, but they certainly tried hard enough. The garage door is a mess. Your father says it looks like whoever it was didn't know very much about what they were doing. All they did was to scratch up the doors and walls. Scratch? That's right. Your father says it almost looks like the work of an animal, rather than a person. A bear? As a matter of fact, that's what your father said it looked like. But of course no bears ever come this far, so it must have been someone with no good on their mind. Your father went over to the police station just before he came down. He's going to bring them back here and see what they can do about it. Excuse me, please. Well, in just a minute, young man, where are you going? I have to go to the garage right away. What on earth for? I've got to move my valuables. I don't think we'll have to worry about anyone else trying to break in after the police look them over. Please, may I go now? Of course. Only don't bring any more junk into the house and don't fool with that garage door. I'm sure the sheriff will want things left exactly as they are so we can determine just who or what was at our garage last night. Ranger station, Bill Deverson speaking. Oh, hello, Cal. What? No, not that I know of. Oh, wait a minute. I did get a call last night from Sam Barnworthy. He thought he saw a bear out in his front yard, but I don't think that... What? You found tracks around that garage. What do you suppose he wanted? Couldn't find a thing, huh? Yes, I'd say it certainly is strange. In this place, they practically never come this far south and never into town. If you couldn't find anything in the Edwards garage that would account for the bear's presence there, well, I just don't know. Any other reports? No, huh? Well, who knows? Maybe he just went back into the woods. We'd better be on the lookout tonight, though, just in case. Right, Cal, thanks for calling. Okay, so long. We have the room down at the end of this hall, Bill. I see what you mean about the lighting situation, Henry. It's quite hard to see along here, all right? I wanted to get a room nearer the entrance, but the one we have was the only one near enough that could be lighted. Uh-huh. Well, it's too bad, but there isn't much that can be done with the way the school is wired. Hey, look, the lights are already on in the room we use. Well, Sam, must have turned them on for you. I guess that's it. Hey, the boys were here this far ahead of time. Don't be too sure, pal. This club of yours is pretty popular. Not that popular. There may be a lot of fellas interested in it, but certainly not interested in up to... You see? Sounds like at least one of your group is already here. That's Roddy Edwards. You come on out now, Roddy. We know who it is. I didn't scare either one of you. Hey, wow. It's Ranger Bill. Hello, Ronnie. I've heard a lot about you. Wow. Uh, happy to meet you, Ranger Bill. You gonna join the club? Only as an honorary member, I'm afraid, Roddy. Oh, here's the room. Let's go in. Why are you here so early, Ronnie? I had to get my nature study project here for anybody else to ride. Oh, I see. What is it? I told you last time. Sure. Sure, you said something about a bear. What? He did bring a bear. A live cub bear. See, I told you. Where did you get him? Found him in the woods. And you caught him and kept him for the meeting? Yep. Pretty good, eh? Well, I'll have to say I didn't believe you, but no. The other guys will be surprised, too, won't they? I think you can count on that, Master Edwards. Hey, wait a minute. Edwards. What's the matter, Bill? Ronnie, did something try to get into your garage last night? Why? Did you keep that cub bear in that garage overnight? On the upper floor. Bill, where are you getting at? Last night I got a call saying that a big black bear was seen prowling through Naughty Pine. And also last night, Ronnie's father's garage was pretty badly scratched up. It looked like a bear had tried to break in. And now Ronnie shows up with this cub. Bill, you mean... Yes, Henry, this cub's mother is somewhere in this area looking for her cub. By this time, she may be in a pretty mean mood. Bill! What was that? Mama bear is found where baby bear is being kept. What do we do? What's the matter? That mother bear gets hold of us near her cub. She'll tear us apart. She will? Now maybe you see why I ask you fellas to to read up on the subject you are going to do your project on. If you read a little, you'd have known this. I forgot you said that. Oh, he sounds closer. So she, and she does sound closer. He did this. That little kid did it. There's a great big bear. Look, there's another one. Take it easy, Sam. Bill, I'm glad you're here. What are we going to do? We're surrounded by bears. Just take it easy. We need all the level heads we can find right now. She's closer. Well, I'll be killed. Ronnie, stop talking like that. We'll figure something out. Is there any way to turn the lights on out there, Sam? Where's the switch there on? It's right down that hole. The one where the ghrelin is coming from. Oh, it's some pickle. She can see us, but we can't see her. Let's get out of this room. It's that cub there that's trying to know. You want to step out in the hall? I guess not. Bill? Yes, pal? Maybe we can stay and the cub can go. What are you talking about? That's a good idea, Henry. It's our only chance. What are you going to do? Set the cub free. What? Right in this room here with all of us? That's right. The cub looks like it'll try to get to her. What if it don't? What if it just waits and calls Mama in? Yeah, what if it goes and gets his mother and brings her back? Those are all possibilities we'll have to risk. Now, Sam, when Henry and I open this cage, you get near the door, and as soon as the cub runs out... If that cub runs out... As soon as the cub runs out, you slam the door. That's all we can do. I'm all set, Bill. What do I do? Stay as far out of the way as possible. I hope you guys know what you're doing. You ready, Henry? Right. Now, you pry on that side of the box, and I'll pry on this side. All right. Now, that's it. Look out! Quick, Sam, the door! Oh, boy. I'll say. I've never been through anything like this in my whole life. Yeah? Mother and cub heading back for the forest. Where do they belong? That's for sure. Well, Ronnie, now you don't have a nature study project. Maybe you can work on something for next week. Oh, sure. I already have a good idea. Oh, what's that? A lion. Rawr! Oh, no. Oh, no. Well, there you have it, boys and girls. Maybe your imagination runs away with you once in a while, but be sure you know more about what you're playing with than Ronnie Edwards did. Well, see you next week for more adventure with... Rangers!