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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Camp and Trail, by Isabel Hornibrook
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Camp and Trail
+       A Story of the Maine Woods
+
+Author: Isabel Hornibrook
+
+Release Date: November 4, 2004 [EBook #13946]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMP AND TRAIL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci, Joshua Hutchinson and
+the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE MOOSE WAS NOW SNORTING LIKE A WAR-HORSE BENEATH.
+
+(_See page 274_)]
+
+
+
+
+CAMP AND TRAIL
+
+A Story of the Maine Woods
+
+BY
+
+ISABEL HORNIBROOK
+
+AUTHOR OF "TUKE," "IN THE SERVICE," "LOST IN MAINE WOODS," ETC.
+
+BOSTON
+
+LOTHROP PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+1897
+
+TYPOGRAPHY BY C.J. PETERS & SON, BOSTON.
+
+PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH.
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+J.L.H.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+In adding another to the list of stories bearing on that subject of
+perennial interest to boys, adventures in camp and on trail among the
+woods and lakes of Northern Maine, one thought has been the inspiration
+that led me on.
+
+It is this: To prove to high-mettled lads, American, and English as
+well, that forest quarters, to be the most jovial quarters on earth,
+need not be made a shambles. Sensation may reach its finest pitch,
+excitement be an unfailing fillip, and fun the leaven which leavens the
+camping-trip from start to finish, even though the triumph of killing
+for triumph's sake be left out of the play-bill.
+
+"There is a higher sport in preservation than in destruction," says a
+veteran hunter, whose forest experiences and descriptions have in part
+enriched this story. I commend the opinion to boy-readers, trusting that
+they may become "queer specimen sportsmen," after the pattern of Cyrus
+Garst; and find a more entrancing excitement in studying the live wild
+things of the forest than in gloating over a dying tremor, or examining
+a senseless mass of horn, hide, and hoofs, after the life-spring which
+worked the mechanism has been stilled forever.
+
+One other desire has trodden on the heels of the first: That Young
+England and Young America may be inspired with a wish to understand each
+other better, to take each other frankly and simply for the manhood in
+each; and that thus misconception and prejudice may disappear like mists
+of an old-day dream.
+
+ISABEL HORNIBROOK.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. JACKING FOR DEER
+
+II. A SPILL-OUT
+
+III. LIFE IN A BARK HUT
+
+IV. WHITHER BOUND?
+
+V. A COON HUNT
+
+VI. AFTER BLACK DUCKS
+
+VII. A FOREST GUIDE-POST
+
+VIII. ANOTHER CAMP
+
+IX. A SUNDAY AMONG THE PINES
+
+X. FORWARD ALL!
+
+XI. BEAVER WORKS
+
+XII. "GO IT, OLD BRUIN!"
+
+XIII. "THE SKIN IS YOURS"
+
+XIV. A LUCKY HUNTER
+
+XV. A FALLEN KING
+
+XVI. MOOSE-CALLING
+
+XVII. HERB'S YARNS
+
+XVIII. To LONELIER WILDS
+
+XIX. TREED BY A MOOSE
+
+XX. DOL'S TRIUMPH
+
+XXI. ON KATAHDIN
+
+XXII. THE OLD HOME-CAMP
+
+XXIII. BROTHERS' WORK
+
+XXIV. "KEFPING THINGS EVEN"
+
+XXV. A LITTLE CARIBOU QUARREL
+
+XXVI. DOC AGAIN
+
+XXVII. CHRISTMAS ON THE OTHER SIDE
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+THE MOOSE WAS NOW SNORTING LIKE A WAR-HORSE BENEATH.
+
+"THERE IS MOOSEHEAD LAKE."
+
+DOL SIGHTS A FRIENDLY CAMP.
+
+IN THE SHADOW OF KATAHDIN.
+
+"GO IT, OLD BRUIN! GO IT WHILE YOU CAN!"
+
+"HERB HEAL."
+
+A FALLEN KING.
+
+THE CAMP ON MILLINOKETT LAKE.
+
+"HERB CHARGED THROUGH THE CHOKING DUST-CLOUDS."
+
+GREENVILLE,--"FAREWELL TO THE WOODS."
+
+
+
+
+CAMP AND TRAIL.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+JACKING FOR DEER.
+
+
+"Now, Neal Farrar, you've got to be as still as the night itself,
+remember. If you bounce, or turn, or draw a long breath, you won't have
+a rag of reputation as a deer-hunter to take back to England. Sneeze
+once, and we're done for. That means more diet of flapjacks and pork,
+instead of venison steaks. And I guess your city appetite won't rally to
+pork much longer, even in the wilds."
+
+Neal Farrar sighed as if there was something in that.
+
+"But, you know, it's just when an unlucky fellow would give his life
+not to sneeze that he's sure to bring out a thumping big one," he said
+plaintively.
+
+"Well, keep it back like a hero if your head bursts in the attempt," was
+the reply with a muffled laugh. "When you know that the canoe is gliding
+along somehow, but you can't hear a sound or feel a motion, and you
+begin to wonder whether you're in the air or on water, flying or
+floating, imagine that you're the ghost of some old Indian hunter who
+used to jack for deer on Squaw Pond, and be stonily silent."
+
+"Oh! I say, stop chaffing," whispered Neal impetuously. "You're enough
+to make a fellow feel creepy before ever he starts. I could bear the
+worst racket on earth better than a dead quiet."
+
+This dialogue was exchanged in low but excited voices between a young
+man of about one and twenty, and a lad who was apparently five years his
+junior, while they waded knee-deep in water among the long, rank grasses
+and circular pads of water-lilies which border the banks of Squaw Pond,
+a small lake in the forest region of northern Maine.
+
+The hour was somewhere about eleven o'clock. The night was intensely
+still, without a zephyr stirring among the trees, and of that wavering
+darkness caused by a half-clouded moon. On the black and green water
+close to the bank rocked a light birch-bark canoe, a ticklish craft,
+which a puff might overturn. The young man who had urged the necessity
+for silence was groping round it, fumbling with the sharp bow, in which
+he fixed a short pole or "jack-staff," with some object--at present no
+one could discern what--on top.
+
+"There, I've got the jack rigged up!" he whispered presently. "Step in
+now, Neal, and I'll open it. Have you got your rifle at half-cock?
+That's right. Be careful. A fellow would need to have his hair parted in
+the middle in a birch box like this. Remember, mum's the word!"
+
+The lad obeyed, seating himself as noiselessly as he could in the bow of
+the canoe, and threw his rifle on his shoulder in a convenient position
+for shooting, with a freedom which showed he was accustomed to firearms.
+
+At the same time his companion stepped into the canoe, having first
+touched the dark object on the pole just over Neal's head. Instantly it
+changed into a brilliant, scintillating, silvery eye, which flashed
+forward a stream of white light on a line with the pointed gun, cutting
+the black face of the pond in twain as with a silver blade, and making
+the leaves on shore glisten like oxidized coins.
+
+The effect of this sudden illumination was so sudden and beautiful that
+the boy for a minute or two held his rifle in unsteady hands while the
+canoe glided out from the bank. An exclamation began in his throat which
+ended in an indistinct gurgle. Remembering that he was pledged to
+silence, he settled himself to be as wordless and motionless as if his
+living body had become a statue.
+
+From his position no revealing radiance fell on him. He sat in shadow
+beside that glinting eye, which was really a good-sized lantern, fitted
+at the back with a powerful silvered reflector, and in front with a
+glass lens, the light being thrown directly ahead. It was provided also
+with a sliding door that could be noiselessly slipped over the glass
+with a touch, causing the blackness of a total eclipse.
+
+This was the deer-hunters' "jack-lamp," familiarly called by Neal's
+companion the "jack."
+
+And now it may be readily guessed in what thrilling night-work these
+canoe-men are engaged as they skim over Squaw Pond, with no swish of
+paddle, nor jar of motion, nor even a noisy breath, disturbing the
+brooding silence through which they glide. They are "jacking" or
+"floating" for deer, showing the radiant eye of their silvery jack to
+attract any antlered buck or graceful doe which may come forth from the
+screen of the forest to drink at this quiet hour amid the tangled
+grasses and lily-pads at the pond's brink.
+
+Now, a deer, be it buck, doe, or fawn in the spotted coat, will stand as
+if moonstruck, if it hears no sound; to gaze at the lantern, studying
+the meteor which has crossed its world as an astronomer might
+investigate a rare, radiant comet. So it offers a steady mark for the
+sportsman's bullet, if he can glide near enough to discern its outline
+and take aim. There is one exception to this rule. If the wary animal
+has ever been startled by a shot fired from under the jack, trust him
+never to watch a light again, though it shine like the Kohinoor.
+
+As for Neal Farrar, this was his first attempt at playing the part of
+midnight hunter; and I am bound to say that--being English born and
+city bred--he found the situation much too mystifying for his peace of
+mind.
+
+He knew that the canoe was moving, moving rapidly; for giant pines along
+the shore, looking solid and black as mourning pillars, shot by him as
+if theirs were the motion, with an effect indescribably weird. Now and
+again a gray pine stump, appearing, if the light struck it, twice its
+real size, passed like a shimmering ghost. But he felt not the slightest
+tremor of advance, heard no swish or ripple of paddle.
+
+A moisture oozed from his skin, and gathered in heavy drips under the
+brim of his hat, as he began to wonder whether the light bark skiff was
+working through the water at all, or skimming in some unnatural way
+above it. For the life of him he could not settle this doubt. And,
+fearful of balking the expedition by a stir, he dared not turn his head
+to investigate the doings of his comrade, Cyrus Garst.
+
+Cyrus, though also city bred, was an American, and evidently an old hand
+at the present business. The Maine wilds had long been his playground.
+He had studied the knack of noiseless paddling under the teaching of a
+skilled forest guide until he fairly brought it to perfection. And, in
+perfection, it is about the most wizard-like art practised in the
+nineteenth century.
+
+The silent propulsion was managed thus: the grand master of the paddle
+gripped its cross handle in both hands, working it so that its broad
+blade cut the water first backward then forward so dexterously that not
+even his own practised hearing could detect a sound; nor could he any
+more than Neal feel a sensation of motion.
+
+The birch-bark skiff skimmed onward as if borne on unseen pinions.
+
+To Neal Farrar, who had been brought up amid the tumult of rival noises
+and the practical surroundings of Manchester, England, who was a
+stranger to the solitudes of primitive forests, and almost a stranger to
+weird experiences, the silent advance was a mystery. And it began to be
+a hateful one; for he had not even the poor explanation of it which has
+been given in this record.
+
+It was only his third night in Maine wilds; and I fear that his friend
+Cyrus, when inviting him to join in the jacking excursion, had refrained
+from explaining the canoe mystery, mischievously promising himself
+considerable fun from the English lad's bewilderment.
+
+Neal's hearing was strained to catch any sound of big game beating
+about amid the bushes on shore or splashing in the water, but none
+reached him. The night seemed to grow stiller, stiller, ever stiller, as
+they glided towards the head of the pond, until the dead quiet started
+strange, imaginary noises.
+
+There was a pounding as of dull hammers in his ears, a belling in his
+head, and a drumming at his heart.
+
+He was tortured by a wild desire to yell his loudest, and defy the
+brooding silence.
+
+Another--a midnight watchman--broke it instead.
+
+"Whoo-ho-ho-whah-whoo!"
+
+It was the thrilling scream of a big-eyed owl as he chased a squirrel to
+its death, and proceeded to banquet in unwinking solemnity.
+
+"Whoo-ho-ho-whah-whoo!"
+
+Neal started,--who wouldn't?--and joggled the canoe, thereby nearly
+ending the night hunt at once by the untimely discharge of his rifle.
+
+He had barely regained some measure of steadiness, though he felt as if
+needles were sticking into him all over, when at last there was a
+crashing amid the bushes on the right bank, not a hundred yards distant.
+
+Noiselessly as ever the canoe shot around, turning the jack's eye in
+that direction. A minute later a magnificent buck, swinging his antlers
+proudly, dashed into the pond, and stooped his small red tongue to
+drink, licking in the water greedily with a soft, lapping sound.
+
+Neal silently cocked his rifle, almost choking with excitement; then
+paused for a few seconds to brace up and control the nervous terrors
+which had possessed him, before his eye singled out the spot in the
+deer's neck which his bullet must pierce. But he found his operations
+further delayed; for the animal suddenly lifted its head, scattered
+feathery spray from its horns and hoofs, and retired a few steps up the
+bank.
+
+In its former position every part of its body was visibly outlined under
+the silver light of the jack. Now a successful shot would be difficult,
+though it might be managed. The boy leaned slightly forward, trying to
+hold his gun dead straight and take cool aim, when the most curious of
+all the curious sensations he had felt this night ran through him,
+seeming to scorch like electricity from his scalp to his feet.
+
+From the stand which the deer had taken, its body was in shadow. All
+that the sportsman could discern were two living, glowing eyes,
+staring--so it appeared to him--straight into his, like starry
+search-lights, as if they read the death-purpose in the boy's heart, and
+begged him to desist.
+
+It was all over with Neal Farrar's shot. He lowered his rifle, while the
+speech, which could no longer be repressed, rattled in his throat before
+it broke forth.
+
+"I'll go crazy if I don't speak!" he cried.
+
+At the first word the buck went scudding like the wind through the
+forest, doubtless vowing by the shades of his ancestors that he never
+would stand to gaze at a light again.
+
+"And--and--I can't shoot the thing while it's looking at me like that!"
+the boy blurted out.
+
+"You dunderhead! What do you mean?" gasped Cyrus, breaking silence in a
+gusty whisper of mingled anger and amusement. "You won't get a chance to
+shoot it or anything else now. You've lost us our meat for to-night."
+
+"Well, I couldn't help it," Neal whispered back. "For pity's sake, what
+has been moving this canoe? The quiet was enough to set a fellow mad!
+And then that buck stared straight at me like a human thing. I could
+see nothing but two burning eyes with white rings round them."
+
+"Stuff!" was the American's answer. "He was gazing at the jack, not at
+you. He couldn't see an inch of you with that light just over your head.
+But it would have been a hard shot anyhow, for his nose was towards you,
+and ten to one you'd have made a clean miss."
+
+"Well," he added, after five minutes of acute listening, "I guess we may
+give over jacking for to-night. That first cry of yours was enough to
+set a regiment of deer scampering. I'm only half mad after all at your
+losing a chance at such a splendid buck. It was something to see him as
+he stooped to drink in the glare of the jack, a midnight forest picture
+such as one wants to remember. Long may he flourish! We wouldn't have
+started out to rid him of his glorious life if we weren't half-starved
+on flapjacks and ends of pork. Let's get back to camp! I guess you felt
+a few new sensations to-night, eh, Neal Farrar?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+A SPILL-OUT.
+
+
+Indeed, shocks and sensations seemed to ride rampant that night in
+endless succession; a fact which Neal presently realized, as does every
+daring young fellow who visits the Maine wilderness for the first time,
+whatever be his object.
+
+Ere turning the canoe towards home, Cyrus drove it a few feet nearer to
+shore, again warily listening for any further sound of game. Just then
+another wild, whooping scream cleft the night air; and, on looking
+towards the bank, Neal beheld his owlship, who had finished the
+squirrel, seated on an aged windfall,[1] one end of which dipped into
+the water.
+
+[Footnote 1: A forest tree which has been blown down.]
+
+The gray bird on the gray old trunk formed a second thrilling midnight
+picture, but at this moment young Farrar was in no mood for studying
+effects. He felt rather unstrung by his recent emotions; and, though he
+was by no means an imaginative youth, he actually took it into his head
+half seriously that the whooping, hooting thing was taunting him with
+making a failure of the jacking business. Without pausing to consider
+whether the owl would furnish meat for the camp or not, he let fly at
+him suddenly with his rifle.
+
+The fate of that ghostly, big-eyed creature will be forever one of those
+mysteries which Neal Farrar would like to solve. Whether the heavy
+bullet intended for deer laid him open--which is improbable--or whether
+it didn't, nobody had a chance to discover. Being unused to birch-bark
+canoes, the sportsman gave a slight lurch aside after he had discharged
+his leaden messenger of death, startled doubtless by the loud,
+unexpected echoes which reverberated through the forest after his shot.
+
+"Hold on!" cried Cyrus, trying to avert a ducking by a counter-motion.
+"You'll tip us over!"
+
+Too late! The birch skiff spun round, rocked crazily for a second or
+two, and keeled over, spilling both its occupants into the black and
+silver water of the pond.
+
+Of course they ducked under, and of course they rose, gurgling and
+spluttering.
+
+"You didn't lose the rifle, Neal, did you?" gasped the American directly
+he could speak.
+
+"Not I! I held on to it like grim death."
+
+"Good for you! To lose a hundred-and-fifty-dollar gun when we're
+starting into the wilds would be maddening."
+
+Then, just because they were extremely healthy, happy, vigorous fellows,
+whose lungs had been drinking in pure, exhilarating ozone and fragrant
+odors of pine-balsam and were thereby expanded, they took a cheerful
+view of this duck under, and made the midnight forest echo, echo, and
+re-echo, with peals and gusts and shouts of laughter, while they
+struggled to right their canoe.
+
+The merry jingles rang on in challenge and answer, repeating from both
+sides of the pond, until they reached at last the wooded slopes and
+mighty bowlders of Old Squaw Mountain, a peak whose "star-crowned head"
+could be imagined rather than discerned against the horizon, near the
+distant shore from which the hunters had started. Here echo ran riot.
+It seemed to their excited fancies as if the ghost of Old Squaw herself,
+the disappointed Indian mother who had, according to tradition, lived so
+long in loneliness upon this mountain, were joining in their mirth with
+haggish peals.
+
+The canoe had turned bottom uppermost. On righting it they found that
+the jack-staff had been dislodged. The jack was floating gayly away over
+the ripples; its light, being in an air-tight case, was unquenched.
+
+"Swim ashore with the rifle, Neal," said Cyrus. "I'll pick up the jack.
+Did you ever see anything so absurdly comical as it looks, dodging off
+on its own hook like a big, wandering eye?"
+
+With his comrade's help young Farrar succeeded in getting the gun across
+his back, slinging it round him by its leather shoulder-strap; then he
+struck out for the bank, having scarcely twenty yards to swim before he
+reached shallow water.
+
+Now, for the first time to-night, the moon shone fully out from her veil
+of cloud, casting a flood of silver radiance, and showing him a scene in
+white and black, still and clear as a steel engraving, of a beauty so
+unimagined and grand that it seemed a little awful. It gave him a
+sudden respect for the unreclaimed, seldom-trodden region to which his
+craving for adventure had brought him.
+
+The outline of Old Squaw Mountain could be plainly discerned, a dark,
+towering shape against the horizon. A few stars glinted like a diamond
+diadem above its brow. Down its sides and from the base stretched a
+sable mantle of forest, enwrapping Squaw Pond, of which the moon made a
+mirror.
+
+"My! I think this would make the fellows in Manchester open their eyes a
+bit," muttered Neal aloud. "Only one feels as if he ought to see some
+old Indian brave such as Cyrus tells about,--a Touch-the-Cloud, or
+Whistling Elk, or Spotted Tail, come gliding towards him out of the
+woods in his paint and feather toggery. Glad I didn't visit Maine a
+hundred years ago, though, when there'd have been a chance of such a
+meeting."
+
+Still muttering, young Farrar kicked off his high rubber boots, and
+dragged off his coat. He proceeded to shake and wring the water from his
+upper garments, listening intently, and glancing half expectantly into
+the pitch-black shadows at the edges of the forest, as if he might hear
+the stealthy steps and see the savage form of the superseded red man
+emerge therefrom.
+
+"Ugh! I mind the ducking now more than I did a while ago," he murmured.
+"The water wasn't cold. Why, we bathed at the other end of the pond late
+last evening! But these wet clothes are precious uncomfortable. I wish
+we were nearer to camp. Good Gracious! What's that?"
+
+He stood stock-still and erect, his flesh shrinking a little, while his
+drenched flannel shirt clung yet more closely and clammily to his skin.
+
+A distant noise was wafted to his ears through the forest behind. It
+began like the gentle, mellow lowing of a cow at evening, swelled into a
+quavering, appealing crescendo cadence, and gradually died away. Almost
+as the last note ceased another commenced at the same low pitch, with
+only the rest of a heart-beat between the two, and surged forth into a
+plaintive yet tempestuous call, which sank as before. It was followed by
+a third, terminating in an impatient roar. The weird solo ran through
+several scales in its performance, rising, wailing, booming, sinking,
+ever varying in expression. It marked a new era in Neal's experience of
+sounds, and left him choking with bewilderment about what sort of
+forest creature it could be which uttered such a call.
+
+He began to get out some bungling description when Cyrus joined him
+shortly afterwards, but the American had had a lively time of it while
+recovering his jack-light and righting the canoe on mid-pond. He was in
+no mood for explanations.
+
+"Keep the yarn, whatever it is, till to-morrow, Neal," he said. "I
+didn't hear anything special. Perhaps I was too far away. I'm so wet and
+jaded that I feel as limp as a washed-out rag. Let's get back to camp as
+fast as we can."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LIFE IN A BARK HUT.
+
+
+It was two o'clock in the morning when the tired, draggled pair stumbled
+ashore at the place where they embarked, hauled up their birch skiff,
+leaving it to repose, bottom uppermost, under a screen of bushes, and
+then stood for some minutes in deliberation.
+
+"I'm sure I hope we can find the trail all right," said Cyrus. "Yes, I
+see the blazes on the trees. Here's luck!"
+
+He had been turning the jack-lamp on either side of him, trying to
+discover the "blazes," or notches cut in some of the trunks, which
+marked the "blazed trail"--in other words, the spotted line through the
+otherwise trackless forest, which would lead him whither he wanted to
+go.
+
+It required considerable experience and unending watchfulness to follow
+these "blazes"; but young Garst seemed to have the instinct of a true
+woodsman, and went ahead unfalteringly, if vigilantly, while Neal
+followed closely in his tracks.
+
+After rather a lengthy trudge, they reached a point where the ground
+sloped gently upward into a low bluff. Still keeping to the trail, they
+ascended this eminence, finding the forest not so dense, and the walking
+easier than it had been hitherto. Gaining the top, they emerged upon an
+open patch, which had been cleared of its erect, massive pines, and the
+long-hidden earth laid bare to the sky by the lumberman's axe.
+
+Here the eagerly desired sight--that sight of all others to the tired
+camper; namely, the camp itself, with its cheery, blazing
+camp-fire--burst upon their view, sheltered by a group of sapling pines,
+which had grown up since their giant brothers went to make timber.
+
+Now, a Maine camp, as every one knows, may consist of any temporary
+shelter you choose to name, according to the tastes and opportunities
+of its occupants, from a fair white canvas home to a log cabin or a
+hastily erected canopy of spruce boughs. In the present instance it was
+a "wangen," or hut of strong bark, such as is sometimes used by
+lumbermen to rest and sleep in when they are driving their floats of
+timber down one of the rivers of this region to a distant town, which is
+a centre of the lumber trade.
+
+Cyrus and Neal were making across the clearing in the direction of the
+camp-fire with revived spirits, when the American suddenly grabbed his
+friend by the arm, and drew him behind a clump of low bushes.
+
+"Hold on a minute!" he whispered. "By all that's glorious, there's Uncle
+Eb singing his favorite song! It's worth hearing. You never listened to
+such music in England."
+
+"I don't suppose I ever did," answered Neal, suppressed laughter making
+him shake.
+
+Upon a gray pine stump, beside the blaze, which he was feeding with a
+hemlock bough, sat a battered-looking yet lively personage. Had he been
+standing upright upon the remnant of trunk, he would certainly, in the
+bright but changeful firelight, have deceived an onlooker into believing
+him to be a continuation of it; for the baggy tweed trousers which he
+wore on his immense legs, and which partially hid his loose-fitting
+brogans, or woodsman's boots, his thick, knitted jersey, his mop of
+woolly hair, with the cap of coon's fur that adorned it, were a striking
+mixture of grays, all bordering upon the color of the stump. His skin,
+however, was a fine contrast, shining as he bent towards the flame like
+the outside of a copper kettle. In daylight it would be three shades
+darker, because the thick coral lips, gleaming teeth, and prominent,
+friendly eyes of the individual, betrayed him to be in his own words, "a
+colored gen'leman;" that is, a full-blooded negro, and a free American
+citizen.
+
+Beside him, squatting upon his haunches and wagging his shaggy tail, was
+a good-sized dog, not of pure breed, but undoubtedly possessed of fire
+and fidelity, as was shown by the eye he raised to his master. His red
+coat and general formation showed that his father had been an Irish
+setter, though he seemed to have other and fiercer blood in his veins,
+mingling with that of this gentle parent.
+
+To him the negro was chanting a war-song,--some lines by a popular
+writer which he had found in an old newspaper, and had set to a curious
+tune of his own composition, rendering the performance more inspiriting
+by sundry wild whoops, and an occasional whacking of his teeth together.
+
+Here are two verses, under the influence of which the dog worked himself
+up to such excitement that he seemed to feel the ghosts of rabbits
+slain--for he could smell no live ones--hovering near him:--
+
+  "I raise my gun whar de rabbit run--
+    Ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!
+  En de rabbit say:
+    'Gimme time ter pray,
+  Fer I ain't got long fer to stay, to stay!'
+    Oh, ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!
+
+  "Ketch him, oh, ketch him!
+  Run ter de place en fetch him!
+  De bell done chime
+  Fer de breakfast time--
+    Oh, ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!"
+
+"If there are any more verses, Uncle Eb, keep them until we've had
+supper, or breakfast, or whatever you like to call a meal at this
+unearthly hour. I'm so hungry that I could chew nails!" cried Cyrus,
+springing from behind the bushes, and reaching the, camp-fire with a few
+strides, Neal following him.
+
+"Sakes alive! yonkers; is dat you?" cried the darkey, uprearing his
+gray figure. "I'se mighty glad to see you back. Whar's yer meat? Left it
+in de canoe mebbe? De buck too big to drag 'long to camp--eh?"
+
+There was a wicked rolling of Uncle Eb's eyes while he spoke. Evidently
+from the looks of the sportsmen he guessed immediately what had been the
+result of their excursion.
+
+"No luck and no buck to-night!" answered Garst. "But don't roast us,
+Uncle Eb. Get us something to eat quicker than lightning or we'll go for
+you--at least we would if we weren't entirely played out. It isn't
+everybody who can manage a hard shot as cleverly as you do, when he can
+only see the eyes of an animal. And that was the one chance we got."
+
+No man living ever heard a further word from Cyrus as to how his English
+friend bore the scares of a first night's jacking.
+
+"Ya-as, dat's a ticklish shot. Most folks is skeered o' trying it,"
+drawled out Ebenezer Grout, a professional guide as well as "colored
+gen'leman," familiarly called by visitors to this region who hired the
+use of his hut and his services, "Uncle Eb."
+
+"There's some comfort for you," whispered Cyrus slyly into Neal's ear.
+Aloud he said, addressing the guide, "We had a spill-out, too, as a
+crown-all. I'm mighty glad that this is the second of October, not
+November, and that the weather is as warm as summer; otherwise we'd be
+in a pretty bad way from chill. I feel shivery. Hurry up, and get us
+some steaming hot coffee and flapjacks, Uncle Eb, while we fling off
+these wet clothes. The trouble is we haven't got any dry ones."
+
+"Hain't got no oder suits?" queried the woodsman. "Den go 'long, boys,
+and rig yerselves up in yer blankets. Ye can pertend to be Injuns fer
+to-night. Like enough dis ain't de worst shift ye'll have to make 'fore
+ye get out o' dese parts."
+
+As the draggled pair were making towards the hut, which stood about six
+feet from the fire, to follow his advice, its bark door was suddenly
+pushed wide open. Forth stepped, or rather staggered, another boy,
+younger and shorter than Neal. His tumbled fair hair was here and there
+adorned with a green pine-needle, which was not remarkable, considering
+that he had just arisen from a bed of pine boughs. Sundry others were
+clinging to the surface of the warm, fleecy blankets in which he was
+wrapped, and his feet were thrust into a pair of moccasins. He had the
+appearance and voice of a person awaking from sound sleep.
+
+"I say, you fellows, it's about time you got back!" he said, rubbing his
+heavy eyes, and addressing the hunters. "I hope you've had some luck. I
+dreamt that I was smacking my lips over a venison steak."
+
+"Smack 'em w'en you git it, honey!" remarked Uncle Eb, while he mixed a
+plain batter of flour, baking-powder, and cold water, which he dropped
+in big spoonfuls on a frying-pan, previously greased, proceeding to fry
+the mixture over his camp-fire.
+
+The thin, round cakes which presently appeared were the "flapjacks"
+despised by Cyrus as insufficient diet.
+
+Without waiting to answer the new boy's greeting, the hunters had
+disappeared into the bark shanty. When next they issued forth they were
+rigged up Indian fashion in moccasins and blankets, the latter being
+doubled and draped over their underclothing,--of which luckily they had
+a dry supply,--and gathered round their waists with leather straps.
+Knitted caps, usually worn when sleeping, adorned their heads.
+
+"You see, we followed Dol's example and your advice, Uncle Eb," said
+Cyrus, as they seated themselves by the camp-fire. "And I tell you these
+make tip-top dressing-gowns when you're feeling a little bit chilly
+after a drenching. We didn't bring along a second suit of tweeds for the
+simple reason that we mean to do some pretty rough tramping with our
+packs on our backs, and then a fellow is likely to grumble at any
+unnecessary pound of weight he carries."
+
+"Shuah--shuah!" assented Uncle Eb.
+
+"And that is why we left our fishing-rods behind," continued Garst. "You
+see, our main object this trip is neither hunting nor fishing. But a
+creel of gamey trout from Squaw Pond would come in handy now to
+replenish our larder."
+
+"Wal, I b'lieve I'll fix up a rod to-mo-oh an' hook a few, fer de pork's
+givin' out. Hain't got mich use fer trout meself. Dey's kind o'
+tasteless eatin' if a man can git a bit o' fat coon or a fatty [hare],
+let 'lone ven'zon. Pork's a sight better'n 'em to my mind."
+
+While Uncle Eb was giving his views on food, he was hurriedly "bilin'"
+coffee, frying unlimited flapjacks, and breaking up some crystal cakes
+of maple sugar, which he melted into a sirup, and poured over them.
+
+  "De bell done chime
+  Fer de breakfast time!"
+
+he shouted gleefully when all was accomplished. "Heah, yonkers! I guess
+we may call dis meal breakfast jest as well as not, fer it's neah to
+dawn now."
+
+And the trio fell to voraciously, as he handed them each a steaming tin
+mug and an equally steaming plate. The newly awakened youngster, who had
+been cuddling his head sleepily against Neal's shoulder (a glance showed
+that they were brothers), had clamored for his share of the banquet.
+
+"You haven't been lonely, Dol, I hope, have you?" said Cyrus, as a whole
+flapjack, doubled over and drenched in sirup, disappeared down his
+capacious throat.
+
+"Not I," answered Dol (Adolphus Farrar, ladies and gentlemen), shutting
+and opening a pair of steel-gray eyes with a sort of quick snap. "Uncle
+Eb and I sat by the fire until twelve o'clock. He sang songs, and told
+tip-top stories about coon hunts. I tell you it was fun! I'd rather see
+a coon hunt than go out at night jacking, especially if I got a ducking
+instead of a deer, like some bungling fellows I know."
+
+"Don't be saucy, Young England, or I'll go for you when I've finished
+eating," laughed Cyrus good-humoredly. "Who told you what we got?"
+
+Dol winked at Uncle Eb, who had, indeed, entertained him with giggling
+jokes about the unsuccessful hunters while they were stripping off their
+wet garments.
+
+Adolphus, being the youngest of the camping-party, was favored with the
+softest pine-bough bed and the best of the limited luxuries which the
+camp possessed, with unlimited nicknames,--from "Young England" to
+"Shaver" or "Chick," according to the whims of his comrades.
+
+"Say, Uncle Eb, we're having a fine old time to-night--all sorts of
+experiences! I guess you may as well finish that song we interrupted
+while we're finishing our meal."
+
+"All rightee, gen'lemen!" answered the jolly guide and cook.
+
+The dog Tiger had retreated to the back of the camp-fire, where he lay
+blissfully snoozing; but at a booming "Whoop-ee!" from his master, which
+formed a prelude to the following verses, he shot up like a rocket, and
+manifested all his former signs of excitement.
+
+  "Dey's a big fat goose whar de turkey roos'--
+    Ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!
+  En de goose--he say,
+    'Hit'll soon be day,
+  En I got no feders fer ter give away!'
+    Oh, ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!
+
+  "Ketch him, oh, ketch him,
+  Run ter de roos' en fetch him!
+  He ain't gwine tell
+  On de dinner bell--
+    Ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!"
+
+"Scoot 'long to bed now, you yonkers, or ye'll look like spooks
+to-mo-oh! Hit's day a'ready," cried the singer directly he had whooped
+out his last note.
+
+And the "yonkers," nothing loath, for they had finished their repast,
+sprang up to obey him.
+
+"Isn't it a comfort that we haven't any trouble of undressing and
+getting into our bedclothes, fellows?" Cyrus said, as they reached the
+wangen, and prepared to throw themselves upon the fragrant camp-bed of
+fresh green pine-boughs, which made the bark hut smell more healthily
+than a palace.
+
+The natural mattress was wide enough to accommodate three. The boughs
+were laid down in rows with the under side up, and overlapped each
+other. To be sure, an occasional twig might poke a sleeper's ribs, but
+what mattered that? To the English boys especially--having the charm of
+entire novelty--it was a matchless bed, wholesome, restful, and rich
+with balsamic odors hitherto unknown.
+
+The trio were stupidly tired; but on the American continent no happier
+or healthier youths could have been found.
+
+It had, indeed, been a night big with experiences; and there was one
+still to come, which, to Neal Farrar at any rate, was as novel as the
+rest. He had thrown himself upon his bough couch, too weary to offer
+anything but the gladness of his heart for worship, when Cyrus touched
+his arm.
+
+"Look there!" he said. "If a fellow could see that without feeling some
+sensations go through him which he never felt before, he wouldn't be
+worth much!"
+
+He pointed through the open door of the hut at the sky above the
+clearing, over which was stealing a pearly hue of dawn, shot with a
+tinge of rosy light, like the fire in the heart of an opal.
+
+This made a royal canopy over the towering head of Old Squaw
+Mountain,--near by now and plainly visible,--which had not yet lost its
+starry diadem, though the gems were paling one by one. The shoulders of
+the peak wore a mantle of purple, and the forest which clothed its bulk
+was changing from the blackness of a mourning robe to the emerald green
+of a sea-nymph's drapery.
+
+The shutters of Night were rolling back, and young Day was stepping out
+to cast her first smile on a waiting earth.
+
+As the watchers in the hut caught that smile, every thought which rose
+in them was a daybreak song to the God who is light, and the secret of
+every dawning.
+
+With the day-smile kissing their faces they fell asleep, feeling that
+they were wrapped in the embrace of the invisible King.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WHITHER BOUND?
+
+
+"Where from? Whither bound?" It is not often that a man or boy burns to
+put these questions--which ships signal to each other when they pass
+upon the ocean--to some individual who hurries by him on a crowded
+thoroughfare, whose name perhaps he knows, but whose hand he has never
+clasped, of whose thoughts, feelings, and capabilities he is ignorant.
+
+But just let him meet that same fellow during a holiday trip to some
+wild sea-beach or lonely mountain, let an acquaintance spring up, let
+him observe the habits of the other traveller, discovering a few of his
+weak points and some of his good ones, and then he wishes to ask,
+"Where do you hail from? Whither are you bound?"
+
+Therefore, having encountered three fairly good-looking, jovial,
+well-disposed young fellows amid the solitudes of a Maine forest, having
+spent some eventful hours in their company, learning how they behaved in
+certain emergencies, it is but natural that the reader should wish to
+know their ordinary occupations, with their reasons for venturing into
+these wilds, and the goal they wish to reach, before he journeys with
+them farther.
+
+Just at present, being fast asleep, dreaming, and--if I must say
+it--snoring like troopers, upon their mattresses of pine boughs, they
+are unable to give any information about themselves. But the friend who
+has been authorized to record their travels will be happy to satisfy all
+reasonable curiosity.
+
+To begin, then, with the "boss" of the party, Cyrus Garst, the writer
+would say that he is a student of Harvard University, and a brainy,
+energetic, robust son of America. Among his college classmates he is
+regarded as a bit of a hero; for, in spite of his comparative youth, he
+is an enterprising traveller and a veteran camper, whose camp-fire has
+blazed in some of the wildest solitudes of his native land. For his
+hobby is natural history, and his playground the "forest primeval,"
+where he studies American animals amid the lonely passes which they
+choose for their lairs and beats.
+
+Every year when Harvard's learned halls are closed for the long summer
+vacation,--sometimes at other seasons too,--he starts off on a trip to a
+wilderness region, with his knapsack on his back, his rifle on his
+shoulder, and often carrying his camera as well.
+
+Once in a while he has been accompanied by a bosom friend or two. More
+frequently he has gone alone, hiring the services of a professional
+guide accustomed to the locality he visits. Now, such a guide is the
+indispensable figure in every woodland trip. He is expected to supply
+the main part of his employer's camp "kit"; namely, a tent or some
+shelter to sleep under, cooking utensils, axes, etc., as well as a boat
+or canoe if such be required. And this son of the forest, whose foot can
+make a bee-line to its destination through the densest wooded maze, is
+not only leader, but cook and general-utility man in camp as well. The
+guide must be equally grand-master of paddle, rifle, and frying-pan.
+
+For these tireless woodland heroes Cyrus Garst has a general
+admiration. He has always agreed with them famously--save on one point;
+and he has never had to shorten his wanderings for fear of lengthening
+their fees. For Cyrus has a millionnaire father in the Back Bay of
+Boston, who is disposed to indulge his whims.
+
+The one point of variance is this: while all guides admire young Garst
+as a crack shot with a rifle, he frequently dumfounds them by letting
+slip stunning chances at game, big and little. They call him "a queer
+specimen sportsman,"--understanding little his love for the wild
+offspring of the woods,--because he never uses his gun save when the
+bareness of his larder or the peril of his own life or his chum's
+demands it.
+
+Nevertheless, feeling the need of fresh meat, the naturalist was for the
+moment hotly exasperated because his English comrade, Neal Farrar,
+missed even a poor chance at a buck during the midnight excursion on
+Squaw Pond.
+
+His friends are proud of stating that up to the present Cyrus had
+proceeded well in his friendly acquaintance with wild creatures, his
+desire being to study their habits when alive rather than to pore over
+their anatomy when dead. And he has always reaped a plentiful harvest
+of fun during his trips, declaring that he has "the pull over fellows
+who go into the woods for killing," seeing that he can thoroughly enjoy
+the escape of a game animal if he can only catch a sight of it, and
+perceive how its pluck or cunning enables it to baffle pursuing man.
+There are those who call Cyrus a sportsman of the best type. Perhaps
+they are right.
+
+Yet in the year of our story, when he had just attained his majority,
+this student of forest life is still unsatisfied, because he has not
+been able to obtain a good view of the behemoth of American woods, the
+_ignis fatuus_ of hunters,--the mighty moose.
+
+Once only, when paddling on a still pond with his experienced guide for
+company, the latter suddenly closed the slide of the jack-lamp, hiding
+its light. At the same moment a dark, splendid monster, tall as a horse
+and swinging a pair of antlers five feet broad, suddenly appeared upon
+the bank, near to which the canoe lay in black shadow. The hunters dared
+not breathe. It was at a season of year when the Maine law exacts a
+heavy fine for the killing of a moose; and even the guide had no desire
+to send his bullets through the law, though he might have riddled the
+game without compunction.
+
+For a minute or two the creature halted at the pond's brink, magnified
+in the mirror of moonlit water into a gigantic, wavering shape. Then
+with slow, solemn tread he walked along the bank ahead, gave a loud
+snort something like the snort of a war-horse, made a crunching,
+chopping noise with his jaws, resembling the sound of a dull axe
+striking against wood, plunged into the lake, and swam across to the
+opposite shore.
+
+"If we had fired, he might have come for us full tilt," whispered the
+guide so softly that his words were like a gliding breath. "And then I
+tell you we'd have had a narrow squeak. He'd have kicked the canoe into
+splinters and us out o' time in short order."
+
+"But a moose won't charge unless he's attacked, will he?" asked Cyrus,
+later in the night, when a couple of quacking black ducks which had
+received a dose of lead were lying silent at his feet, and the hunters
+were returning to camp with food.
+
+"Not often," was the reply. "Only at this time o' year, if they've got a
+mate to defend, you can't say for sure what they'll do. They won't
+always fight either, even if they're wounded, when they can get a
+chance to bolt. But a moose, if he has to die, will be sure to die game,
+with his face to his enemy; and so will every wild animal that I know.
+I've even seen a shot partridge flutter up its feathers like a game-cock
+at the fellow who dropped it."
+
+Well, this memorable glimpse of his mooseship was obtained in the year
+before our story. And now, in the beginning of October, young Garst was
+off into Maine wilds again, having arranged to "do" the forest
+thoroughly after his usual fashion, seeing all he could of its countless
+phases of life, and finally to meet this same guide--a dare-devil fellow
+who was reported to have had adventures in moose-hunting such as other
+woodsmen did not dream of--at a log camp far in the wilderness. Thence
+they could proceed to solitudes where the voice of man seldom echoed,
+where the foot of man rarely trod, and where moose signs were pretty
+sure to be found.
+
+But there was one very unusual feature in his present expedition. The
+student of nature, who generally started forth alone, was this year,
+owing to a freak of fate and to his natural good-nature, accompanied by
+two English lads.
+
+Early in the summer of this same year, Francis Farrar, a wealthy
+cotton-merchant of Manchester, England, visited America on a
+business-trip, and became the guest of Cyrus's father. He brought with
+him his two sons, Neal, aged sixteen and a half, and Adolphus,
+familiarly called Dol, who was more than a year younger.
+
+Both boys had been at a large public school, and physically, as well as
+mentally, were well developed. They were accustomed to spending long
+vacations with their father at wild spots on the seashore, or amid
+mountains in England and Scotland. They could tirelessly do a sixty-mile
+spin on their "wheels," were good football players, excellent rowers,
+formed part of the crew of their father's yacht, could skilfully handle
+gun and fishing-rod, but they had never camped out.
+
+They knew none of the delights of sleeping in woodland quarters, with
+only a canvas or bark roof, or perhaps a few spruce boughs, between them
+and the sky--
+
+  "While a music wild and solemn
+    From the pine-tree's height
+  Rolls its vast and sea-like volume
+    On the wind of night."
+
+Small wonder, then, that when they heard Cyrus Garst tell of his
+camping excursions, of his jolly times, long tramps, and hairbreadth
+escapes, their hearts swelled with a tremendous longing to accompany him
+on the trip into northern Maine which he was then projecting for the
+following October.
+
+Now, Cyrus at the first start-off conceived a liking for these English
+fellows, to whom, for his father's sake, he played the part of genial
+host. With a lordly recognition of his superior years he pronounced them
+"first-rate youngsters, with lots of snap in them." And as the
+acquaintance progressed, Neal Farrar, with his erect figure, broad
+chest, musical voice, and wide-apart gray eyes,--so clear and honest
+that their glance was a beam,--proved a personage so likable that the
+student adopted him as "chum," forgetting those five years which had
+been a gulf between them.
+
+Dol, whose eyes were of a more steely hue than his brother's, striking
+fire readily and showing all manner of flinty lights, who had a
+downright talent for mimicry, and a small share of juvenile
+self-importance, came in for regard of a more indulgent and less equal
+nature.
+
+Directly he got an inkling of the desire for a forest trip which
+stirred in the boys' breasts, making them yearn all day and toss all
+night, Cyrus gave them both a cordial invitation to accompany him into
+Maine. Mr. Farrar did not purpose returning to Europe till midwinter.
+His consent was easily obtained. He presented each of his sons with a
+new Winchester repeating rifle, with which they practised diligently at
+a target ere the eventful day of the start dawned, though their leader
+emphatically insisted that the prime pleasures of the trip were not to
+be looked for in the slaughter done by their hands.
+
+Wearing the camper's favorite dress of stout gray tweed, the trio left
+Boston on a lovely September evening towards the close of the month,
+taking a fast night train for Maine, brimful of enthusiasm about the
+wild woods and free camp-life. The hue of their clothes was chosen with
+a view to making their figures resemble the forest trunks, so that they
+would be less likely to attract the notice of animals, and might get a
+chance to creep upon them undetected.
+
+About their waists were their ammunition belts, with pouches well
+stocked. Their large knapsacks contained blankets, moccasins, and
+various other necessaries of a camper's outfit, including heavy knitted
+jerseys for chill days and nights, and rubber boots reaching high on the
+legs for wear in wading and traversing swampy tracts.
+
+About twenty-four hours later they dropped off the rattling, jingling
+stage-coach which bore them over the latter part of their journey, at
+the flourishing village of Greenville, on the borders of the Maine
+wilds.
+
+Here they were greeted by a view, the loveliness of which made the
+English boys, who had never looked on it before, experience strange
+heart-leaps.
+
+A magnificent sheet of water nearly forty miles long and fourteen broad
+lay before them, studded with islands, girt with evergreen forests and
+wooded peaks. Under the rays of the setting sun its bosom was shot with
+arrows of pale, quivering gold. Banners of gold and flame-color floated
+over the crests of the hills, flinging streamers of light down their
+emerald sides.
+
+"Fellows, there is Moosehead Lake; and I guess you'll find few lakes in
+America or elsewhere that can beat it for beauty," said Cyrus, with a
+patriotic thrill in his voice, for he had a feeling that he was doing
+the honors of his country.
+
+His English comrades were warm with admiration, and here, in view of the
+forest-land which was their El Dorado, tingled with anticipation of the
+unknown.
+
+The three rested that night at Greenville, and began their tramping on
+the following morning. They trudged a distance of seven miles or so to
+the camp of Ebenezer Grout, which, as Garst knew, was situated between
+Squaw Pond and Old Squaw Mountain, the latter being one of the finest
+peaks near Moosehead Lake.
+
+"Uncle Eb" was an old acquaintance of Cyrus's, a dusky, lively woodsman,
+who spent a great part of the year in his lone bark hut, with his dog
+Tiger for company. He subsisted chiefly on what he brought down with his
+rifle, and sometimes earned three dollars a day for guiding tourists up
+Old Squaw or through the adjacent forests.
+
+[Illustration: "THERE IS MOOSEHEAD LAKE."]
+
+He was not an ambitious hunter, and rarely pushed far into the solitudes
+of the wilderness in search of moose or other big game. A coon hunt was
+to him the climax of all fun. It was chiefly with a hope that his
+comrades might enjoy some novel entertainment of this kind that Cyrus
+made his first stoppage at Uncle Eb's camp, purposing to sojourn there
+for a few days.
+
+He was not disappointed.
+
+The stupidly tired trio had slept for about two hours, while the reader
+has been receiving information second-hand about their past and future,
+when a scratching, scraping, boring noise on the outside of their bark
+roof temporarily disturbed their slumbers. Dol called out noisily, and,
+as was the way of that youngster on sundry occasions, talked some
+gibberish in his sleep. The scraping instantly ceased.
+
+A renewed and blissful season of snoring. Another awakening. More music
+on the roof, evidently caused by the claws of some wild animal, while
+each of the campers was startled by a loud "Cluck!"
+
+"Lie still, fellows! Don't budge. Let's see what the thing is," breathed
+Cyrus in a peculiarly still whisper which he had learned from his
+moose-hunting guide of whom mention has been made.
+
+Dead silence in the hut. Redoubled scraping and rattling above, with a
+scattering of bark chips.
+
+Then light appeared through a jagged hole just over a string which was
+stretched across one corner of the cabin, and from which dangled sundry
+articles of camp bric-a-brac, mostly of a tinny nature, with Uncle Eb's
+last morsel of "pork.
+
+"By all that's glorious! it's a coon," breathed Cyrus, but so softly
+that his companions did not hear.
+
+As for the two Farrars, they were working up to such a heat of
+excitement that they felt as if life were now only beginning. They had
+heard of the thievish raids made by the black bear on unprotected camps,
+and of his special fondness for pork. Not knowing that there was no
+chance of an encounter with Bruin so near to civilization as this, they
+peered at that hole in the roof, expecting every moment to see a huge,
+black, snarling snout thrust through it.
+
+It was a pointed gray muzzle which warily appeared instead--appeared and
+disappeared on the instant. For at this crisis Tiger's shrill bugle-call
+resounded without, giving warning of an attack on the camp. The thing,
+whatever it was, scrambled from the roof, and with a strange, shrill cry
+of one note made towards the woods. The dog followed it, barking for all
+he was worth.
+
+Now, too, Uncle Eb's booming "Whoop-ee!" was heard.
+
+The hardy old woodsman, after his visitors had gone to roost, instead of
+stretching himself as usual upon his pine mattress, had started off,
+accompanied by Tiger, to visit some traps which he had set in the
+forest, hoping to catch a marten or two. He took the precaution of
+closing the door of the hut when he saw that its inmates were soundly
+sleeping, thinking meanwhile, that, as day was dawning, there was little
+chance of any wild "critter" coming round the camp during his absence.
+
+But a greedy raccoon, which had been prowling near in the woods during
+the night, and had been tantalized to desperation by the smell of the
+late meal, especially by the odor of flapjacks frying in pork fat, had
+stolen from cover after the departure of his natural enemy, the dog.
+
+Finding the coast clear and the camp unguarded, he made himself quietly
+at home, rooted among some potato parings which the guide had thrown
+aside a day or two before, devoured a cold flapjack, and cleaned the
+camp frying-pan as it had never been cleaned before, with his tongue.
+But his appetite was whetted, not glutted. Scent or instinct told him
+that pork, molasses, and other eatables were hidden in the bark hut.
+Here was a golden opportunity for Mr. Coon. No one molested him.
+Meditating a feast, he climbed to the roof, and began cautiously to
+scrape off portions of the bark. The rising sun ought to have warned him
+back to forest depths; but he persisted in his scratching, repeating now
+and again a satisfied cluck.
+
+His hole was made. His keen nose told him that pork was almost within
+reach, when the bugle-call of his enemy--Tiger's challenging bark--smote
+upon his ear. Guide and dog were opportunely returning to camp.
+
+Of course, as soon as the marauder scrambled off the roof, Cyrus and the
+boys sprang from their couch. Barefooted, and in night costume, they
+were already at the door of the hut before Uncle Eb was heard booming,--
+
+"Boys! Boys! Tumble out--tumble out! Dere's a reg'lar razzle-dazzle
+fight goin' on heah. Tiger's nabbed de coon."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+A COON HUNT.
+
+
+A razzle-dazzle fight it surely was! On one side of the camp, between
+the camping-ground, which Uncle Eb had cleared with many a backache, and
+the woods, was a narrow strip covered with a stunted, prickly growth of
+wild raspberry bushes and tiny cherry-trees. These had sprung up after
+the pines had been cut down, as soon as the sun peeped at the
+long-hidden earth.
+
+Into it the bare-legged trio dared not venture, knowing that they would
+get a worse scratching and tearing than if the coon itself mauled them.
+
+But they could see and hear a whirling, howling, clawing, spitting,
+rough-and-tumble conflict going on in the midst of this miniature
+jungle.
+
+"Whew! Whew!" gasped Cyrus. "Here's your first sight of a wild coon,
+boys. I wish to goodness it had been a different sight, but I suppose he
+must pay for his thieving."
+
+"Tiger'll make him do dat. Bet yer life he will! He's death on coons, if
+ever a dog was," yelled Uncle Eb, gambolling with excitement, his eyes
+bulging and widening until they looked like oysters on the shell.
+
+The soft, battered, gray felt hat which replaced his fur cap in the
+daytime surged off his gray wool, and frisked gently away towards the
+camp-fire. There, coming in contact with a red ember, it scorched and
+shrivelled into smoking, smelling ashes, all unnoticed in the tumult of
+the fight.
+
+Whirling round and round, now under, now over, dog and coon rolled
+presently forth from the bushes, nearer to the feet of the spectators.
+Then Neal and Dol could get a clearer view of the strange animal. A
+breeze of exclamations came from them, mingling with the yelping,
+snarling, and clucking of the combatants.
+
+"Good gracious! Look at the stout body and funny little legs of the
+fellow!"
+
+"Doesn't he fight like a spitfire?"
+
+"I'm glad he's not clawing me!"
+
+"He's not much like any picture of a raccoon I ever saw in a Natural
+History!"
+
+"I guess he wouldn't resemble them greatly, especially in that attitude,
+Dol," said Cyrus, as soon as there was a lull in the boys' comments.
+
+The raccoon had now rolled on his back, and was fighting so fiercely
+with teeth and claws that a despairing cry broke from Uncle Eb,--
+
+"Yah! He's makin' Tiger's wool fly!"
+
+It was then that the old guide began to deliberate about rushing forward
+and despatching his coonship with the butt end of his rifle. Cyrus would
+gladly have stopped the tussle long before, for there was too much
+savagery about it to suit him; but he could only have done so by
+stunning or killing one of the combatants.
+
+A heart-rending howl from Tiger. The coon had caught him by his lower
+jaw. Uncle Eb, clutching his empty rifle like a club, was starting to
+the rescue, when the dog with a sudden, desperate jerk freed himself.
+Mad with rage and pain, he tried to seize the raccoon's throat. But his
+enemy managed to elude the strangling grip, and getting on his feet,
+again caught Tiger, this time by the cheek, causing another agonizing
+yelp.
+
+Now, however, the undaunted dog whirled round and round with such
+rapidity as to make Mr. Coon relax his hold, and, gathering all his
+strength, flung the wild animal off to a distance of several feet.
+
+Probably the raccoon felt that he had enough of the conflict, and was
+doubtful about its final issue. He seized the chance for escape. While
+the spectators gasped with excitement, they beheld him, with his head
+doubled under his stomach, roll over and over like a huge gray
+India-rubber ball, until he reached the nearest tree, which happened to
+be one of the young pines that shaded the camp. Quick as lightning he
+climbed up its trunk, uttering a second shrill, far-reaching cry of one
+note.
+
+"Listen! Listen, fellows!" cried Cyrus. "That raccoon is a
+ventriloquist. The cry seemed to come from somewhere far above him. I
+had a tame coon long ago, and I often heard him call like that. I tell
+you he's a ventriloquist, and a mighty clever one too.
+
+"The one piercing note was to warn his mate," went on the naturalist,
+after a moment's pause; "or in all probability, though we have been
+speaking of the animal as 'he,' it is really a female, for I have heard
+that peculiar call given more frequently by a mother to warn her cubs."
+
+All that could now be seen of the animal--on whose gender new light had
+been cast--was a gray ball curled up on a tasselled bough near the top
+of the pine-tree, and a glimpse of a black nose over the edge of the
+limb.
+
+"Wal! 'tain't no matter wedder de critter is a male or a fimmale; I'm
+a-goin' to bring it down from dar mighty quick," said Uncle Eb, fumbling
+with the cartridge-box which was attached to his broad leather belt, and
+preparing to load his rifle, while he cast murderous looks aloft.
+
+"No, you don't, then!" said Cyrus hotly. "The creature has fought
+pluckily, and it deserves to get a fair chance for its life. I'll see
+that it does too. You oughtn't to be hard on it for liking pork, Uncle
+Eb."
+
+"Coons will be gittin' into eatin' order soon," murmured the guide,
+smacking his lips, and handling his gun undecidedly. "Roast coon's a
+heap better'n roast lamb."
+
+"Well, they're not in eating order yet, and won't be till next month,"
+answered Garst. "Come, you've got to let this one go, Uncle Eb, to
+please me."
+
+"Tell ye wot: I'll call Tiger off" (Tiger was alternately licking his
+wounds and baying furiously for vengeance about the tree which sheltered
+his enemy), "den, wen de coon finds de place clear, bime-by he'll light
+down from dat limb, I'll start off de dog, and let 'em finish de game
+atween 'em."
+
+Cyrus considered for a minute, then decided that on the coon's behalf he
+might safely accept the compromise.
+
+"Let's get into our clothes, fellows!" he cried to Neal and Dol. "Now
+we're going to have some fair fun! I guess there won't be any more
+fighting; and I want you to see how cunningly the raccoon will cheat the
+dog and escape, if he gets an even chance."
+
+In five minutes the trio were out of their blankets and in their
+ordinary day apparel. The old guide had hung the wet tweeds to dry by
+the blazing camp-fire before he started out to visit his traps,
+carefully stretching them to prevent their "swunking" (shrinking). Thus
+they were again fit for wear.
+
+A half-hour of waiting ensued, during which every one was on the tiptoe
+of expectation. They had all withdrawn to some distance from the tree.
+Uncle Eb had been obliged to drag Tiger away, and was bathing his cuts
+out of the camp water-bucket in a shady corner. The dog, recognizing
+that he was a patient, submitted without a growl or budge, until his
+master, who had been keeping a keen eye on that pine-tree, suddenly
+loosed him, and started him off afresh with a loud "Whoop-ee!" and a--
+
+  "Ketch him, Tiger! ketch him!"
+
+The coon had "lighted down."
+
+Away went the wild creature into the woods. Away after him, went dog,
+guide, student, and boys, plunging, tumbling, rushing along
+helter-skelter, with a yell on every lip.
+
+"There he is! See him? That gray ball rolling over and over!" shouted
+Cyrus. "I'll tell you what, now; he's going to resort to his clever
+dodge of 'barking a tree.' There never was a general yet who could beat
+a coon for strategy in making a retreat."
+
+The forest surrounding the eminence on which Uncle Eb's camp was
+situated consisted mostly of pines, with here and there the brilliant
+autumn foliage of a maple or birch showing amid the evergreens. The
+trees down the sides of the hill were not densely crowded, but grew in
+irregular clumps instead of an unbroken mass. This, of course, afforded
+a better opportunity for the pursuers to catch glimpses of the fugitive
+animal.
+
+On finding that it was again chased, the raccoon at first took shelter
+in a dense thicket of scrub oak, which formed in places a tangled
+undergrowth. Tiger quickly followed up its trail, and it was driven
+thence.
+
+Then Cyrus and the boys caught sight of it spinning over and over like a
+ball, towards a maple-tree with widely projecting limbs and thick
+foliage; for it knew well that in speed it was no match for the dog, and
+therefore resorted to a neat little stratagem. The next minute, being
+hotly pressed, it scrambled up the friendly trunk.
+
+"He's treed again, yonkers! Come on!" shouted the guide, indifferent to
+the creature's probable gender.
+
+Tiger sat on his haunches at the foot of the maple, setting up a slow,
+steady bark.
+
+"Keep where you are, fellows! Watch the other side of the tree!"
+whispered Cyrus, his face twitching with excitement.
+
+In his character of naturalist he had managed to find out more about
+the coon's various dodges than even the old guide had done.
+
+In breathless wonder the Farrars presently beheld that ingenious raccoon
+steal along to the end of the most projecting limb on a different side
+of the tree from the one it had climbed, so that a screen of boughs and
+the trunk were between it and its adversary.
+
+Then it noiselessly dropped from the tip of the branch to the ground,
+alighting, like a skilled acrobat, on its shoulders, doubled its pointed
+black nose under its stomach, and again rolled over and over for a
+considerable distance, when it got on its short legs and scurried away,
+while Tiger still bayed at the foot of the maple-tree, thinking the
+vanished prey was above.
+
+"That's what I called the coon's dodge of 'barking a tree,'" said Cyrus.
+"Don't you see, when hard pressed, he runs up the trunk, leaving his
+scent on the bark; then he creeps to the other side under cover of the
+foliage, and drops quietly to the ground. So he breaks the scent and
+cheats the dog."
+
+"Good gracious!" exclaimed Neal with an expressive whistle.
+
+"Perhaps it's because of his long gray hairs that he has so much
+wisdom," Dol suggested.
+
+"A bright idea, Chick!" chuckled the student, tapping the boy's
+shoulder.
+
+"We keep on speaking of him as 'he' when you said the thing was probably
+a female," put in Neal.
+
+"That doesn't matter. I'm not certain. Look at old Tiger! He's having
+fits now that he has discovered how he's been tricked."
+
+The dog was circling out from the tree, with wild, uncertain movements,
+nosing everywhere. Presently he struck the scent again, and darted off
+like a streak.
+
+But the raccoon had by this time reached a dark stream of water which
+coursed through the over-arching forest at the foot of the hill, as if
+it was flowing through a tunnel. Here this astute animal crossed and
+recrossed under the gloom of interlocking trees, mid dense undergrowth,
+until its trail was altogether lost.
+
+Tiger, having further "fits," nosing about, darting hither and thither,
+venting short, baffled barks, finally gave up in despair.
+
+The pursuing party turned back to camp.
+
+"Did ye ever see ennyting to ekal de cunnin' o' de critter," said Uncle
+Eb gloomily; "runnin' up dat tree on'y to jump off, so as he'd break de
+scent an' fool de dog? Ye'll learn a heap o' queer tings in dese woods,
+chillun, 'fore ye get t'rough," he added, addressing the English lads.
+
+"We've learned queerer things than we ever imagined or dreamed of,
+already, Uncle Eb," Neal answered.
+
+Meanwhile, Cyrus and Dol had begun to discuss the size of the escaped
+coon.
+
+"I should think it measured about two feet from the tip of its nose to
+the beginning of the tail, and that would add ten or eleven inches.
+Probably it weighed over thirty pounds," said the experienced Garst.
+
+"A fine tail it had too!" answered Dol; "all ringed with black and
+buff--not black and white as the books say. There was hardly an inch of
+white about the animal anywhere. Its thick gray hair was marked here and
+there with black; wasn't it, Cy?"
+
+"Rather with a darker shade of gray, bordering on black. I think old
+Tiger can testify that the creature had capable teeth; and it possesses
+a goodly number of them--forty in all; that's only two less than a bear,
+an animal that might make six of it in size."
+
+"Whew! No wonder it's a good fighter!" ejaculated Dol.
+
+"But the funniest of the coon's or--to give the animal its proper
+name--the raccoon's funny habits is, that while it eats anything and
+everything, it souses all meat in water before beginning a feed. That's
+what it would have done with our bit of pork,--dragged it to a stream,
+and washed it well before swallowing a morsel.
+
+"I caught glimpses of a raccoon chasing a jack-rabbit in this very
+section of the woods, last year," went on the student, seeing that Dol
+was breathlessly listening. "The big animal killed the little one under
+a dead limb; and I traced its tracks through some mud, where it tugged
+the rabbit to the brink of the nearest brook to be dipped and devoured.
+
+"After the meal, Mr. Coon halted on an old bit of stump as gray as
+himself, close to where I lay under cover, trying to get a peep at his
+operations, but, unluckily, in my excitement I touched a bush, and broke
+a twig not as big as my little finger. I tell you he just jumped off
+that stump as if it scorched him, and disappeared."
+
+"What about that tame coon you owned, Cy?" Dol asked. "You haven't got
+him now."
+
+"Bless your heart, I should think not!" Here the student indulged in a
+chuckle of mirth. "That coon was the fun and bane of my life. No fear
+of my being dull while I had him! I had him as a present, when he was
+only a cub, from a man out here who is my special chum among woodsmen,
+Herb Heal, the guide in whose company we're going to explore for moose,
+and the soundest fellow in wind, limb, and temper that ever I had the
+luck to meet. I guess you English boys will say the same when you know
+him.
+
+"Well! when my friend Herb bestowed upon me that baby raccoon, I called
+the little innocent 'Zip,' and kept him in-doors, letting him roam at
+will. But after he grew to manhood, I was obliged to banish him to our
+yard and chain him up; and there his piteous, sky-piercing calls, which
+seemed to come from the roof of a house near him, first showed me what a
+ventriloquist the animal can be."
+
+"Why on earth did you banish him?" asked Neal.
+
+"Because his plan of campaign, when loose, was to follow me about like a
+devoted cat, climbing over me whenever he got the chance, with slobbery
+fondness. But as soon as I was out of the way he'd steal every mortal
+thing I possessed, from my most precious instruments to my latest tie
+and handkerchiefs. I never saw anything to equal his ingenuity in
+ferreting out such articles, and his incorrigible mischief in destroying
+them. I chained him in the yard after he had torn my father's silk hat
+into shreds, and made off with his favorite spectacles. Whether he wore
+them or not I don't know; he chewed up the case; the glasses no man
+thereafter saw. I couldn't endure his piteous cries for reconciliation
+while he was in banishment, so I gave him away to a friend who was
+suffering from an imaginary ailment, and needed rousing.
+
+"Talking of fathers, boys, reminds me that I feel responsible to Francis
+Farrar, Esq., for the welfare of his lusty sons. Neal had a pretty
+tiring time last night, and only about two hours' sleep since. I don't
+suppose any of us are outrageously hungry, seeing that we had some kind
+of breakfast at an unearthly hour. Here we are at camp! I propose that
+we turn in, and try to sleep until noon. What do you say?"
+
+Their leader having wound up his talk, thus, neither of his comrades
+ventured to oppose his suggestion, though they felt little inclined for
+slumber.
+
+"Pleasant day-dreams to you, fellows!" said Cyrus three minutes
+afterwards, flinging off his coat, and throwing himself on his mattress
+of boughs, while he wiped the steady drip of perspiration from his
+forehead and cheeks. "This day is going to be too warm for any more
+rushing. Our variable climate occasionally gives us these hot spells up
+to the middle of October; but they don't last. So much the better for
+us! We don't want sizzling days and oppressive nights, with mosquitoes
+and black flies to make us miserable. October in this country is the
+camper's ideal--month"--
+
+The last sentence was broken by a great yawn, followed presently by a
+snort and an attempt at a shout, which quavered away into a queer little
+whine. Garst had passed into dreamland, where men revel in fragmentary
+memories and pell-mell visions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+AFTER BLACK DUCKS.
+
+
+If Cyrus's dreams were ruffled after the morning's excitement, those of
+his comrades were a perfect chaos.
+
+A slight wind hummed wordless songs through the tasselled tops of the
+pine-trees about the camp. The music was tender and drowsy as a mother's
+lullaby. Contrary to their expectations, Neal and Dol were lulled to
+sleep by it like babies, with a feeling as if some guardian spirit were
+gliding among the tree-tops.
+
+But when slumber held them, when the murmur increased to a surge of
+sound, sank to a ripple and again rolled forth, in their dreams they
+imagined it the scurrying of a deer's hoofs along some lonely forest
+deer-path, the rustling of a buck through bushes, the splashing of a
+mighty moose among lily-pads and grasses at the margin of a dark pond,
+the startled cluck of a coon. In fact, that rolling music of the pines
+was translated into every forest sound which they had heard, or expected
+to hear.
+
+The excitement of wild scenes, new sensations, strange knowledge, still
+thrilled them even in sleep. Their visions were accordingly wild,
+rushing, jumbled, yet all set in a light so bright as to be
+bewildering--a sign that health and happiness as great as human boys can
+enjoy were the possession of the dreamers.
+
+By and by their pulses grew steadier. Out of this confused rush of
+imaginings grew in the mind of each one steady, absorbing dream. Neal
+fancied that he was on the top of Old Squaw Mountain, and that beneath,
+above, around him, sounded the strangely prolonged weird call, which he
+had heard at a distance on the previous night while Cyrus was recovering
+the jack-light. Owing to the ever-changing excitements of camp-life, he
+had not questioned his comrade again about it.
+
+Dol's visions resolved themselves into a mighty coon hunt. He tossed on
+his pine boughs, kicked and jabbered in his sleep, with sundry odd
+little cries and untranslatable mutterings,--
+
+"Go it, Tiger! Go it, old dog! There he is--up the tree! Ah"
+(disgustedly), "you're no good!"
+
+A lull. Then the dreamer rolled out a string of what may be called
+gibberish, seeing that it consisted of fragments of words and was
+unintelligible, followed by,--
+
+"The coon's eating the pork--no, he's b-b-b-barking it! Hu-loo-oo!"
+
+"Oh, say, Chick, give us a chance! We can't sleep with you chirping into
+our ears."
+
+It was Cyrus who spoke, shaking with drowsy laughter, and Cyrus's big
+hand gently shook the dreamer's arm.
+
+"What? what? wh-wh-at?" gasped Dol, awaking. "I wasn't talking out loud,
+was I?"
+
+"Not talking aloud! Well, I should smile!" answered the camp captain.
+"You were making as much noise as a loon, and that's the noisiest thing
+I know. Go to sleep again, young one, and don't have any more crazy
+spells before dinner-time."
+
+Cyrus removed his hand, shut his eyes, and in a minute or two was
+breathing heavily. Neal, who had been aroused too, followed his
+example, laughing and mumbling something about "it's being an old trick
+of Dol's to hunt in his sleep."
+
+But the junior member of the party remained awake. After his dreams had
+been dissipated he cared no more for slumber. When he could venture it
+without disturbing his companions, he rose to a sitting posture, and,
+after squatting for a while in meditation, got on his feet, picked up
+his coat and moccasins, and, stealthily as an Indian, crept out of the
+hut.
+
+The rolling music among the pine-tops had died down; only at long
+intervals a soft, random rustle swept through them. It was nearly
+midday. The camp-fire was almost dead, quenched by the dazzling sunlight
+which fell in patches on the camping-ground, and flooded the clearing
+beyond the shadow of the pines.
+
+Moreover, the camping-ground was deserted. Neither Uncle Eb nor Tiger
+could be seen, though Dol's eyes sought for them wistfully. But
+something caught his attention. It was a ray of light filtering through
+the pine boughs and glinting on the trigger of an old-fashioned
+muzzle-loading shot-gun, which leaned against a corner of the hut. An
+ancient, glistening powder-horn and a coon-skin ammunition pouch hung
+above it.
+
+Dol lifted the antiquated weapon, withdrew to a short distance, and
+examined it closely. He knew it belonged to the guide, but was rarely
+used by him since he had purchased the 44-calibre Winchester rifle, with
+which he could do uncommon feats in shooting.
+
+The shot-gun interested the boy mightily. There was a facsimile of it,
+swathed in green baize, stowed away somewhere in his father's house in
+Manchester. The first time he had ever used fire-arms was on a memorable
+day when his fingers pulled its trigger in his father's garden under
+Neal's direction, and a lean starling fell before his shot. After that
+he had often taken out a fowling-piece of a newer style, and had done
+pretty well with it too.
+
+As he handled the shot-gun, which the guide had bought away back in the
+year '55, musing about it under the pines, the thought suddenly tumbled
+out of a corner of his brain that at present there was a brilliant
+opportunity for him to use the gun and all the shooting skill he
+possessed for the benefit of his comrades and himself.
+
+There was no meat in the camp for dinner or supper save the pork on
+which they had feasted since they arrived there, and that was fast
+giving out. Cyrus, in addition to his knapsack, had hauled over from
+Greenville, where articles of camp fare could be procured in abundance,
+a goodly supply of tea, coffee, condensed milk, flour, salt, sugar,
+etc., in a stout canvas bag, Neal at intervals helping him with the
+burden. For the rest he had trusted to Nature's larder, and such food as
+he might purchase from his guides, desiring to go into the woods as
+"light" as possible.
+
+Uncle Eb had baked bread for his guests after a fashion of his own on
+the camp frying-pan, setting the pan on some glowing coals a foot or so
+from the fire; he had fried unlimited flapjacks, and had cheerfully
+placed what stores he had at their disposal. His three luxuries were
+novelties to the English lads, being pork, maple sugar,--drawn from the
+beautiful maple-trees near his camp,--and a small wooden keg of sticky,
+dark molasses. The sugar was the only one which Dol found palatable; and
+he knew that the Bostonian, Cyrus, shared his feeling. To tell the
+truth, the juvenile Adolphus was not fastidious, but he was suddenly
+seized with an ambitious desire to vary the diet of the camp.
+
+"Uncle Eb said that I could use this 'ole fuzzee,' as he called it,
+whenever I liked," he muttered, looking wistfully at the shot-gun; "and
+I've a big mind to give those lazy fellows in there a surprise. They
+spent the night out jacking, and didn't get any meat because Cyrus let
+Neal do the shooting, and he bungled it. It's my turn next to go after
+deer, but I'm not going to wait for that."
+
+Here his steel-gray eyes fell on the moccasins which he had not yet put
+on, and struck fire instantly. His ambition was doubled. For if there is
+one thing more than another which in the forest will stir the pluck of a
+novice, and make him feel like an old woodsman, it is the sight of his
+Indian footwear. Dol put his on, admired their light, comfortable
+feeling, their soft buckskin, and rashly decided that he could dispense
+with the loose inner soles which Cyrus had fitted into them to protect
+his feet.
+
+Then, being very much of a stranger to American woods, he communed with
+himself after this fashion,--
+
+"Cyrus says that different tribes of Indians wear differently made
+moccasins, and one redskin, if he sees the tracks of another in soft
+mud or snow, can tell what tribe he belongs to by his footmarks. That's
+funny! I suppose if any old brave was knocking about and saw my tracks
+in a boggy spot, he'd think it was a Kickapoo who had passed that
+way--not Dol Farrar of Manchester, England. These are of the shape worn
+by the Kickapoo tribe--so Cy says.
+
+"I'm the kid of the camp, I know," he went on, with another flash in his
+eyes, as if there was a bit of flint somewhere in his make-up which had
+struck their steel. "But I'll be bound I can do as well or better than
+the others can. I'm off now to Squaw Pond. I think I can follow the
+trail easily enough. Uncle Eb showed me yesterday where he had spotted
+some of the trees all the way along to the water. And if I don't shoot a
+couple of black ducks for dinner or supper, I'm a duffer, and not fit
+for camping."
+
+He took down the powder-horn and slung it round him, saw that there was
+plenty of meat in the ragged coon-skin ammunition pouch which hung
+beside it, fastened that to his belt, slipped on his coat, and started
+off, with the "ole fuzzee" on his shoulder.
+
+Never a sound did he make as he crossed the clearing, passing the clump
+of bushes behind which Cyrus and Neal had lingered on the previous night
+to hear Uncle Eb's song. Owing to his Indian footwear, silently as the
+gliding redskin himself he entered the woods at a point where he saw a
+tree with a fresh notch carved in it. He knew this marked the beginning
+of the "blazed trail," and that he must be very wide-awake and show
+considerable "gumption" if he wanted to follow that line to the pond.
+
+Not every tree was spotted. Only at intervals of fifteen or twenty yards
+he came upon a trunk with two small pieces chopped out of it on opposite
+sides. These were Uncle Eb's way-marks. One set of notches would catch
+his eye as he went towards the water, the other would lead him back to
+camp. Once or twice Dol got away from the trail, but he quickly found it
+again; and in due time emerged from the forest twilight into the broad
+glare of the sun, to see Squaw Pond lying before him like a miniature
+mother-of-pearl sea, so protected by its evergreen woods that scarcely a
+ripple stirred it.
+
+He heard the shrill, wild call of a loon, the noisy bird to which Cyrus
+had likened him, and saw its white breast rising above the water, as it
+swam about among the reeds near the opposite bank. The cry was oft
+repeated, making an unearthly din, now joyous, now dreary, among the
+echoes around the lake.
+
+Dol paused for a minute to listen; but he was bent on business, and did
+not want to be very long away from camp lest his absence should cause
+alarm. He took a careful survey of the scene. Not beholding any fleet of
+black ducks as yet, he loaded his gun, and warily proceeded along the
+bank towards the head of the pond.
+
+Keeping a sharp lookout, he by and by detected something moving among
+the water grasses a little way ahead, and heard a hoarse, squalling
+"Quack! quack!"
+
+Immediately afterwards a flock of half a dozen ducks sailed forth from
+their shelter, nodding and quacking inquisitively.
+
+A wild drumming was at Dol's heart, and a reckless singing in his ears,
+as he raised his gun to his shoulder, and fired among them.
+Nevertheless, his aim was sure and deadly. Two quackers were killed with
+one shot! The others rose from the water, and with much fluttering and
+hoarse noise winged their way to safety.
+
+"How'll they be for meat, I wonder? Won't I have a crow over those
+fellows?" shouted Adolphus aloud, with a yell entirely worthy of a
+Kickapoo Indian, when he had recovered from surprise at the success of
+his own shot.
+
+He laid down the gun, pulled off his moccasins and socks, rolled up his
+trousers, and waded in for the prize. Truly luck was with him--so
+far--in his first venture in this region of the unknown. The water was
+so shallow that, having grabbed the ducks, he splashed out of it,
+kicking shiny drops from his toes, without wetting an inch of his
+garments.
+
+"I'm the kid of the camp, I know; but I'll be the first fellow to bring
+any decent meat into it. Hooray!" he whooped again. "Shouldn't wonder if
+these moccasins brought me wonderful luck; one can steal about so
+quietly in them."
+
+He had hit upon the supreme advantage which the Indian footwear
+possesses over every other for the woodsman. A little later he was to
+learn its disadvantage, having, with foreign inexperience, disdained the
+extra soles because they were not "Indian" enough for his taste; for the
+soft buckskin could not protect from roots and stones a wearer whose
+flesh was not hardened to every kind of forest travelling.
+
+But at present Dol bepraised his moccasins; for they had enabled him to
+sneak upon his birds, the wildest of the duck tribe, who generally, at a
+single hoarse "Quack!" from their leader, will cease their antics in
+lake or stream, and disappear like a skimming breeze before a sportsman
+can get a fair shot at them.
+
+For a quarter of an hour Dol Farrar sat by this forest pond engaged in
+the cheerful occupation of "booming himself," as his friend Cyrus would
+have said. He told himself that he had made a pretty smart beginning,
+not alone in shooting a brace of black ducks, but in successfully
+following a difficult trail on his fourth day in the woods. Henceforth,
+he thought, there would be little reason for him to dread the unknown in
+this great wilderness.
+
+He reclothed his legs, gathered the stiffening claws of the defunct
+quackers in his left hand, picked up his empty "ole fuzzee," which had
+done such good service despite its age, and set forth on his return to
+camp.
+
+Retracing his steps along the bank, after some searching he found the
+beginning of the trail, and started along it with a know-it-all,
+cheerful confidence in the little bit of wood-lore which he had
+acquired. Hence he now found it considerably more difficult to follow
+the spotted trees. His brain was excited and preoccupied; and when once
+in fancied security he suffered his eyes and thoughts to stray for a
+minute from the trail, every unfamiliar woodland sight and sound tempted
+them to wander farther.
+
+First it was an old fox, which poked its sharp, inquisitive nose out of
+a patch of undergrowth near at hand. Dol uttered a mad "Whoop-ee!" and
+heedlessly dashed off a few steps in pursuit. Reynard whisked his brush
+as much as to say, "You can't get the better of me, stranger!" and
+defiantly trotted away.
+
+Recovering his senses, the boy managed to recover the trail too, and was
+keeping to it carefully when a second temptation beset him. A chattering
+squirrel, seated on the low bough of a maple-tree, with his fore paws
+against his white breast, his eyes like twinkling beads, and his
+restless little head playing bo-peep with the intruding boy, began to
+scold the latter for venturing into his forest playground.
+
+Dol's first thought was full of delighted interest. His second was a
+sanguinary one; namely, that a pair of ducks would only be one meal for
+four campers who were "camp-hungry," and that Uncle Eb had spoken of
+squirrels as "fust-rate eatin'." He handled his gun uncertainly,
+deliberating whether or not he would load it, and try a shot at the
+bright-eyed chatterbox.
+
+Before he had decided one way or the other, the squirrel, still scolding
+and playing bo-peep, scampered off his bough, and up the trunk of the
+maple. Thence he quickly made good his escape from one tree to another,
+affording a whisking, momentary view now and again of his white breast
+or bushy tail. Dol absolutely forgot the blazed trail, forgot the
+stories which he had heard about forest perils, forgot every earthly
+thing but his admiration for the pretty, tantalizing fellow; though to
+do the lad justice, he soon came to the conclusion that the camp must be
+in a worse strait for want of provisions before he could have the heart
+to shoot him. He gave chase nevertheless, plunging along in a ziz-zag
+way over a carpet of moss and dry pine-needles, and through some dense
+tangles of undergrowth, uttering a welcoming screech whenever he saw
+the bright eyes of the little trickster peering down at him from a
+bough.
+
+He had travelled farther than he knew before his interest in the game
+waned. He began to feel that it was rather beneath the dignity of a
+fellow who wore moccasins, carried coon-skin pouch and powder-horn, and
+who was bound for remote solitudes in search of the lordly moose, to be
+interested in such an insignificant phase of forest life as the doings
+of a red squirrel.
+
+Then he started back to find the trail. He walked a considerable
+distance. He searched hither and thither, straining his eyes anxiously
+through the bewildering gloom of the forest, but never a notched tree
+could he see. Whereupon Dol Farrar called himself some pretty hard
+names. He remarked that he had been a "hair-brained fool" and a
+"greenhorn" ever to leave the spotted track, but that he wasn't going to
+be "downed;" he would search until he found it.
+
+And he certainly was enough of a greenhorn not to know that every step
+he now took was carrying him away from the trail, and plunging him into
+a hopeless, pathless labyrinth of woods. For Dol had lost all knowledge
+of directions, and was completely "turned round;" which means that he
+was miserably lost.
+
+The disaster came about in this way. The forest here was very dense, the
+giant trees interlocked above his head letting so little light filter
+through their foliage that he could scarcely see twenty yards ahead of
+him, and that in a puzzling, shadowy gloom resembling an English
+twilight.
+
+When he ceased chasing the squirrel, he imagined that he retraced his
+steps directly towards the point where he had quitted the trail. In
+reality, seeing nothing to aim for in this bewildering maze of endless
+trees, turned out of his way continually as he dodged in and out around
+massive trunks, he gradually worked farther and farther off the course
+by which he had come, drifting in random directions like a rudderless
+ship on mid-ocean. This helpless state is called, in the phraseology of
+the northern woods, being "turned round."
+
+But Dol Farrar was spared for the present a thorough realization of the
+dreadful mishap which had befallen him. He had a shocked, breathless,
+flurried feeling, as if scales had suddenly fallen from his eyes, and he
+saw the dangers of the unknown as he had not before seen them. But even
+in the midst of abusing himself for his rash self-confidence, he uttered
+a cheerful "Hurrah!"
+
+"Why, good gracious!" he cried. "Here's another trail! Now, where on
+earth does this lead to? I don't see any spotted trees"--looking
+carefully about--"but it's a well-beaten track, a regular plain path,
+where people have been walking. It must lead to our camp. I'll follow it
+up, anyhow. That will be better than dodging around here until I get
+'wheels in my head,' as Uncle Eb says he did once when he lost his way
+in the woods, and kept wandering round and round in a circle."
+
+Puffing with excitement and revived hope, the boy started off on this
+new trail, which he blessed at first--oh, how he blessed it!--as if it
+had been a golden clew to lead him out of his difficulty. To be sure, it
+was not a blazed trail; there were no notches in the trees, but the
+ground showed distinct signs of being frequently and recently travelled
+over. Though footprints were not traceable, moss, earth, and in some
+places the forest undergrowth of dwarfed bushes, were thoroughly pressed
+and trodden.
+
+Dol never doubted but that it was a human trail, a track continually
+used by some woodsman; but he thought that the unknown traveller,
+whoever he was, must have agile legs and a taste for athletics, for many
+times he had to hoist himself, his gun, and the ducks over some big
+windfall which lay right across the way. The dead quackers he pitched
+before him, fearing that by the time he got back to camp--if ever he
+did?--their flesh would be too bruised to look like respectable meat;
+for he was obliged to have one hand free to help him in scrambling over
+each fallen tree.
+
+Once or twice this strange trail led him through thickets where the
+bushes grew so high as to lash his face. He came to regard slippery,
+projecting roots and rough stones, which galled his feet, protected only
+by the thin soles of his moccasins, as matters of course. His wind
+decreased, and his blessings ceased. Yet he followed on, walking,
+walking, interminably walking, with now and again an interval of
+climbing or stumbling headlong, accompanied by ejaculations of
+thankfulness that his gun was not loaded.
+
+His breath came in hot, strangling gasps, the veins in his head were
+swollen and stinging like whipcords, there was a dull, pounding noise in
+his ears, and a drumming at his heart. He confessed that he was
+thoroughly "winded" when he had been following the trail for nearly two
+hours, so he seated himself upon a withered stump beside it to rest.
+
+He had relinquished the idea that the track would bring him out near
+Uncle Eb's camp. Had it led thither, he would have rejoined his comrades
+long before this. His only hope now was that by patiently following it
+on he might reach the camp of some other traveller, or the lonely log
+cabin of a pioneer farmer. He had heard of such farm-settlements being
+scattered here and there on forest clearings.
+
+So presently Dol Farrar got to his feet again, when he had recovered
+breath and strength, and told himself pluckily that "he wasn't going to
+knock under," that "he had been in bad scrapes before now, and had not
+shown the white feather." He gritted his teeth, and resolved that he
+would not show that craven pinion, even in the desperate solitude of
+these baffling woods where no eye could see his weakness. He did not
+want to have a secret, humiliating memory by and by that he had been
+faltering and distracted when his life depended on his wits and
+endurance.
+
+He squared his shoulders sturdily, as if to make the most of the
+budding manhood that was in him, and trudged ahead. And, indeed, he had
+need to take his courage in both hands, and force it to stand by him;
+for he had not gone far when, though the forest still continued dense,
+he became aware that he was beginning a steep ascent. Was the trail
+going to lead him up a mountain-side? The way grew yet more rugged.
+Every step was a misery. Jagged edges of rock and never-ending roots
+seemed to brand themselves with burning friction upon his feet, through
+their soft buckskin covering. He tried to hearten himself into a belief
+that he must soon reach some mountain camp or settlement.
+
+But a bleak horror threw a gray shade upon his face as his staring eyes
+saw that the trail was growing fainter--fainter--fainter. At the foot of
+a steep crag, where a mass of earth, stones, and dead spruce-trees
+showed that there had lately been a landslide on the mountain above, he
+lost it altogether. It had led him to a pile of rubbish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+A FOREST GUIDE-POST.
+
+
+At the foot of that crag Dol stood still, while a great shiver crept
+from his neck up the back of his head, stirring his hair. He peered in
+every direction; but there was no sign of a camp, nothing to show that
+any human foot before his had disturbed the solitude of this
+mountain-side, and no further marks on the ground, save one impression
+on a bed of earth at his feet where some animal had lately lain.
+
+The disappointment was stupefying.
+
+At last a fog of terror settled down upon him,--a fog which blotted out
+every sight and sound, blotted out even his own thoughts, all except
+one, which, like a danger-signal in a mist, kept booming through his
+brain: "Lost! Lost!"
+
+By and by he was sitting on the piled-up stones and dirt of the slide;
+but he had no remembrance of getting to this resting-place, for he was
+still befogged.
+
+Something snorted close to his right ear,--loud snort, which banished
+stupor, and set his pulses jumping. It was a deer, a beautiful doe in a
+coat of reddish-drab, matching the autumnal tints of the forest,
+wherever maples, birches, and cedars mingled with the evergreens. She
+had bounded upon him suddenly from behind a dead spruce and a mound of
+earth.
+
+It was long since the game on this part of the mountain had been
+disturbed. Madam Doe had in all probability never seen a man before,
+therefore her behavior was not peculiar. A shock of surprise thrilled
+through her graceful body as she vented that snort, when she caught
+sight of the new-fangled gray animal who had intruded upon her world,
+and who sat spell-bound, gazing at her with hopeless eyes, in which
+gradually a light broke.
+
+But she did not fear him,--this creature in gray. She stood stock-still,
+and stared at him, so near that he could see her wink her starry eyes,
+with the white rings round them. She stamped one hoof, kicked an insect
+from her ear with another, snorted again, wheeled around, and at last
+broke away for the thick shelter of the trees, lightly and swiftly as a
+breeze which skims from one thicket to another.
+
+Seeing his mother go for the woods, her spotted fawn, which had been
+frolicking among the branches of the fallen spruce-tree, skipped from
+it, passed Dol with a bound which carried him a few feet, and
+disappeared like a whiff too.
+
+Here was a rouser, indeed, which no boy, unless he was in a far-gone
+state of suffering, could withstand. Dol Farrar forgot his terrible
+predicament. The fog had cleared away from his senses, leaving him free
+to think and act once more.
+
+"Well, I never!" he ejaculated, springing to his feet in amazement.
+"Wasn't she a beauty? And wasn't she a snorter? I didn't think a deer
+could make such a row as that. And to stand still and stare at me! I
+wonder whether she took me for some new-fashioned sort of animal or a
+gray old stump."
+
+It was a few minutes before he again thought of his plight, and then he
+was not overcome. He stood perfectly still, trying to review the
+position coolly, and to get a tight grip of his feelings, so that terror
+might not again master him.
+
+"I'm in a worse scrape than I ever dreamt of," he muttered, puckering
+his forehead to do some tall thinking. "And I must do something to get
+out of it. But what? That's the question.
+
+"I wonder if I loaded this 'ole fuzzee,'"--the lad was making a valiant
+effort to cheer himself by being jocular,--"and blazed away with it for
+a while like mad, whether there is any human being around who would hear
+me. Some fellow might be hunting or trapping in this part of the forest,
+or farther up the mountain. But what a blockhead I am! Why on earth
+didn't I do that before I started on this wretched trail?"
+
+But alas! as this was Dol Farrar's first adventure in American woods, it
+had not occurred to him to do the right thing at the right time. Had he
+fired a round of signal shots when first he lost the line of spotted
+trees, he would probably have been heard at his camp, and would have
+been spared the worst scare he ever had in his life. The negligence was
+scarcely his fault, however; for Cyrus Garst, who had never before
+undertaken the responsibility of entertaining a pair of inexperienced
+boys in woodland quarters, had not, at this early stage of the trip,
+arranged with his comrades to fire a certain number of shots to signify
+"Help wanted!" if one of them should stray, or otherwise get into
+trouble. The idea now cropped up in Dol's perplexed mind, through a
+confused recollection of tales about forest misadventures which Uncle Eb
+had told him by the cheery camp-fire.
+
+So he loaded the old shot-gun. It belched forth fire and smoke into
+space. And the thunder of his shot went rolling off in a reverberating
+din among the mountain echoes, until a hundred tongues repeated his
+appeal for help. Again he loaded rapidly and fired. And yet again, with
+nervous, eager fingers. So on, till he had let off half a dozen shots in
+quick succession.
+
+Then he waited, listening as if every pulse in his body had suddenly
+become an ear.
+
+But when the last growling echo had died away, not a sound broke the
+almost absolute silence on the mountain-side. Evidently not a human soul
+was near enough to hear or understand his signals of distress.
+
+In these bitter minutes some sensations ran through Dol Farrar which he
+had never known before; and, as he afterwards expressed it, "they were
+enough to cover any fellow with goose-flesh."
+
+He felt that he had reached the dreariest point of the unknown, and was
+a lonely, drifting atom in this immense solitude of forest and rock.
+
+Never in his life before or afterwards did he come so near to Point
+Despair as when he stumbled down the mountain, spurning that treacherous
+trail, and going wherever his jaded feet found travelling tolerably
+easy. He had picked up the shot-gun; but the black ducks, the primary
+cause of his misadventure, he clean forgot, leaving them lying amid the
+chaos at the foot of the crag, to have their bones picked by some lucky
+raccoon or fox.
+
+Wandering along in a zigzag way, he by and by reached the base of the
+mountain at a point where there was a break in the forest. A patch of
+dreary-looking swamp was before him, covered with clumps of
+alder-bushes--a true Slough of Despond.
+
+Dol Farrar knew none of the miseries of plunging through an alder-swamp,
+but he luckily recalled in time a warning from Cyrus that a slight
+wetting would render his moccasins useless. While he halted undecidedly
+on its brink, he pulled out his watch; one glance at this, and another
+at the sky, which now lay open like a scroll above him, gave him a
+sickening shock. He had started from camp at noon; now it was after five
+o'clock. Little more than another hour, and not twilight, but the
+blackness of a total eclipse, would reign in the forest.
+
+The blood rushed to his head, and his mouth grew feverish at the
+thought. As he licked his cracking lips, he caught a faint, tinkling,
+rumbling sound of falling water somewhere to the right. Of a sudden his
+sufferings of mind and body were merged into one burning desire to
+drink, and he turned eagerly in that direction.
+
+At the edge of the woods he found a little fairy, foamy waterfall, which
+had tumbled down from the mountain to be lost in the dismal swamp. But
+Dol felt that it had accomplished its mission when he unfastened the tin
+drinking-mug which hung from his belt, and drank--drank--drank! He
+straightened himself again, feeling that some of the bubbling life of
+the mountain torrent had passed into him. His eyes lit on a towering
+pine-tree just beyond it. And then--
+
+Well! if that sky-piercing pine had suddenly changed at a jump into a
+gray post, bearing the inscription, "One mile to Boston," Dol Farrar
+could not have been more astonished and relieved than when he saw for
+the first time a rude forest guide-post.
+
+To the dark, knotted trunk was fastened a piece of light, delicate bark,
+stripped from a white-birch tree. On this was scrawled in big letters,
+by some instrument evidently not intended for penmanship:--
+
+  "FOLLOW THE BLAZED TRAIL AND YOU ARE SAFE."
+
+"Another blazed trail! Hurrah!" shouted Dol. "Won't I follow it? I never
+will follow any other again if I live to be a hundred, and come to these
+woods every year till I die!"
+
+The height of his relief could only be measured by the depth of his past
+misery, which would truly have been enough to set a weaker boy crazy.
+With watering eyes and panting breaths that came near to being sobs of
+gladness, he started upon the new trail. It led him off into the forest
+surrounding the swamp.
+
+The pine that had been chosen for guide-post was the first in the line
+of spotted trees. The others followed it closely, with intervals of
+eight or ten yards between them; and as the notches in their trunks were
+freshly cut, Dol followed the track without any difficulty for twenty
+minutes. He had a suspicion that he was nearing the end of it; though he
+was still in forest gloom, with light coming in meagre, ever-lessening
+streaks through the pine-tufts above. Then he started more violently
+than when the deer snorted near his ear.
+
+Suddenly and shrilly the blast of a horn rang through the darkening
+woodland aisles, followed, after a pause of a minute or two, by a second
+and louder blast.
+
+Then a well-pitched, far-reaching voice sang out:--"Come to supper,
+boys! Come to supper!"
+
+"Good gracious!" said Dol, conscious on the instant that he was as
+hollow as a drum. "There are enough surprises in these forests to raise
+the hair on a fellow's head half a dozen times a day!"
+
+A matter of forty yards more, and a burst of light swam before his eyes.
+He had reached the end of the blazed trail.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ANOTHER CAMP.
+
+
+"Hello! Come to supper, boys! Come to supper right away!"
+
+Half eagerly, half shrinkingly, Dol emerged from the woods, feeling a
+very torment of hunger quickened in him by the tantalizing sound of that
+oft-repeated invitation.
+
+A sight met him which, because of what went before and all that came
+after, will be forever chief among the forest pictures which rise in
+exciting panorama before his memory, when camping is a thing of the
+past.
+
+A broad dash of evening light, the sun's afterglow, fell upon a patch of
+clearing bordered by clumps of slim, outstanding pines, the scouts of
+their massive brethren. That this was used as a camping-ground the
+first glance revealed. A camp which looked to the tired eyes of the lost
+boy a real "home-camp," though it consisted of rude log cabins, occupied
+it. A couple of birch-bark canoes reposed amid a network of projecting
+roots. Withered stumps and tree-tops littered the ground.
+
+In the foreground of the picture stood a man with a horn in his uplifted
+hand, which he had just taken from his mouth. He was minus a coat; and
+the rough-and-tumble disarray of his attire showed that he had been
+lounging by his camp-fire, or perhaps overseeing the preparation of
+supper. Dol had a vague impression that the individual was not a
+forest-guide like Uncle Eb, nor a rough lumberman such as he had heard
+of. He would have taken him for a pioneer farmer,--not having yet
+encountered such a character,--but there could be no farm on this little
+bit of clearing. And he was too dazed to see that there were signs of a
+cultivated intelligence in the tanned, beaming face under the
+horn-blower's broad-brimmed hat. Indeed, the hat itself, its wearer, log
+huts, canoes, and trees seemed to have a strange propensity to waltz
+before the lad's eyes, and there was a queer waving sensation in his
+own legs, as if they, too, would join in the spinning movement. For as
+he advanced into the light out of the sombre shadows, a dizziness from
+long tramping in the woods, and from a hunger such as he had never
+before experienced, overcame him. He reeled against an outstanding tree,
+troubled by an affliction which Uncle Eb had called "wheels in his
+head."
+
+"Ho! you boys. Where in thunder are you? Come to supper, or the venison
+will be spoiled!" shouted the possessor of the horn again, shutting one
+eye into which a crimson ray was pouring, while he swept the skirts of
+the woods with the other; and there was music as well as bluster in his
+shout.
+
+Lo! the first to answer this fetching invitation was the foot-sore,
+leg-weary boy, pale from exhaustion, with his strange equipment of
+powder-horn, coon-skin pouch, and ancient shot-gun, who, getting partly
+the better of his giddiness, crossed the clearing slowly, as if he was
+groping his way. Within a few feet of the horn-blower he halted; for the
+man had lowered his horn, and was gazing at him with keen, questioning
+eyes. Dol tried to find suitable speech to express his need; but though
+words came with considerable effort, his voice sounded hoarse and creaky
+in his own ears, and threatened to crack off altogether.
+
+He was doing his best to brace up and speak plainly, when his sentence
+was stopped by a noise of pounding footsteps. The next moment he saw
+himself surrounded by three well-grown, daring-looking lads, one about
+his own age, one older, one younger, who were gazing at him with
+critical curiosity. All the pluck in Dol Farrar rose to meet this
+emergency. He felt as if his legs were threatening to smash under him
+like pipe-stems. There was a whirling and buzzing in his head. It seemed
+as if his words had such a long way to travel from his brain to his
+tongue that they got confused and changed before he uttered them.
+
+But through it all he was conscious of one clear thought: that he was an
+Old-World boy on parade before these strapping New-World lads. He set
+his teeth, drove his gun hard against the ground, and, as it were,
+anchored himself to it, while strange, doubting lights came into his
+eyes as he tried to get a grip of his senses.
+
+[Illustration: DOL SIGHTS A FRIENDLY CAMP.]
+
+He succeeded. At last he addressed the gentleman with the horn, knowing
+that he was speaking to the point,--
+
+"Good-evening, sir," he said. "I--I--we're camping out somewhere in the
+woods. I--I got lost to-day. I've walked an awful distance. Perhaps you
+could tell me"--
+
+But the man stepped suddenly forward, with a blaze of welcome in his
+eyes; for he saw the brave effort which the lad was making, and that his
+strength was giving out. He put a kindly arm through Dol's, as if to
+warmly greet a fellow-camper, but really to support him.
+
+"I'll not tell you about anything until you've had a good, square meal,"
+he said. "That's our way in woodland quarters,--to eat first, and talk
+afterwards. If you're lost, you've struck a friend's camp, and at the
+right time too, son; so cheer up! After supper you can tell us your
+yarn, and I guess we can set you right."
+
+Here at last was a surprise of unmixed blessedness for poor Dol; namely,
+the brotherly hospitality which is always extended to a stranger in a
+Maine camp, whether that be the temporary home of a millionnaire or the
+shanty of a poor logger.
+
+His new friend led him into the largest of the cabins, which contained
+a fireplace built of huge stones, where red flames frisked around
+fragrant birch logs, a camp-bed of evergreen boughs about ten feet wide,
+a rude table, a bench, and a few stools of pine-wood.
+
+Over the camp-fire was stooping a bright-eyed, muscular fellow, whose
+dress somewhat resembled Uncle Eb's, but who had no negro blood in his
+veins. He was frying meat; and such tempting whiffs mingled with the
+steam which floated up from his pan, that Dol's nostrils twitched, and
+his hungry longing grew almost unbearable as he inhaled them.
+
+"I guess this chunk of ven'zon is about cooked, Doc," said this
+personage, as Dol's kindly host entered the hut, with him in tow,
+followed closely by the boys of his own camp.
+
+"All right, then! Let's have it!" was the reply. "I'm pretty glad our
+camp-fare is decent to-night, Joe, for we've a visitor here; a hungry
+bird who has strayed from his own camp, and has wandered through the
+forest until he looks like a death's head. But we'll soon fix him up;
+won't we, Joe? Give him a mug of hot tea right away. Hot tea is worth a
+dozen of any other drink in the woods for a pick-me-up."
+
+A spark of fun kindled in Dol's eyes when he heard himself described as
+"a hungry bird." It brightened into an appreciative beam as the reviving
+tea trickled down his throat.
+
+"Eatin's wot he wants, I guess," said Joe, the camp guide and cook,
+placing some meat and a slab of bread of his own baking on a tin plate
+for the guest.
+
+Dol began on them greedily; and though the first mouthful or two
+threatened to sicken him, his squeamishness wore off, and he gained
+strength with every morsel.
+
+"How do you like Maine venison, my boy? Like it well enough to have
+another piece, eh?" asked his host, when he saw that the haggard, gray
+look was leaving the wanderer's face, and that the appalled, dazed
+expression, the result of being lost in the woods, had disappeared from
+his eyes.
+
+"I think it's the best meat I ever tasted," answered Dol heartily. "It's
+so tender, and has a splendid taste."
+
+"Ha! ha! It ought to be prime," chuckled the owner of the camp. "It was
+cut from the quarters of a buck which my nephew here, Royal Sinclair,"
+pointing out the tallest of three lads, "shot four days ago. He was a
+regular crackerjack--that buck! I mean, he was as fine a deer as ever I
+saw; weighed over two hundred pounds, had seven prongs to his horns on
+one side and six on the other. Royal is going to take the antlers home
+with him to Philadelphia. We were mighty glad to get him, too; for we
+have been camping here for five weeks, and were running short of
+provisions. Roy had quite an attack of buck-fever over it, though he
+didn't think he was killing the 'fatted calf', to entertain a visitor;
+did you, Roy?"
+
+"I guess not, Uncle! But I'm pretty glad, all the same," answered Royal,
+with a smiling glance at Dol.
+
+Young Farrar found himself in very pleasant quarters; and, now that he
+was recovering, his laugh rang from one log wall to the other.
+
+"What's 'buck-fever'?" he questioned, while Joe filled his plate with
+more venison.
+
+"A sort of disease of which you'll learn the meaning before you leave
+these woods," answered his host merrily. "It attacks a man when he's out
+after a deer, and makes him feel as if one leg stands firm under him,
+while the other shakes as if it had the palsy.
+
+"Now I guess you'd like to know whose camp you're in, my boy, and then
+you can tell your story. Well, to begin with the most useful member of
+the party. That knowing-looking fellow over there, who cooked your
+supper, is Joe Flint, the best guide that ever pulled a trigger or
+handled a frying-pan in this region--barring one. These three rascals,"
+here the speaker beamed upon the strapping lads, with whom Dol had been
+exchanging sympathetic glances of curiosity, "are my nephews, Royal,
+Will, and Martin Sinclair. And I--I--
+
+"Good gracious! Listen to that, Joe! What's up now? Another fellow lost
+in the woods? Somebody is firing a round with his rifle! Perhaps he
+wants help. Those are signal shots, anyhow!"
+
+The camper whose horn had been Dol's signal of deliverance, broke off
+abruptly in his introductions, just as he had arrived at the most
+interesting point, and was proclaiming his own identity. He rattled off
+his short exclamations in excitement, and dashed out of the cabin,
+followed by Joe, his nephews, and Dol, the latter limping painfully, for
+his feet now felt like hot-water bags.
+
+"That Winchester has spoken eight or ten times," said the leader,
+counting the shots fired by somebody away in the dark recesses of the
+forest from a powerful repeating-rifle. "Let's give the fellow, whoever
+he is, an answer, Joe!"
+
+He seized his own rifle hastily, loaded the magazine with blank
+cartridges, and fired a noisy salute.
+
+In the pause which followed, while all strained their ears to listen,
+the sound of a shrill, distant "Coo-hoo!" the woodsman's hail, reached
+them from the forest.
+
+Joe instantly responded with a vehement "Coo-hoo! Coo-hoo-oo!" the first
+call being short and brisk, the second prolonged into a roar which
+showed the strength of the guide's lungs,--a roar that might carry for
+miles.
+
+Shortly afterwards there was a crashing and tearing amid some
+undergrowth near the edge of the forest. A man bounded forth from the
+pitch-black shadows into the clearing, where a little daylight still
+lingered. As he approached the group, Dol, who was in the background,
+gave a startled, yearning cry; but it was drowned in a loud burst from
+his host.
+
+"Why, Cyrus Garst!" exclaimed the latter, peering into the new-comer's
+face. "How goes it, man? I never expected to see you here. Surely you
+haven't come to grief in the woods? You look scared to death!"
+
+Cyrus--for it was he--grasped the welcoming hand which the owner of this
+camp extended to him. But his dark eyes did not linger a moment meeting
+the other's. They turned hither and thither, flashing in all directions
+restlessly, like search-lights.
+
+"I'm glad to see you, Doc," he said. "I didn't know you were anywhere
+near. But I'm half distracted just now. A youngster belonging to our
+camp is missing. I've been scouring the forest for hours, and firing
+signals, hoping he might hear them. But"--
+
+Here Cyrus caught sight of Dol, who with a cry which in its changing
+inflections was longing, penitent, joyful, was making towards him. The
+Harvard student strode forward, and gripped the boy by his elbows. In
+the dusk their eyes were near together; Garst's were stern, Dol's
+blinking and unsteady.
+
+"Adolphus Farrar," began Cyrus in a voice as if he was making an arrest,
+"have you been here in this camp, or where have you been, while your
+brother and I were searching the woods like maniacs? What unheard-of
+folly possessed you to go off by yourself?"
+
+Dol made a gurgling attempt to answer, but his voice rattled and died
+away in his throat. His eyes grew decidedly leaky.
+
+"Say, Cyrus!" interrupted the man who had befriended him and now proved
+his champion, "let the youngster get breath and tell his story from
+start to finish before you blow him up. I guess he wasn't much to blame;
+and if he was, he has suffered for it. He found his way here not quite
+half an hour ago, so played out from wandering through the forest that
+he was ready to drop in his tracks. And I tell you he showed his grit
+too; for he managed to brace up and keep on his feet, though he was as
+exhausted a kid as ever I saw."
+
+The "kid," forgiving this objectionable term because of the soothing
+allusion to a trying time when he had behaved like a man, winked and
+gulped to get rid of his emotion, and twisted his elbows out of Cyrus's
+hold. The latter lost his angry look, and released them.
+
+"I must fire three shots to let Neal and Uncle Eb know I've found you,"
+he said. "We parted company a while ago, and they're beating about the
+woods in another direction. Whoever first came upon any trace of you was
+to fire his rifle three times."
+
+The signal was instantly given.
+
+More far-reaching "Coo-hoos!" were exchanged. Ere long Neal was beside
+his brother, looking at him with eyes which showed the same tendency to
+leak that Dol's had done a while ago, and battling with a desire to
+squeeze the wanderer in a breathless hug. He relieved his feelings
+instead by "blowing up" Dol with withering fire and a rough choke in his
+voice.
+
+But when, in response to an invitation from the genial camper whom Cyrus
+and Joe called "Doc," the whole party, guides included, had gathered
+around the camp-fire in the big log hut, and Dol told his story from
+start to finish, he became the hero of the evening.
+
+His only fault had been a rash venturing into the unknown; and well it
+was that he had not followed the unknown to his death.
+
+"Why, boy!" exclaimed Cyrus, with a strong shudder, when Dol had
+described the false trail which led him to the foot of the crag, "that
+wasn't a human trail at all. It was a deer-road. The deer spend their
+day up in the mountains, and come down to the ponds at evening to feed
+and drink. Now, a buck or doe in its regular journeys to and fro will
+follow one line, to which it becomes accustomed. Perhaps fifty others,
+seeing the ground trodden, will run in the same track. And there you
+have your well-used path, which looks as if it was made by men's feet!
+
+"You may thank your lucky star, Dol, every hour of this night, that the
+false trail didn't lead you away--away--higher--higher--up the mountain,
+until you dropped in your tracks, and died there alone, as others have
+done before."
+
+A shocked hush fell upon the group around the camp-fire. Even the guides
+were silent. But the fragrant birchen logs sputtered and glowed, darting
+out playful tongues of flame. They seemed to call upon everybody to
+dismiss gloomy thoughts of what might have been; to crack jokes, sing
+songs, tell yarns, and be as merry as befitted men who had a log hut for
+a shelter, fresh whiffs of forest air stealing to them through an open
+doorway, and such a camp-fire.
+
+Joe began to prepare supper for the three who had searched so long and
+distractedly for Dol that they confessed to not having eaten for hours.
+While more venison was being cooked, the juveniles, American and
+English, who had been secretly taking stock of each other, cast aside
+restraint, and became as "chummy" as if they had been acquainted for
+years instead of hours.
+
+Such a carnival of fun and noise was started through their combined
+efforts in the old log camp, that its owner declared he "couldn't hear
+himself think." Seizing his horn, he blew a blast which called for
+order.
+
+"Say, my boy, let me have a look at your feet," he said, cornering Dol.
+"A deer-road isn't a king's highway, as I dare say you've found out to
+your cost. Pull off your moccasins and socks, and let me doctor your
+poor trotters."
+
+Young Farrar very gladly did as he was bidden.
+
+"Humph!" said his friend. "I thought so. They're a mass of bruises and
+blisters. You've been pretty well branded, son. Moccasins aren't much
+use to protect the feet from roots and sharp stones, if you happen to
+strike a bad place in forest travelling, unless you have taken the
+precaution to put double soles in them; didn't you know that? Now, Cyrus
+Garst," turning to the student, "you're all going to camp with us
+to-night. This lad can't tramp any more. As a doctor I forbid it."
+
+"Are you a doctor, sir?" questioned Dol, with a thrill of surprise,
+which he managed to conceal.
+
+"Something of the kind, boy," answered his host, smiling. "I don't look
+much like a city physician, do I? I graduated from a medical college in
+Philadelphia, and took my degree. But I had an enthusiasm for the woods.
+One hour of forest life in dear old Maine was to me worth a year spent
+amid streets, alleys, and sky-scraping buildings; so I fixed my
+headquarters at Greenville, and have spent most of my time in the
+wilderness."
+
+"Where every trapper, guide, and lumberman knows Dr. Phil Buck, whom
+they disrespectfully and affectionately call 'Doc,'" put in Cyrus. "And
+many a poor fellow owes his life or limbs to Doc's knowledge and nursing
+in some hard time of sickness, or after one of the dreadful accidents
+common in the forests."
+
+Dol could well understand this; for he now was benefiting by Dr. Phil's
+lively desire to relieve suffering, and was silently breathing blessings
+on his head. The doctor had bathed his puffy feet in warm water taken
+from Joe's camp-kettle, and was anointing them with a healing salve,
+after which he tucked them into a loose pair of slippers of his own.
+Meanwhile, he chatted pleasantly.
+
+"This isn't the first time that your friend Cyrus and I have run against
+each other in the wilds," he said, "nor the first time that we've camped
+together, either. Bless you! we could make you jump with some of our
+stories. Do you remember that night in '89, Cy, when you, with your
+guide, came upon me lying under a rough shelter of bark and spruce
+boughs, which I had rigged up for myself near Roaring Brook, on the side
+of Mount Katahdin?"
+
+"I guess I do remember it," answered Cyrus, laughing.
+
+"A mighty hungry man I was, too, that evening," went on Doc; "for I had
+no food left but one little package of soup-powder and a few beans. I
+had been trying all day to get a successful shot at a moose or deer, and
+muffed it every time. It wasn't the lucky side of the moon for me. Well,
+you behaved like the Good Samaritan to me, then, Cy; shared your meat
+and all your stuff, and we slept like twin brothers under my shelter."
+
+"Yes; and a bear visited our temporary camp in the night!" exclaimed
+Cyrus, bursting into uproarious mirth over some over-poweringly funny
+recollection; "he made off with my knapsack, which I had left lying by
+the camp-fire. I suppose old Bruin thought he'd find something good in
+it to eat; but he didn't. So he tore my one extra shirt and every
+article in the pack to shreds, and chewed up the handle of my razor, so
+that I couldn't shave again until I got back to civilization, when I was
+as bristly as a porcupine."
+
+"Perhaps Bruin tried to shave himself," suggested Dol.
+
+"At all events, he had wisdom enough not to cut his throat," answered
+the story-teller. "We three--Doc, my guide, and myself--were stupidly
+tired, and slept so soundly that we did not discover the theft nor who
+the marauder was until the following morning. Then we found my knapsack
+gone, and the tracks of a huge bear in some soft earth near our shelter.
+We traced his footprints through a bog until we found the spot, not far
+off, where, overcome by greed or curiosity, he ripped up that strong
+leather knapsack as if it was _papier maché_ and made hay of its
+contents."
+
+The boys had all crowded near to listen. It was now the social hour for
+campers. By the camp-fire more reminiscences followed; and the two
+guides chimed in it with moose stories, bear stories, panther stories,
+wild tales of every imaginable and unimaginable kind of adventure, until
+the lads thought no mythology which they had ever learned could rival in
+marvels the forest lore.
+
+At this opportune time, Neal suddenly thought of describing, or
+attempting to describe, that strangest of strange calls which he had
+heard, after the capsizing of the canoe, on the preceding night, when
+Cyrus and he were jacking for deer on Squaw Pond.
+
+Joe grunted expressively. "So help me! it was the moose call!" he
+ejaculated. "What say, Doc?"
+
+"I guess it was," answered Dr. Phil. "It was either the cow-moose
+herself calling, or some hunter imitating her with his birch-bark
+trumpet. It's a weird sort of experience, to hear that call for the
+first time; I shouldn't wonder if your heart went whack-whack, lad?"
+
+"I only hope he'll get a chance to hear it again before he goes back to
+England," said Cyrus.
+
+Forthwith, the Harvard man proceeded to explain that he was bent on
+pressing forward for a distance of sixty miles or so, to the heart of
+the wilderness, to search for moose, but that he intended to do the
+journey in a leisurely, zigzag fashion, camping for a couple of nights
+at various points, in order to do the honors of the forest to his
+English comrades.
+
+"So you're English, are you! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" exclaimed the doctor,
+looking at the young Farrars. "Well, I suppose we'll have to put our
+best foot foremost to give you a good time in American woods."
+
+"I think that's what we're having, sir--such a jolly good time that
+we'll never forget it," answered Neal courteously.
+
+"Yes, it's jolly enough now; but I tell you I didn't find it so to-day,"
+grumbled Dol, while his eyes gleamed like polished steel with the light
+of present fun. "But as long as I live I'll remember the sound of your
+horn, Doctor, when I was dead-beat."
+
+"Is that so? Well, I guess I'll have to make you a present of that horn,
+boy, when we part company, and you go back to civilization, and of the
+piece of birch-bark, too, which led you to our camp. 'Twas Joe who fixed
+that to the pine near the swamp; for my lads had a habit of following
+the trail to the alders, looking for moose or deer signs. He scrawled
+his sentence on it with the end of a cartridge. I guess it would be a
+sort of curiosity in England."
+
+Dol whooped his delight.
+
+"I'll put it under a glass shade! I'll"--
+
+While he was casting about in his mind for some way of immortalizing
+that bit of white bark, Doc's genial bluster was heard again,--
+
+"Come! come! you fellows! No more skylarking in this camp to-night! It's
+high time for all campers to be snoring. Turn in! Turn in!"
+
+But nobody was in a hurry to obey the summons to bed. While hands and
+feet were being stretched out to the sizzling birch logs for a final
+toast, Royal Sinclair, who had a trick of speaking very quickly, with a
+slight click in his utterance, as if his tongue struck his teeth, began
+to pour some communications into Neal's ear in rapid dashes of talk,--
+
+"This is just about the jolliest night we ever had in the forest, and
+we've had a staving time all through. We live in Philadelphia, and Uncle
+Phil--we call him 'Doc' like everybody else--brought us out here for our
+summer vacation. This old log camp was built several years ago by a
+hunting-party, of whom he was one. The walls were getting mouldy; but he
+cleaned up the largest of the huts, with Joe's help, and made it our
+headquarters. He never needs a guide himself; not a bit of it! He can
+find his way anywhere through the woods with his compass. But he is a
+good deal away, so he engaged Joe to go out with us.
+
+"He often starts off at a moment's notice, and travels dozens of miles
+on foot, or in a birch canoe, if he hears of a bad accident far away in
+the forest. Sometimes a lumberman or trapper cuts his foot in two, or
+nearly chops off his leg with his axe; and these poor fellows would
+probably die while their comrades were lugging them through the woods on
+a litter, trying to reach a settlement, if it weren't for our Doc.
+
+"Once in a while, when he comes to visit us in Philadelphia, a few
+people call him a crank, because he lives out here and dresses like a
+settler; but I call him a regular brick."
+
+"So do I," said Neal with spirit.
+
+"You're awfully lucky to be able to camp out during October," rattled on
+Roy. "That's the month for moose-hunting, jacking, and all the most
+exciting sort of fun. We have to go home in a day or two, for our
+school has reopened, unless"--
+
+"When Royal Sinclair gets a streak of talking, you might as well try to
+bottle up the Mississippi as to stop him," said Dr. Phil, laughing. "I
+can't hear what he's saying, but I know that his tongue is clicking like
+a telegraph instrument. But I hope it has given its last message for
+to-night. You really must turn in, boys. I let you have an extra social
+hour, because to-morrow will be Sunday, a day of rest after the travels
+and excitements of the week. Think of it, lads! A Sunday in the
+woods--God's first cathedral! May it do us all good!"
+
+The guide, Joe, built up the fire. Fresh birch logs blistered and
+sputtered as creeping curls of bluish flame enwrapped them. Kindling
+rapidly, they threw out fantastic lights, which danced like a regiment
+of red elves around the old log walls of the cabin.
+
+"If a fellow could only drop off to sleep every night in the year seeing
+and smelling such a fire as that!" breathed Neal, as, accepting a share
+of Royal's blankets, he stretched his tired limbs on the evergreen
+mattress.
+
+"Then life would be too jolly for anything," answered Roy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+A SUNDAY AMONG THE PINES.
+
+
+"Men and boys learn a good many wholesome lessons in the forest, one of
+which is that it pays better to take a day of rest in seven if they want
+to make the most of themselves and their opportunities. Therefore, lads,
+we'll do no tramping to-day. And we'll have a bit of a service by and by
+over there under the pines."
+
+So spoke Doctor Phil on the following morning, when the two sets of
+campers, now one joyous, brotherly crowd, were sitting or lounging about
+the pine-wood table, leisurely emptying tin mugs of tea or coffee, and
+eating porridge and rolls of Joe's baking.
+
+"You haven't told us yet, Cyrus," he went on, "what point you're bound
+for. I know you're level-headed, and plan every forest trip beforehand,
+to economize time."
+
+"Yes, a fellow likes to do that; it adds to the pleasures of
+anticipation," Garst answered. "But it's precious little use, after all,
+when you're visiting a region which is as full of surprises as an egg is
+full of meat. However, I have arranged to meet Herb Heal, the guide whom
+I generally employ, at a hunting-camp near Millinokett Lake."
+
+"A good moose country," put in Doc.
+
+"I know it. At all events, it is a good place for a home-camp; one can
+make excursions into the dense forests at the foot of Katahdin, which
+are unrivalled for big game--so Herb says, and he's an authority. These
+English fellows may expect to have an attack of buck-fever, or
+_moose-fever_ rather, which will set their blood on fire. Not that we're
+out chiefly for killing; we're willing to let his mooseship keep a whole
+skin, and go in peace to replenish the forests, unless he grows
+cantankerous and charges us."
+
+"If he happens to be an old bull, and gits his mad up, he may do that;
+it's as likely as not," chimed in Joe Flint, who was listening.
+
+"Well, it there's a man in Maine who can be warranted to start a moose,
+and to follow up his trail until he gets a sight of him, living or dead,
+that man is Herb Heal," said the doctor. "And his adventures go ahead of
+those of any woodsman up to date. You must get him to tell you how he
+swam across a pond at the tail of a bull-moose, holding with his fingers
+and teeth to the creature's long hair, then got astraddle of its back,
+and severed its jugular vein with his hunting-knife. How's that! It was
+the liveliest swim I ever heard of. But I mustn't spoil his yarns. He
+must tell them himself.
+
+"A fine son of the woods is Herb Heal!" went on the speaker, with
+enthusiasm. "I ran across him first five years ago, when he was trapping
+for fur-bearing animals in the dense forests you mentioned near the foot
+of Mount Katahdin. He had a partner with him then, a half-breed Indian,
+whom woodsmen called 'Cross-eyed Chris,' a willing, plucky, honest
+fellow when he was sober. But he loved fire-water. Let him once taste
+spirits, or smell them, and he went clean crazy. He did a dog's trick to
+Herb,--stole all his furs and savings, with a splendid pair of moose
+antlers, while he was away from camp one day, and skipped out of the
+State. Herb swore he'd shoot him. But I don't think he has ever come
+across him since. And if he should, he wouldn't stick to his threat.
+He's not built that way."
+
+There was a general hum of interest over this story, which even Cyrus
+had not heard before.
+
+"Now, how are you going to reach your camp on Millinokett Lake?" asked
+Dr. Phil, when the buzz had subsided. "That's the next question."
+
+"We intend to tramp the entire distance by easy stages, and get there
+about the middle of October," answered young Garst for himself and his
+comrades. "Uncle Eb will go along with us as guide; and he'll supply a
+tent, so that we can rest for two or three nights at a time if we
+choose."
+
+"Hum!" said the doctor doubtfully, laying his hand on Dol's shoulder.
+"This youngster oughtn't to do much tramping for a few days, Cyrus. That
+deer-road did up his feet pretty badly. I'll be travelling in your
+direction myself the day after to-morrow. I want to visit a
+farm-settlement within a dozen miles of the lake, where the farmer has a
+sickly child, the only treasure in his log shanty. The mite frets if
+Doc doesn't come to see her once in a while.
+
+"Therefore, I propose that we join forces, and press forward together. I
+guess I'll keep my nephews out here for a week longer, and take the
+responsibility of their missing that time at school. Now that they have
+fallen in with your friends, it would be a shame to separate Young
+England and Young America without giving them a chance to get friendly."
+
+Here Dr. Phil beamed upon the five boys, who, after one night in the
+forest, sleeping in a light-hearted row on the evergreen boughs, with
+their feet to the fire, had reached a brotherly intimacy which years of
+city life might not have bred.
+
+"I further propose," he went on, "that we hire a roomy wagon and a pair
+of strong horses from a settler who has a clearing about two miles from
+here. There is an old logging-road which runs through the woods towards
+the point for which we're heading. We could follow that for the first
+half of our journey. It isn't a turnpike, you know. In fact, it's only a
+broad track where the underbrush has been cleared away, and the trees
+cut down, with strips of corduroy road sandwiched in. But the lumbermen
+still haul supplies over it to their camps, and I propose that we
+follow their example. We can pile our tent, camp duffle [stores], and
+all our packs into the wagon, together with the hero of the
+deer-road,"--winking at Dol,--"and the rest of us can take turns in
+riding. It will be a big lark for these youngsters to travel over a
+corduroy road. A very bracing ride they'll have in more senses than one;
+but they can spin plenty of yarns about it when they get home."
+
+The "youngsters," one and all, signified their approval of the
+suggestion. Cyrus, who, as a college man, was above this category, was
+pleased to acquiesce too.
+
+"When can we get the wagon, Doctor?" asked Neal, burning to press
+onward.
+
+"Oh! the day after to-morrow, I guess. And now, lads!" Dr. Phil's voice
+was serious, but exultant, "we're a thoroughly happy set of fellows, in
+accord with each other and our surroundings. We feel our brains clear,
+our gladness springing up, and our lungs swelling to double their size
+with the whiffs which reach us from those sky-piercing pines yonder. So
+we will remember that 'the wide earth is our Father's temple.' Over
+there in the woods we will worship him, while millions of forest
+creatures about us, flying, bounding, or building, in obedience to his
+laws, simply worship too."
+
+A music soft, deep, sighing, like the murmur of an organ under the
+fingers of a master musician, rolled through the pine-tops as the band
+of campers, guides included, followed Doc into the forest. They passed
+the clumps of slender trees near the camp, and reached a dimly-lit green
+aisle.
+
+Towering pines, so tall and erect that they seemed shooting upward to
+kiss the clouds, were the pillars of their cathedral. Its roof of
+tasselled boughs was stabbed by flashing needles of sunlight, which let
+in a flickering, mellow radiance, and traced a pattern on the woodland
+carpet. Every whiff of forest air was natural incense.
+
+Dr. Phil stood as if in the audience-chamber of the King, and removed
+his wide-brimmed hat.
+
+"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be
+honor and glory, for ever and ever. Amen!" he said.
+
+Then Cyrus's voice led the worship.
+
+  "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!"
+
+he sang, in a strong, glad outburst.
+
+Boys and guides, in a great chorus, swelled the familiar words. Each
+sweetly chirping woodland bird, after its own manner, echoed them. The
+music among the pine-tops mingled with them. The forest fairly rang with
+a magnificent, adoring Doxology.
+
+"We ought to be decent kind of fellows after this," said Cyrus, when the
+little service was over.
+
+And the doctor answered,--
+
+"I tell you, boy, the church was never built where a man feels so ready
+to worship the God-Father in spirit and in truth as he does in the wild
+woods."
+
+And looking on the six fresh, manly faces before him, Dr. Phil saw that
+this happy woodland trip would have grander results than adding to the
+campers' inches and to the breadth of their shoulders. For each one of
+them had realized this morning that behind all strength and beauties of
+forest growth, behind their own souls' gladness, was a Presence which
+they could "almost palpably feel."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FORWARD ALL!
+
+
+Speculations about the journey, and in especial about the corduroy road,
+were rife in the boys' minds during the forty and odd hours which
+elapsed between the Sunday service and the time of their start.
+
+The travellers met at the settler's cabin early on Tuesday morning,
+having broken camp shortly after daybreak. On Monday evening Cyrus and
+Neal, with Uncle Eb, had returned to the bark hut to pack their
+knapsacks, and make ready for a forward march. On the way thither, it
+being just the hour for the deer to be running,--that is, descending
+from the hills for an evening meal,--Neal got a successful shot at a
+small two-year-old buck. This was a stroke of luck for the campers, and
+a necessary deed of death. It supplied them with venison for their
+journey; and, as Cyrus said, "they had already put a shamefully big hole
+in Dr. Phil's stores, and must procure a respectable supply of meat to
+make up for it."
+
+It also provided Tiger with plenty of bones to crunch during his
+master's absence; for the dog was left behind in charge of the hut, as
+indeed he often was for a week or more while Uncle Eb was away guiding.
+The sportsmen who engaged the latter's services were generally averse to
+the creature's presence with the party, lest he should scare their game.
+
+Cyrus and Neal bade him a pathetic farewell, remembering the exciting
+fun he had given them with the raccoon. Dol sent him lots of approving
+messages, which were duly delivered, with rough pats and shakes, by
+Uncle Eb, who fully believed that the brute understood every word of
+them. Indeed, the sign language of Tiger's expressive tail confirmed
+this opinion.
+
+Dol had remained at the log camp with his new friends, Dr. Phil thinking
+it well that he should rest his feet until the morning of the start. His
+brother promised to bring his knapsack and rifle to the settler's
+cabin. Uncle Eb repossessed himself of his shot-gun, pouch, and
+powder-horn, which he carried back to his hut, and left under Tiger's
+protection, telling Dol that "if he wanted to bag any more black ducks
+he'd have to give 'em a dose wid de rifle, for he warn't a-goin' to lug
+dat ole fuzzee t'rough de woods."
+
+It was the perfection of an October morning, sunshiny and pleasant, with
+a mellow freshness in the air which matched the mellow tints of the
+forest, when the travellers joined forces at the farm-settlement.
+
+Engaged in the thrilling work of felling a pine-tree to extend his
+father's clearing, they found the settler's son, a brawny fellow about
+Cyrus's age, in buckskin leggings and coon-skin cap, who wielded his axe
+with arms which were tough and knotted as pine limbs. He bawled to them
+in the forceful language of the backwoods, which to unaccustomed ears
+sounded a trifle barbaric, to keep out of the way until his tree had
+fallen.
+
+When the pine at last tumbled earthward with a thud which reverberated
+for miles through the forest, he gave a mighty yell, waved his skin cap,
+and came towards the visitors.
+
+"Hulloa, Lin!" boomed the doctor, greeting this native as an old
+acquaintance.
+
+"Hello, Doc!" answered Lin. "By the great horn spoon! I didn't expect to
+see you here. Who are these fellers?"
+
+The doctor introduced his comrades. Lin greeted them with bluff
+simplicity, and called them one and all by their Christian names as soon
+as these could be found out. Doc alone came in for his short title--if
+such it could be called. Luckily the campers of both nationalities, from
+Cyrus downward, were without any element of snobbery in their
+dispositions. It seemed to them only a jolly part of the untrammelled
+forest life that man should go back to his primitive relations with his
+brother man; that in the woods, as Doc said, "manhood should be the only
+passport," and that titles and distinctions should never be thought of
+by guides or anybody else. They were well-pleased to be taken simply for
+what they were,--jolly, companionable fellows,--and to be valued
+according to the amount of grit and good-temper they showed.
+
+And they learned this morning to appreciate the pioneer courage and
+resolute spirit of the rugged settlers who had cleared a home for
+themselves amid the surrounding wilderness of forest and stream. Their
+roughness of speech was as nothing in comparison with their brave
+endurance of hardships, their deeds of heroism, and their free-handed
+hospitality.
+
+Lin led his visitors straight to a log cabin, before which his father, a
+veteran woodsman, who bore the scars of bears' teeth upon his body, was
+digging and planting. This old farmer, too, greeted Doc as a friend, and
+when the wagon was talked about, was quite willing to do anything to
+serve him.
+
+"But ye must have a square meal afore ye travel," he said. "Jerusha! I
+couldn't let ye go without eatin'. Mother!" shouting to his wife, who
+was inside the cabin. "Say, Mother! Ha'n't ye got somethin' fer these
+fellers to munch?"
+
+Forthwith a big, rosy woman, who had herself fought a bear in her time,
+and had shot him, too, before he attacked her farmyard, hustled round,
+and got up such a meal as the travellers had not tasted since they
+entered the woods. They had a splendid "tuck-in," consisting of fried
+ham, boiled eggs, potatoes, hot bread, yellow butter, and coffee. And
+the meal was accompanied with thrilling stories from the lips of the old
+settler about the hardships and desperate scenes of earlier pioneering
+days. Doc coaxed him to relate these for the boys' benefit. And many
+eyes dilated as he told of blood-curdling adventures with the "lunk
+soos," or "Indian devil," the dreadful catamount or panther, which was
+once the terror of Maine woodsmen.
+
+"So help me! I'd a heap sooner meet a ragin' lion than a panther," said
+the old man. "My own father came near to bein' eaten alive by one when I
+was a kid. He was workin' with a gang o' lumbermen in these forests at
+timber-makin', and was returnin' to their camp, when the beast bounced
+out of a thicket all of a suddint. Poor dad was skeered stiff. The thing
+screeched,--a screech so turrible that it was enough to turn a man's
+sweat to ice-water, an' a'most set him crazy. Dad hadn't no gun with
+him; so he shinned up the nighest tree like mad, an' hollered fit to
+bust his windpipe, hopin' t'other fellers at the camp 'ud hear him.
+
+"But the panther made up another tree hard by, an' sprang 'pon him. Fust
+it grabbed dad by the heel. Then it tore a big piece out o' the calf of
+his leg, an' devoured it. Think of it, boys! Them's the sort o' dangers
+that the fust settlers an' lumbermen in these woods had to face.
+
+"Wal, dad reckoned he was a goner, sure. But he managed to cut a limb
+from the tree with his huntin'-knife, an' tied the knife to the end of
+it. With that he fought the beast while his comrades, who had heard his
+mad yells, were gittin' to him. With the fust shot that one of 'em fired
+the catamount made off.
+
+"Dad was the sickest man ye ever saw fer a spell. His wound healed after
+a bit, under the care of an Injun doctor; but his hair, which had been
+soot-black on that evenin' when he was returnin' to camp, was as white
+as milk afore he got about again; an' he was notional and narvous-like
+as long as he lived.
+
+"He said the animal was like a tremenjous big cat, about four feet high
+an' five or six feet in length. It was a sort o' bluish-gray color. An'
+it had a very long tail curled up at the end, which it moved like a
+cat's.
+
+"Boys, that catamount is the only animal that an Indian is skeered of.
+Ask a red man to hunt a moose, a bear, or a wolf, an' he's ready to
+follow it through forest an' swamp till he downs it or drops. But ask
+him to chase a panther, an' he'll shake his head an' say, 'He all one
+big debil!' He calls the beast, in his own lingo, 'lunk soos,' which
+means 'Injun devil;' an' so we woodsmen call it too."
+
+It was at this moment that Lin put his head in at the cabin-door, and
+announced that "the wagon an' hosses war a' ready."
+
+"Wal, boys, I swan! it's many a long year since a panther was seen in
+these forests, so ye needn't feel skeery about meetin' one," said the
+old settler, as he stood outside his log home, and watched his guests
+start. "I'll 'low ye won't find travellin' too easy 'long the ole
+corduroy road. Come again!"
+
+There was much waving of hats as the wagon, a roomy, four-wheeled
+vehicle, moved off, with a creaking in its joints as if it were
+squealing a protest against its load, which consisted of the five lads,
+together with knapsacks, guns, tents, and the camp duffle.
+
+"Forward, all!" shouted Dr. Phil, who had been chosen to act as captain
+of the two companies during the few days while they journeyed together.
+
+Lin, who was charioteer, cracked a long whip above his horses. The boys
+cheered, while Doc, Cyrus, and the two guides fell behind, choosing to
+follow the wagon on foot for the first few miles of the journey.
+
+"Where did you buy that, Lin?" asked Neal, climbing over to a perch
+beside the driver, and pointing to a heavy Colt's revolver which the
+young settler was buckling round his waist.
+
+"Didn't buy it. I traded a calf for it at Greenville more'n a year ago,"
+was the reply. "Fust-rate gun it is, too, I vum! I've stood at our
+cabin-door, and killed many a buck with it. On'y 'tain't much good for
+tackling a bear. Wish't the bears ud get as scarce as the panthers! Then
+we'd be rid o' two master pests. Hello! Don't y'u git to tumbling out
+jist yet! That's on'y a circumstance to the jolts there'll be when we
+strike a bit o' corduroy road."
+
+Lin Hathaway grabbed young Farrar by the elbow while he spoke, and held
+him steady with the horny hand which had swung the axe against the
+doomed pine-tree. For Neal had shown a sudden inclination to pitch
+headlong out of the wagon, as its right wheels were hoisted a foot or
+more above the left ones by rolling over a mossy bump in the ground.
+
+For the first five miles the forest road had been simply constructed
+thus: First, the bushy undergrowth had been cut away and thrown to one
+side, the space cleared being about eight feet wide; then all trees
+growing in the range of this track had been sawn off close to the
+ground, and windfalls which barred the way were removed. It was a rude
+highway, with plenty of deformities, such as ends of rotting stumps,
+twisted roots, ridges and bumps which had never been levelled; yet it
+was beautiful beyond any smooth, well-graded road which the travellers
+had ever seen. As it wound along in graceful curves through the woods,
+it was shaded now by an emerald arch of evergreens, now by a royal
+crimson canopy of maple branches, while patches of buff, orange, and
+dull red commingled where other trees interlaced with these to whisper
+woodland secrets.
+
+But the boys soon understood what Doc meant when he spoke of their
+having "a bracing ride in more senses than one;" for the motion of the
+wagon was a giddy series of jolts and bounces, with just sufficient
+interval between each shock for them to brace themselves, with stiffened
+backbones, for the next upheaval. They had already begun, as Royal said,
+"to have kinks in all their limbs," when Lin suddenly announced,--
+
+"Yon's a bit o' corduroy road, I declar'!"
+
+He pointed with his whip ahead, and the travellers shot out their necks
+to see this novel highway. It extended for about a quarter of a mile
+over a swamp, and spoke volumes for the energy and ingenuity of the
+hardy lumbermen who constructed it.
+
+These brawny heroes, who are fine types of American grit and manhood,
+when clearing a broad track over which their great timber logs could be
+hauled from the depths of the forest to the landing on some big river,
+had found the swampy tracts an impassable obstacle for animals
+trammelled with harness and a heavy load.
+
+They bridged them by laying down logs cut to even lengths in a slightly
+slanting position across the way for the entire extent of miry ground.
+Each piece of timber was tightly wedged in by its fellow; nevertheless,
+there was a space of several inches between their rounded tops. Hence
+the track presented a striped appearance, which suggested to some
+spirited genius among woodsmen its name of "corduroy road."
+
+"Well, Neal, do you think you can tell your folks a thing or two about
+forest travelling when you get back to England?" asked Doc, when the
+order of march was changed, young Farrar and the Sinclairs turning out
+to do their share of tramping, while the doctor, Cyrus, and the guides
+benefited by "a lift."
+
+"I rather think I can," answered Neal; "but goodness! I feel as if there
+were aches and bruises all over me. Once or twice my head seemed jumping
+straight off my shoulders. No more going in a wagon over corduroy roads
+for me! I'd rather be leg-weary any day."
+
+The travellers halted that evening about five o'clock on the banks of a
+lonely stream. The guides pitched the two tents--Joe had provided one
+for his party--facing each other on a patch of clearing, with a space of
+about fifteen feet between them, in the centre of which blazed a roaring
+camp-fire. Now all the axes and knifes among the band were in demand for
+cutting and sharpening stakes and ridge-poles on which to stretch their
+canvas.
+
+Moreover, no evergreen boughs could be procured for beds; and the boys
+had to work with a will, helping Uncle Eb and Joe to cut bundles of the
+long, rank grass that grew by the water to form a bed for their tired
+bodies.
+
+Every one was camp-hungry, as they had not halted for a meal since
+leaving the settlement. After a splendid supper of venison, broiled
+over sizzling logs, bread, and fried potatoes,--for they had added to
+their stores at the farm,--they had a glorious social hour by the
+camp-fire. Joe got off any amount of "ripping" stories; and the sound of
+many a jolly chorus, led by Cyrus, and swelled by the musical efforts of
+the entire crew, mingled with the lonely rustle of the night wind among
+faded and drifting leaves.
+
+When Doc's summons came to turn in, they stretched themselves upon the
+grassy beds, not undressing, as the night was chilly and the temporary
+quarters were not so snug as their previous ones. Still in their warm
+jerseys, trousers, woollen stockings, and knitted caps, with the heat
+from the piled-up camp-fire streaming under the raised flaps of the
+tents, they slept as cosily as if they lay on spring mattresses,
+surrounded by pictured walls.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+BEAVER WORKS.
+
+
+About noon on the following day they were obliged to bid farewell to Lin
+Hathaway, his wagon and horses, as the logging-road went no farther. The
+young settler turned homeward rather regretfully. It might be many
+months again before he got a chance of talking to anybody beyond his
+father and mother, and the boys had brought a dash of outside life into
+his woodland solitude.
+
+The travellers proceeded on foot through a dense forest, which, luckily
+for Dol, had little undergrowth and mostly a soft carpet of moss or dry
+pine needles. Still they had plenty of climbing over windfalls, with
+many rough pokes and jibes from forward boughs and rotten limbs, to rob
+the way of sameness. Through this labyrinth they were safely piloted by
+Uncle Eb and Joe, the latter with his compass in his hand, and the
+former simply studying the "Indian's compass," which is observing how
+the moss grows upon the tree-trunks, there being always a greater
+quantity on the side which faces north.
+
+Before nightfall they reached another log cabin, tenanted by a man who
+had just settled down for the purpose of clearing up a farm. Here they
+were lodged for the night, without trouble of making camp.
+
+The third day of their journey was marked by two sensations. They halted
+for a short rest at a point where there was an extensive break in the
+forest. Scarcely had they emerged from the gloom of a dense growth of
+cedars, when Dol exclaimed.--
+
+"Good gracious! That looks as if people had been building a jolly high
+railroad out here."
+
+On the right rose a bare, steep ridge of sand and gravel, nearly ninety
+feet in height, and closely resembling a railway embankment.
+
+"Well, boy," laughed Dr. Phil, "if that's a railroad, Nature built it,
+and by a mighty curious process too. The sand, rocks, and gravel of
+which it is mostly formed must have been swept here by a great rush of
+waters that once prevailed over this land. We call the ridge a
+'Horseback.' If you like, we'll climb to the top of it, after we've had
+our snack [lunch], and you can get a peep at the surrounding country."
+
+So they did. The top was level, and wide enough for two carriages to
+drive abreast; and the view from it was one which could never be
+forgotten. Around them were millions of acres of forest land, beautiful
+with the contrasts of October; here dipping into a cedar valley, in the
+midst of which they saw the silver smile of a woodland lake, there
+rising into a hill crowned with towering pines, some of them over a
+hundred feet in height.
+
+But, most thrilling sight of all, they beheld, only half a dozen miles
+away, rising in sublime grandeur against the sky, the mountain of
+mountains in Maine,--great Katahdin. They had caught glimpses of its
+curved line of peaks before. Now they saw its forests, and the rugged
+slides where avalanches of bowlders and earth from the top had ploughed
+heavily downward, sweeping away all growth.
+
+Cyrus lifted his hat, and waved it at the distant mass.
+
+"Hurrah!" he cried. "There's the home of storms! There's old Katahdin!
+The Indians named it Ktaadn 'the biggest mountain.'"
+
+"Want to hear the Indian legend about it, lads?" asked Dr. Phil.
+
+A general chirp of assent was his reply, and the doctor began:--
+
+"Well, when the redskins owned these forests, they believed that the
+summit of Katahdin was the home of their evil spirit, or, as they call
+him, 'The Big Devil.' He was named Pamolah. And he was a mighty
+unpleasant sort of neighbor. Once, so tradition says, he ran away with a
+beautiful Indian maiden, and carried her up to his lonely lair among
+those peaks. When her tribe tried to rescue her, he let loose great
+storms upon them, his artillery being thunder, lightning, hail, and
+rain, before which they were forced to flee helter-skelter. An old red
+chief long ago told me the story, and added gravely that 'it was sartin
+true, for han'some squaw always catch 'em debil.'
+
+"The foundation of the legend lies in the fact that there really is a
+very curious granite basin among Katahdin's peaks, and it is the
+birthplace of most storms which sweep over our State. I myself have
+seen clouds forming in it, when I made an ascent of the mountain in my
+younger days, and whirling out in all directions. The roar of its winds
+may sometimes be heard miles away. There are several ponds in the basin;
+one of them, a tiny, clear lake, without any visible outlet, is
+Pamolah's fishing-ground. That's the yarn about the mountain as I heard
+it."
+
+[Illustration: IN THE SHADOW OF THE KATAHDIN.]
+
+"Ain't it a'most time for us to be gittin' down from this Horseback,
+Doc?" asked Joe, who had been listening with the others. "I thought we'd
+reach the farm you're heading for to-night, but we're half a dozen miles
+off it yet; and we can't do more'n another mile or two afore it'll be
+time to halt and make camp. There's some pretty bad travelling and a
+plaguy bit of swamp ahead."
+
+"I guess you're about right, Joe," said Doc, rising with alacrity from
+the stone where he had seated himself while telling his yarn.
+
+Joe's bad travelling meant a great deal of tripping and floundering
+through soft mud and mire, with slippery moss-stones sandwiched in, and
+dwarfed bushes which ran along the ground, and twisted themselves in an
+almost impassable tangle. These had a knack of catching a fellow's feet,
+and causing him to sprawl forward on his face and hands, whereupon his
+knapsack would hit him an astounding thwack on the back.
+
+After three-quarters of an hour of this fun, very muddy, clammy with
+perspiration, and thoroughly winded, the party reached firmer ground,
+and the guides called a halt.
+
+"Guess we'd better rest a bit," said Joe, "afore we go farther. There's
+nothing in forest travelling that'll take the breath out of a man like
+crossing a swamp," eying compassionately the city folk; for he himself
+was as "fit" as when he started. "Then we'd better follow that stream
+till we strike a good place for a camping-ground. What say, Doc?"
+
+Dr. Phil, as captain, signified his assent. After a short
+breathing-spell he again gave the command, "Forward!" And his company
+pushed on into the woods, following the course of a dark stream which
+had gurgled through the swamp.
+
+"There used to be an old beaver-dam somewheres about here," broke forth
+Joe presently, when they had made about a quarter of a mile, the younger
+guide taking the lead, for he was evidently more at home in this part of
+the forest land than his senior, Uncle Eb. "Hullo, now! there it is.
+Look, gentlemen!"
+
+He pointed to a curved bank of brushwood, mostly alder branches, piled
+together in curious topsyturvy fashion, which formed a dam across the
+stream. It bristled with sticks, poking out and up in every direction;
+for the bushy ends of the boughs had been heavily plastered with mud and
+stones, to keep them down.
+
+"That a beaver-dam!" gasped Neal in amazement. "Why, I always had an
+idea that beavers were half human in intelligence, and wove their
+branches in and out in a sort of neat basketwork when making dams.
+That's a funny rough-and-tumble looking old pile."
+
+"It's a good water-tight dam, for all that," answered Cyrus. "And don't
+you begin to underrate Mr. Beaver's intelligence until you see more of
+his works. I've torn the bottom out of a dam like this on a cold, rainy
+night,--beavers like rainy nights for work,--and then hidden myself in
+some bushes to watch the result. It was a trial of strength and
+patience, I assure you, to remain there for six mortal hours,--though I
+had rubber overalls on,--with wet twigs and leaves slapping my face. But
+the sight I saw was more wonderful than anything I could have imagined.
+There was a cloudy, watery moon; and shortly after it rose, five beavers
+appeared upon the dam, scrambling up and down, and examining the great
+hole through which the water was fast leaking out of their pond. Then,
+following a big fellow, who was evidently the boss beaver, they swam to
+the bank. He stationed himself near a tree about twenty inches in
+circumference, and his four boys at once started to fell it. I tell you
+they worked like hustlers, each one sawing on it in turn with his sharp
+teeth, and sometimes two of them together on different parts of the
+trunk.
+
+"At last the tree--it was an ash--fell, toppling into the water just
+where the beavers wanted it. They pushed and tugged it down-stream for
+about ten yards, to the dam, and propped it against the opening which I
+had made. I couldn't see the rest of the operations clearly; but I
+caught glimpses of them, marching about on their hind-legs, carrying mud
+snug up to their chins like this," here Cyrus folded his arms across his
+chest. "And before daybreak that dam was perfectly repaired, with never
+a leak in it.
+
+"You know they build the dams in very shallow water, only a few inches
+deep; and they generally roll in a couple of long logs for a solid
+foundation. It was one of these which I had torn out. Now, Neal, what do
+you say about the beaver's intelligence?"
+
+"If I didn't know you, Cyrus, I'd say you were making up as you went
+along," answered Neal. "It seems one of those things which a fellow can
+scarcely believe in. Hulloa! What's that?"
+
+A loud report, like the bang of a gun, made all the boys, who had been
+standing very quietly, gazing at the dam, suddenly jump.
+
+"It's only a beaver striking the water with his tail," laughed Cyrus.
+"He has been swimming about somewhere up-stream, and has scented us, and
+dived. I have heard one do that a dozen times in the night, if he
+detected the presence of man; but it's very unusual in the daytime, for
+they rarely venture out in broad light. In diving, if suddenly alarmed,
+they strike the surface of the water a tremendous whack with their
+tails, as a signal of alarm, making this report, which in still weather
+resounds for a great distance.
+
+"I'm very glad you heard it, boys; for your chances of seeing the master
+beaver or any of his colony are mighty slim. But we'll probably come on
+their lodge a little higher up."
+
+Above the shallow water where the dam was built, the stream widened into
+a broad, deep pool. About fifty yards ahead, in the centre of this, was
+a tiny island. On its extreme edge Joe pointed out the beaver lodge. It
+was shaped something like a huge beehive, being about a dozen feet in
+diameter and five feet high. The outside seemed to be entirely covered
+with mud and fibrous roots, through which the sticks which formed its
+framework poked out here and there.
+
+"The doors are all underwater," said Cyrus, "and so far down that
+they'll be beneath the ice when the stream freezes in winter. Otherwise
+the beavers could not reach their pile of food-wood, which they keep at
+the bottom, and would starve to death. They are clerks of the weather,
+if you like. They seem to know when the first hard frost is coming, and
+sink their stores a day or two before. Man has not yet discovered their
+mysterious knack of sinking wood, and keeping it stationary through many
+months.
+
+"They feed on the inner bark of poplar, white birch, and willow trees.
+In autumn they fell these along the banks, generally so that they will
+fall into the water, tug and push them down-stream, and float them near
+to their lodges. If the trees are too big to be easily handled, they saw
+them into convenient lengths."
+
+"I call it tough luck, not being able to get a sight of the animals,
+after seeing so much of their works," grumbled Royal.
+
+"Ye might wait here till midnight, and not have any better," said Joe.
+"That fellow's tail was like a fire-alarm to them. They ain't to home
+now, you bet! They've dusted out of their house as if it was on fire;
+and they've either dived to the bottom, or hidden themselves in holes
+along the bank. Guess we'd better be moving on. It's a'most time to
+think about making camp."
+
+"The beavers have been working here!" exclaimed the guide a few minutes
+later, as he strode ahead. "These white birches were felled by 'em; and
+a dandy job they did too."
+
+He pointed to two slim birches which lay prone with their tops in the
+water, and to a third, the trunk of which was partly sawn through in
+more than one place. The ground was strewn with little clippings of
+timber, bearing the saw-marks of the beavers' teeth. The boys gathered
+them up as curiosities.
+
+"Oh, the skilful little animals can beat this work by long odds!"
+exclaimed Doc. "These trunks only measure from eight to twelve inches in
+circumference. I've seen a tree fully two feet round which was felled by
+them. Say, Joe! don't you think we'd better camp to-night somewhere on
+the _brûlée?_"
+
+"Just what I'm planning, Doc," answered Joe. "We must be pretty near it
+now."
+
+A few minutes afterwards the party filed out of the dense woods, passed
+through a grove of young spruces, forded a brook which emptied itself
+into the stream they were following, and came upon a scene blasted,
+barren, and unutterably dreary.
+
+The band of boys, who, in spite of swamps and jungles, had learned to
+love the forest dearly, for its many beauties, and for the wild
+offspring with which it teemed, sorrowfully gasped, as if they saw the
+skeleton of a friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+"GO IT, OLD BRUIN!"
+
+
+Before them lay a ruined tract of country, extending northward farther
+than eye could reach. It is called by Maine woodsmen a _brûlée_, name
+borrowed from their French-Canadian neighbors, who dwell across the
+boundary line which separates the Dominion from the United States.
+
+The word signifies "burnt tract;" but it gives a feeble idea of the
+fire-smitten, blackened region on which the lads looked.
+
+The forest until now had been a wilderness truly, but a wilderness where
+every kind and size of growth, from the giant pine to the creeping
+wintergreen and shaded mosses, mingled in beautiful confusion. Here it
+became a desert. For the terrible forest fires, the woodsman's tragic
+enemy, had swept over it not long before, devastating an area of many
+square miles. Millions of dollars worth of valuable timber had been
+reduced to rotting embers. Storm-defying pines had crashed to the earth,
+and were overridden by the flames in their wild rush onward. Sometimes
+only a smutty stump showed where they had stood; sometimes, robbed of
+life and every limb, portions of the fire-eaten trunks still remained
+erect,--bare, blackened poles. All smaller growth, and even the surface
+of the ground, parched by summer heats, had burned like tinder. Rocks
+and stones were baked and crumbling.
+
+"Boys, that's the most mournful sight a woodsman can see," said Doc,
+looking away over the wrecked region, touched with golden lights from an
+October sunset. "It makes one who loves the woods feel as if he had lost
+a living friend."
+
+"Well, 'tain't no manner o' use to fret over it," declared Joe
+energetically. "Nature don't waste time in fretting, you bet! She starts
+in and tries to cover the stripped ground, as if she was sort of ashamed
+to have it seen."
+
+The guide pointed earthward. At his feet a dwarfed growth of blueberry
+bushes and tiny trees was already springing up to screen the unsightly,
+ash-strewn land.
+
+"True enough, Joe! Nature is a grand one for remedies," answered the
+doctor. "Still, it will be half a century or more before she can raise a
+timber growth here again. Hulloa! Dol, what are you fellows up to?"
+
+While his elders were studying the _brûlée_, Dol, who objected to dreary
+sights, had marched down to the brink of the stream, accompanied by
+Royal's young brothers, Will and Martin Sinclair. The little river
+gurgled and frisked along beside the burnt tract, like a line of life
+bordering death. It seemed to the boys to prattle about its victory over
+the flames when it stopped their sweeping course, so that the woods on
+its opposite bank were uninjured, as were those beyond the brook in the
+rear.
+
+"We're studying the ways of the great sea-serpent!" shouted back Dol,
+who was splashing about in a sedgy pool.
+
+By and by when the guides had finished their work of making camp, when
+they had pitched the tents, cut boughs for beds and fuel in the spruce
+grove behind, and were cooking an odorous supper, the three juveniles
+came slowly towards the camp-fire from the water.
+
+"What on earth have you got there, young one?" asked Dr. Phil; for
+Adolphus Farrar was bareheaded, and carried his hat very gingerly, with
+its corners clutched together to form a bag.
+
+"The big sea-serpent himself," answered Dol mysteriously.
+
+Of a sudden he opened his dripping hat, and spilled out a small
+water-snake, about ten inches long, upon the doctor's lap.
+
+There was a great roar of laughter, in which Dol's abettors, Will and
+Martin, joined with cheerful shouts. The little joke had the effect of
+winning everybody's thoughts from roaring flames, wrecked forests, and
+the dreary _brûlée_. Uncle Eb killed the snake, maintaining that
+water-snakes were "plaguy p'isonous," while Cyrus scouted the idea. The
+supper that evening was a merry enough meal. The camp, lit by the ruddy
+glow from its great fire, looked an oasis of light, warmth, and jollity
+in the black and burnt desert.
+
+The darky, hearing Cyrus declare that he was fearfully hungry, mixed
+some flapjacks to form a second course, after the venison steaks and
+potatoes. He had exhausted his stock of maple sugar, but he produced a
+small wooden keg of the apparently inexhaustible molasses.
+
+"He! he! he! Dat jest touches de spot, don't it?" he chuckled, when,
+having carefully served each member of the party, he seated himself
+about three feet from the camp-fire, with a round dozen of the thin
+cakes for his own eating.
+
+He coated them with the thick molasses, and set the keg down side by
+side with a bag of potatoes which had been brought from the settlement.
+
+There these provisions remained when, earlier than usual, the party
+turned in, and stretched their tired limbs to rest, lying down, as they
+had done before when sleeping under canvas, with all their garments on
+save coats and moccasins. Whether Uncle Eb forgot his "m'lasses," or
+whether he purposely left it without, there not being a spare inch of
+room in the small tents, no one then or afterwards inquired.
+
+As a result of the jolly intimacy that had sprung up between the two
+companies during the few days when they had all things in common, the
+boys disposed of themselves for the night as they pleased. Neal turned
+in with the doctor, Royal, and Joe, the four stretching themselves on
+the evergreen boughs, with their feet to the opening of the tent, and
+their rifles and ammunition within reach. Of course the Winchesters were
+empty, it being a strict rule that firearms should not be brought into
+camp loaded.
+
+The younger Sinclairs, with Cyrus, Dol, and Uncle Eb, occupied the other
+tent.
+
+It seemed to Neal that he had hardly slept one hour,--probably it was
+nearer to three,--during which time he had been dreaming with vague
+foreshadowings of the final and crowning sport of the trip, the grand
+moose-stalking, and of Herb Heal, the mighty hunter, when he was
+awakened by a shrill scream just outside the canvas. He started, with
+his heart going whackety-whack. The cry was sudden and intensely
+startling, appearing twice as loud as it really was when it broke the
+pathetic stillness of the _brûlée_, where not a tree rustled or twig
+snapped, and the night wind only sighed faintly and fitfully through the
+newly springing growth.
+
+Again sounded that startling screech; and yet again, making a dreary,
+piercing din.
+
+"By all that's funny! it's another coon," gasped Neal; and he gently
+pinched the shoulder of Joe, who lay on his left.
+
+"Joe!" he whispered. "Wake up! There's a raccoon just outside the tent.
+I heard his cry."
+
+The guide was awake and alert in an instant. So, too, was Dr. Phil.
+
+"What's up, boys?" asked the latter, hearing a murmur.
+
+"There's a coon close by," said Neal again. "Listen to him!"
+
+Even while he spoke, young Farrar caught sight of two feathered things
+hopping along the avenue of light which lay between him and the
+camp-fire, the red flare of the flames mingling with the white radiance
+of a cloudless moon. At the same time the screech sounded and resounded.
+
+"Coon!" exclaimed Joe derisively. "That's no coon. It's only a little
+owl. Bless ye! I've had five or six of 'em come right into this tent of
+a night, and ding away at me till I had to talk to 'em with the rifle to
+scare 'em off. I'll give 'em a dose o' lead now if they don't scoot
+mighty quick; that'll stop their song an' dance."
+
+"Their cry is pretty much like a raccoon's, Neal," said Doc. "Only it's
+a great deal weaker. Lie down, boy. Go to sleep, and don't mind them."
+
+The owls perhaps apprehended danger. At all events, they were silent for
+a while; and in three minutes each occupant of the tent was fast asleep
+again, with the exception of Neal. The sharp awakening had upset his
+nerves a bit. He obeyed the doctor, and hugged his blankets round him,
+hoping sleep would return; but he lay with eyes narrowed into two slits,
+peeping at the ruddy camp-fire, involuntarily listening for the
+screeching of the birds, and wishing that he had not been such a
+greenhorn as to disturb his comrades for nothing. Royal, who lay on his
+right, was of a less excitable temperament. Although he had been
+awakened, he was now snoring lustily, insomnia being a rare affliction
+in camps.
+
+"What's that?"
+
+About half an hour had passed when Neal Farrar suddenly and sharply
+rapped out these words close to Joe's ear. He felt certain that he would
+not now bring upon him the woodsman's good-natured scorn for making a
+disturbance about nothing. A heavy, stealthy tread, as of some big
+animal, was crushing the pygmy bushes near the tent. Immediately
+afterwards he saw an uncouth black shape in the lane of light between
+himself and the fire. It disappeared while his heart was giving one
+jump, and he heard a dull, mumbling noise, such as a pig might make when
+rooting amid rubbish, varied with an occasional low growl.
+
+Joe was already awake. His hunter's instinct told him that something
+truly exciting was on now.
+
+"My cracky! I b'lieve it's a bear!" he muttered, forming his words away
+down in his throat, so that Neal only caught the last one. "Keep still
+as death!"
+
+The guide reached out a long arm, and clutched his rifle. Hurriedly he
+jammed half a dozen cartridges into its magazine. Then lightly and
+silently, as if he was made of cork, he got upon his feet, and bounded
+out of the tent, Neal copying his actions nimbly and noiselessly as he
+could; though, in his excitement, he only succeeded in getting two
+cartridges into his Winchester.
+
+Royal's snoring ceased. Doc's eager question, "What's up now, boys?"
+reached the two just as they quitted shelter, and passed into the broad
+moonlight, crossed with red gleams from their fire.
+
+"A bear!" yelled Joe in answer, his rifle and he breaking silence
+together.
+
+Three times the Winchester sharply cracked.
+
+Then with a mad "Halloo!" the guide seized a flaming stick from the
+fire, and, swinging it above his head, started after the big black
+animal of which Neal had caught a glimpse before. He now saw it plainly
+as, already fifty yards ahead, it made off at a plunging gallop across
+the moonlit _brûlée_.
+
+Young Farrar had been the champion runner of his school, and he blessed
+his trained legs for giving him a prominent part in the wild chase that
+followed. Still imitating the woodsman, he pulled another half-lighted
+stick from the camp-fire, and waved it in a frenzy of excitement, while
+he ran like a buck at Joe's side.
+
+"Tumble out! Tumble out, boys! A bear! A bear!" now rang from one tent
+to another.
+
+In two minutes every camper, in his stocking feet, just as he had risen
+from his bed, was tearing across the _brûlée_ in the wake of Bruin,
+yelling, leaping, and swinging smouldering firebrands.
+
+It was a scene and a chase such as the boys, in their most far-fetched
+dreams, had never pictured,--the white moonlight glimmering on the
+black stumps and tottering trunks of the ruined tract, the hunted bear
+plunging off among them, frightened by the shouting and the lights, the
+heavy, lumbering gallop enabling it at first to distance its pursuers.
+
+Owing to their fleetness and the odds they had at the start, the guide
+and Neal kept far ahead of their comrades. The noise which Bruin made as
+he lumbered over the pygmy growth, and the charred, rotting timber that
+littered the ground beneath it, were quiet enough to guide Joe
+unerringly in the bear's wake, even when that bulky shape was not
+distinguishable.
+
+"What's this?" screeched the woodsman suddenly, as he stumbled upon
+something at his feet. "By gracious! it's our keg of m'lasses. He made
+off with that, and has dropped it out o' sheer fright, or because he's
+weakening. I know I hit him twice when I fired; but he's not hurt too
+badly to run, or to fight like a fiend if we come to close quarters.
+Like as not 'twill be a narrow squeak with us if we tackle him. If
+you're scared a little bit, Neal, let up, an' I'll finish him alone."
+
+"Scared!" Neal flung the word back with scorn, as if he was returning a
+blow. For the life of him he could not bring out another syllable,
+going at a faster rate than ever he had done in the most stubbornly
+contested handicap. The strong-winded guide rapped out his sentences as
+he ran, apparently without waste of breath.
+
+The feverish enthusiasm of the hunter, which he had never felt before,
+was now alive in Neal. His blood raced through his veins like liquid
+fire. He had been long enough in Maine to know that in wreaking
+vengeance on Bruin for many misdeeds he would be acting in the interests
+of justice. For the black bear is still such a master pest to the
+settlers who are trying to establish their farms amid the forests where
+it roams, that the State has outlawed the beast, and pays a bounty for
+its skin.
+
+Joe thought little about this; for a gentleman whom he had guided early
+in the summer had lately written to him, offering a price of fifteen
+dollars for a good bearskin.
+
+Here was the woodsman's golden opportunity--an opportunity for which he
+had been thirsting since the receipt of that letter.
+
+[Illustration: "GO IT, OLD BRUIN! GO IT WHILE YOU CAN!"]
+
+He already regarded his triumph over the bear as secure, and its hide as
+forfeited. He nearly caused Neal Farrar to burst a blood-vessel from
+the combined effects of struggling laughter and running, when he began
+to apostrophize the flying foe with grim humor, thus:--
+
+"Go it, old Bruin! Go it while ye can! There ain't a hair on yer back
+that b'longs to ye!"
+
+But it soon became evident that the bear couldn't go on much longer at
+this breakneck pace. Its pursuers heard its steps with increasing
+distinctness, and then its labored breathing. They were gaining on it
+fast.
+
+The brute came into full view about forty yards ahead, as it ascended a
+slight elevation, crowned with blasted tree trunks.
+
+"I'll draw bead on him from here," said Joe, stopping short. "Get ready
+to fire, lad, if he turns. It'll take lots o' lead to finish that
+fellow."
+
+Twice Joe's rifle spoke again. One shot took effect. There was a fearful
+growl from the beast, but it was not yet mortally wounded.
+
+Maddened and desperate, it wheeled about, and came straight for its
+pursuers. Again the guide fired. Still the bear advanced, gnashing its
+teeth and mumbling horribly; Neal saw its black shape not thirty yards
+from him.
+
+"Shoot! shoot, boy!" screamed Joe. "Or give me your rifle. I haven't got
+a charge left!"
+
+For half a minute Farrar shook all over as with ague. His nostrils felt
+choked. His mouth was wide open in his efforts to breathe. His heart
+pounded like a sledge-hammer. With that mumbling brute advancing upon
+him, he felt as if he couldn't fire so as to hit a haystack or a flock
+of hens at a barn-door.
+
+Then, suddenly, he was cool again, seeing and hearing with extraordinary
+clearness. The ignominious alternative of giving his rifle to Joe
+produced a revulsion. His fingers were on the trigger, his left hand
+firmly gripped the barrel of his Winchester; he brought it to his
+shoulder.
+
+"Aim low! Try to hit him in the front of the neck where it joins the
+body," said Joe, in tones sharp as a razor, which cut his meaning into
+Neal's brain.
+
+Bruin was only fifteen yards away when Farrar's rifle cracked
+once--twice--sending out its messengers of death.
+
+There was a last terrible growl, a plunge, and a thud which seemed to
+shake the ground under Neal's feet. As the smoke of his shots cleared
+away, Joe beheld him leaning on his rifle, with a face which in the
+moonlight looked white as chalk, and the bear lying where it had fallen
+headlong towards him. It made a desperate struggle to regain its feet,
+then rolled on its side, dead.
+
+One bullet had pierced the spot which Joe mentioned, and had passed
+through the region of the heart.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+"THE SKIN IS YOURS."
+
+
+A regular war-dance was performed about the slain marauder by the young
+Sinclairs and Dol Farrar, when these laggards in the chase reached the
+spot where he fell. The firebrands had all died out before the enemy
+turned; but in the white moon-radiance the bear was seen to be a big
+one, with an uncommonly fine skin.
+
+Neal took no part in the triumphal capers. He still leaned upon his
+rifle, his breath coming in gusty puffs through his nostrils and mouth.
+Not alone the desperate sensations of those moments when he had faced
+the gnashing, mumbling brute, but the unexpected success of his first
+shot at big game, had unhinged him. By his endurance in the chase, by
+the pluck with which he stood up to the bear, above all, by his being
+able, as Joe phrased it, to "take a sure pull on the beast at a
+paralyzing moment," he had eternally justified his right to the title of
+sportsman in the eyes of the natives. The guides, Joe and Eb, were not
+slow in telling him that he had behaved from start to finish like no
+"greenhorn," but a regular "old sport."
+
+"My cracky! 'twas lucky for me that you had game blood in you, which
+showed up," exclaimed Joe, catching the boy's arm in a friendly grip,
+with an odd respect in his touch, which marked the admission of young
+Farrar into the brotherhood of hunters. "I hadn't a charge left, an' not
+even my hunting-knife. Lots o' city swells 'u'd have been plumb scared
+before a growler like that,"--touching Bruin's carcass with his
+foot,--"even if they had a small arsenal to back 'em up. They'd have
+dropped rifle and cartridges, and hugged the nearest trunk. I've seen
+fellers do it scores o' times, bless ye! after they came out here rigged
+up in sporting-book style, talking fire about hunting bears and moose.
+But that was all the fire there was to 'em."
+
+Yet Neal's triumph over the poor brute, which had raced well for its
+life, was not without a faint twinge of pain; and he was too manly to
+look on this as a weakness. A sportsman he might be, of the sort who can
+shoot straight when necessity demands it, but never of that class who
+prowl through the forests with fingers tingling to pull the trigger,
+dreading to lose a chance of "letting blood" from any slim-legged moose
+or velvet-nosed buck which may run their way. It needed Doc's praise to
+make him feel fully satisfied with his deed.
+
+"It was a crack shot, boy," said the doctor proudly. "And I guess the
+farmer at the next settlement will feel like giving you a medal for it.
+Old Bruin has only got what he gave to every creature he could master."
+
+There being no tree conveniently near to which they could string up the
+dead bear, the guides decided to leave the ugly matter of skinning and
+dissecting him for morning light. The excited party returned to camp,
+but not to sleep. They built up their scattered fire, squatted round it,
+and discoursed of the night's adventure until a clear dawn-gleam
+brightened the eastern sky. Then Uncle Eb and Joe started out again
+across the _brûlée_. They reappeared before breakfast-time, bringing
+Bruin's skin and a goodly portion of his meat.
+
+Joe laid the hide at Neal's feet.
+
+"There, boy," he said, "the skin is yours. It belongs rightly to the man
+who killed the bear; and I guess the brute wasn't mortally hurt at all
+till your bullet nipped him in the neck."
+
+"But what about the fifteen dollars from that New York man, Joe? You'll
+lose it," faltered young Farrar, with a triumphant heart-leap at the
+thought of taking this trophy back to England, but loath to profit by
+the woodsman's generosity.
+
+"Don't you bother about that; let it go," answered Joe, whose business
+of guiding was profitable enough for him. "'Tain't enough for the skin,
+anyhow. Nary a finer one has been taken out o' Maine in the last five
+years; and mighty lucky you Britishers were to git a chance of a
+bear-hunt at all. Old Bruin must have been powerful hungry to come
+around our camp."
+
+There was a grand breakfast before the travellers broke camp that
+morning. The guides and Doc--who had got accustomed to the luxury during
+visits to settlers and lumber-camps--feasted off bear-steaks. Cyrus and
+the boys, American and English, declined to touch it. The whole
+appearance of Bruin as he lay stretched on the ground the night before
+made their "department of the interior" revolt against it.
+
+When a start was made for the settlement, Joe bundled up the skin, and,
+as a tribute of respect to Neal's "game blood," carried it, in addition
+to his heavy pack, for a distance of four miles over the desolate
+_brûlée_ and across a soft, miry bog. On reaching the farm clearing, he
+cut the stem of a tall cedar bush, which he bent into the shape of a
+hoop, binding the ends together with cedar bark. He then pricked holes
+all around the edges of the hide with the sharp point of his
+hunting-knife, stretched it to its full extent, and fastened it to the
+hoop, which he hung up to a tree near the settler's cabin, telling Neal
+that in a few days it would be dry enough to pack away in a bag.
+
+But as it was a cumbersome article to carry while tramping a dozen miles
+farther to the camp on Millinokett Lake, the farmer offered to take
+charge of it for its owner until he passed that way again on his return
+journey; an offer which Neal thankfully accepted. The old backwoodsman
+was, truth to tell, delighted to see hanging up near his cabin door the
+skin of an enemy who had ofttimes plundered him so unmercifully.
+
+He made the travellers royally welcome, let them have the roomy kitchen
+of his log shanty to sleep in, with a soft bed of hay. Here he lay with
+them, while his wife and sickly little girl occupied an adjoining space
+about twelve feet square, which had been boarded off. This was all the
+accommodation the log home afforded.
+
+The forest child was a puzzle to the lads. To them she looked as if the
+soul of a grandmother had taken possession of a thin, long-limbed body
+which ought to belong to a girl of ten. Her pinched features and
+over-wise eyes told a tale of suffering, and so did her high-pitched,
+quivering voice, as it made elfishly sharp remarks about the boys until
+they blenched before her.
+
+This was the little one of whom the doctor had said "that she fretted if
+he did not come to see her once in a while." And with Doc she was a
+different being. Her voice softened, her eyes became childlike, and thin
+tinkles of laughter broke from her as she clung to him, and received
+certain presents of medicines and picture-books which he had brought
+for her in a corner of his knapsack.
+
+For two nights the travellers slept in a row on their hay bed; for two
+long-remembered days the five boys roamed the country round the
+clearing, starting deer, catching glimpses of a wildcat, a marten or
+two, and of another coon. Then came, to use Dol's expression, "the
+beastly nuisance of saying good-by."
+
+Dr. Phil was obliged to return to Greenville; and he declared that now
+he must surely start his nephews homeward, for Royal expected to
+graduate from the High School during the following year, and to let him
+waste more time from study would be questionable kindness. Joe Flint of
+course would go back with his party. And here Cyrus paid Uncle Eb's fees
+for guiding, and dismissed him too.
+
+Only a dozen miles of tolerably easy travelling now separated Garst and
+his English comrades from the camp on Millinokett Lake, where they were
+to meet the redoubtable Herb Heal. The settler, knowing this tract of
+country as thoroughly as he knew his own few fields, offered to lead our
+trio for the first half of their onward march; and as they could follow
+a plain trail for the remainder of the way, they had no further need of
+their guide's services. They promised to visit Eb at his bark hut on
+their return journey, to bid him a final farewell, and hear one more
+stave of:--
+
+  "Ketch him, Tiger, ketch him!"
+
+"Good-by, you lucky fellows!" said Royal Sinclair huskily, as he gripped
+Neal's hand, then Dol's, in a brotherly squeeze when the hour of parting
+came. "I wish I was going on with you. We've had a stunning good time
+together, haven't we? And we'll run across each other in these woods
+some time or other again, I know! You'll never feel satisfied to stay in
+England, where there's nothing to hunt but hares and foxes, after
+chasing bears and moose."
+
+"Oh! we'll come out here again, depend upon it," answered Neal. "Drop me
+a line occasionally, won't you, Roy? Here's our Manchester address."
+
+"I will, if you'll do the same."
+
+"Agreed. Good-by again, old fellow!"
+
+"I've got the slip of birch-bark and the horn safe in my knapsack, Doc,"
+Dol was saying meanwhile, feeling his eyes getting leaky as he bade
+farewell to the doctor. "I--I'll keep them as long as I live."
+
+Doctor Phil had been as good as his word. He had made Joe rip the slip
+of white bark, with the rude writing on it, off the pine-tree near the
+swamp, and had presented it to Dol ere the boy quitted his camp.
+
+"Well, confusion to partings anyhow!" broke in Joe. "Don't like 'em a
+bit. Hope you'll get that bear-skin safe to England, Neal. When you show
+it to your folks at home, tell 'em Joe Flint said he knew one Britisher
+who would make a woodsman if he got a chance. Don't you forgit it."
+
+"Good-by," said the doctor, as he clasped in turn the hands of the
+departing three. "Good luck to you, boys! Keep your souls as straight as
+your bodies, and you'll be a trio worth knowing. We'll meet again some
+day; I'm sure of it."
+
+Martin and Will were chirping farewells, and lamenting that they would
+have no more chances of studying water-snakes in sedgy pools with Dol.
+Amid cheers and waving of hats the campers separated.
+
+"Forward, Company Three!" cried Cyrus encouragingly, stepping briskly
+ahead, his comrades following. "Now for a sight of the 'Jabberwock' of
+the forest, the mighty moose. Hurrah for the wild woods and all
+woodsmen!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+A LUCKY HUNTER.
+
+
+Amid cracking of jokes, and noise which would have disgraced a squad of
+Indians, "Company Three," as Cyrus dubbed his reduced band, reached the
+crowning-point of their journey, the log camp on the shore of
+Millinokett Lake.
+
+During the first half-dozen miles of the way, though each one manfully
+did his best to be lively, a sense of loss made their fun flat and
+pointless. Royal's tear-away tongue, his brothers' racket, Joe's racy
+talk, Uncle Eb's kind, dark face, and more than all, Doc's
+companionship, which was as tonic to the hearts of those who travelled
+with him, were missed.
+
+But spirits must be elastic in forest air. When they halted at noon to
+eat their "snack" on the side of a breezy knoll, with a tiny brook
+purling through a pine grove beneath them, with Katahdin's rugged sides
+and cloud-veiled peaks looming in majesty to the north, the thought of
+what lay behind was inevitably lost in what lay before. Enthusiasm
+replaced depression.
+
+"It's no use grizzling because we can't have those fellows with us all
+the time," remarked Neal philosophically. "'Twas a big piece of luck our
+running against them at all. And I've a sort of feeling that this won't
+be the end of it; we'll come across them again some day or other."
+
+"And at all events we'll probably get a sight of Doc at Greenville as we
+go back," said Dol, to whom this was no small comfort.
+
+"Well, needless to say, I'd have been glad of their company for the rest
+of the trip. But still, if they had taken a notion to come on with us,
+it would have reduced to nothing our chances of seeing a moose. We're a
+big party already for moose-calling or stalking--three of us, with
+Herb;" this from Cyrus.
+
+"Now, fellows, don't you think we'd better get a move on us?" added the
+leader. "We've half a dozen miles to do yet; but the trail begins right
+here, and is clearly blazed all the way to our camp. Let's keep a stiff
+upper lip, and the journey will soon be over."
+
+It was very delightful to sit there in the crisp October air, with the
+brook seemingly humming tender legends of the woods, which witless men
+could not translate, with an uncertain breeze playing through the newly
+fallen maple-leaves, now turning them one by one in lazy curiosity, then
+of a sudden making them caper and swirl in a scarlet merry-go-round.
+Still, the young Farrars were not loath to move on. Now that they were
+nearing the climax of their journey, their minds were full of Herb Heal.
+Their longing to meet this lucky hunter grew with each mile which drew
+them nearer to him.
+
+They pressed hard after their leader, looking neither right nor left,
+while he carefully followed the trail; and one hour's tramping brought
+them to the shores of Millinokett Lake.
+
+Here, despite their eagerness to reach their new camp, they were forced
+to stop and admire the great sheet of forest-bound water, smiling back
+the sky in tints of turquoise and pearl, dotted with apparently
+countless islets, like specks upon the face of a mirror.
+
+The irregular shores of the lake were broken by "logons," narrow little
+bays curving into the land, shining arms of water, sometimes bordered by
+evergreens, sometimes by graceful poplars and birches. From the opposite
+bank the woods stretched away in undulating waves of ridge and valley to
+the foot of Mount Katahdin, which still showed grandly to the northward.
+
+"Millinokett Lake," said Cyrus, prolonging the syllables with a soft,
+liquid sound. "It's an Indian name, boys; it signifies 'Lake of
+Islands.' Whatever else the red men can boast of, the music of their
+names is unequalled. I don't know exactly how many of those islets there
+are, but I believe Millinokett has over two hundred of them anyhow. Our
+camp is on the western shore. Shall we be moving?"
+
+After skirting the water for another mile or two, the travellers reached
+a broad, open tract, bare of timber. At the farther end of this clearing
+were two log cabins, low, but very roomy, situated at a distance of a
+few hundred yards from the lake, with a background of splendid firs and
+spruces, the lively green of the latter making the former look black in
+contrast.
+
+"Is that our camp? How perfectly glorious!" boomed Neal and Dol
+together.
+
+"It's our camp, sure enough," answered Garst, with no less enthusiasm.
+"At least the first cabin will be ours. I don't know whether there are
+any hunters in the other one just now."
+
+The log shanties had been put up by an enterprising settler to
+accommodate sportsmen who might penetrate to this far part of the wilds
+in search of moose or caribou. Cyrus had arranged for the use of one
+during the months of October and November. Here it was that Herb Heal
+had engaged to await him. And as he had commissioned this famous guide
+to stock the camp with all such provisions as could be procured from
+neighboring settlements, such as flour, potatoes, pork, etc., he
+expected to slide into the lap of luxury.
+
+In one sense he did. When the trio, their hearts thumping with
+anticipation, reached the low door of the first cabin, they found it
+securely fastened on the outside, so that no burglar-beast could force
+an entrance, but easily opened by man. Cyrus hurriedly undid the bolts,
+and stepped under the log roof, followed by his comrades. The camp was
+in beautiful order, clean, well-stocked, and provided with primitive
+comforts. An enticing-looking bed of fresh fir-boughs was arranged in a
+sort of rude bunk which extended along one side of the cabin, having a
+head-board and foot-board. The latter was fitted to form a bench as
+well. A man might perch on it, and stretch his toes to the fire in the
+great stone fireplace only two feet distant.
+
+The boys could well imagine that this would make an ideal seat for a
+hunter at night, where he might lazily fill his pipe and tell big yarns,
+while the winter storm howled outside, and snow-flurries drifted against
+his log walls. But they looked at it wistfully now, for it was empty.
+There was no figure of a moccasined forest hero on bench or in bunk.
+There was no Herb Heal.
+
+"Bless the fellow! Where on earth is he?" Garst exclaimed. "He's been
+here, you see, and has the camp provisioned and ready. Perhaps he's only
+prowling about in the woods near. I'll give him a 'Coo-hoo!'"
+
+[Illustration: "HERB HEAL."]
+
+He stepped forth from the cabin to the middle of the clearing, and sent
+his voice ringing out in a distance-piercing hail. He loaded his rifle
+and blazed away with it, firing a volley of signal-shots.
+
+Neither shout nor shots brought him any answer.
+
+The second cabin was likewise empty, and, judging from the withered
+remains of a bed, had evidently been long unused.
+
+"Well, fellows!" said the leader, with manifest chagrin, "we'll only
+have to fix up something to eat, make ourselves comfortable, and wait
+patiently until our guide puts in an appearance. Herb Heal never broke
+an engagement yet. He's as faithful a fellow as ever made camp or
+spotted a trail in these forests. And he promised to wait for me here
+from the first of October, as it was uncertain when I might arrive. I'm
+mighty hungry. Who'll go and fetch some water from the lake while I turn
+cook?"
+
+Dol volunteered for this business, and brought a kettle from the cabin.
+He found it near the hearth, on which a fire still flickered, side by
+side with a frying-pan and various articles of tinware. Cyrus rolled up
+his sleeves, took the canisters of tea and coffee with other small
+stores from his knapsack, proceeded to mix a batter for flapjacks, and
+showed himself to be a genius with the pan.
+
+The meal was soon ready. The food might be a little salt and greasy; but
+camp-hunger, after a tramp of a dozen miles, is not dulled by such
+trifles. The trio ate joyously, washing the fare down with big draughts
+of tea, rather fussily prepared by Neal, which might have "done credit
+to many a Boston woman's afternoon tea-table"--so young Garst said.
+
+Yet from time to time longing looks were cast at the low camp-door. And
+when daylight waned, when stars began to glint in a sky which was a
+mixture of soft grays and downy whites like a dove's plumage, when the
+islets on Millinokett's bosom became black dots on a slate-gray sheet,
+and no laden hunter with rifle and game put in an appearance, even Cyrus
+became fidgety and anxious.
+
+"I hope the fellow hasn't come to grief somewhere in the woods," he
+said, while a shiver of apprehension shot down his back. "But Herb has
+had so many hairbreadth escapes that I believe the animal has yet to be
+born which could get the better of him. And he can find his way anywhere
+without a compass. Every handful of moss on a trunk or stone, every
+turn of a woodland stream, every sun-ray which strikes him through the
+trees, every glimpse of the stars at night, has a meaning for him. He
+reads the forest like a book. No fear of his getting lost anyhow. Come,
+boys, I guess we'd better build up our fire, make things snug for the
+night, and turn in."
+
+Rather dejectedly the trio set about these preparations. In twenty
+minutes' time they were stretched side by side in the wide bunk, with
+their blankets cuddled round them, already venting random snores.
+
+"Hello! So you've got here at last, have you?"
+
+The exclamations were loud and snappy, and awoke the sleeping campers
+like the banging of rifle-shots. With jumping pulses they sprang up,
+feeling a wave of cold air sweep their faces; for the cabin-door, which
+they had closed ere lying down, was now ajar.
+
+The camp was almost in darkness. Only one dull, red ray stole out from
+the fire, on which fresh logs had been piled. But while the young
+Farrars rubbed their sleep-dimmed eyes, and slowly realized that the
+woodsman whom they had been expecting had at last arrived, a strangely
+brilliant illumination lit up the log walls.
+
+This sudden and bewildering light showed them the figure of a hunter in
+mud-spattered gray trousers, with coarse woollen stockings of lighter
+hue drawn over them above his buckskin moccasins. His battered felt hat
+was pushed back from his forehead, a guide's leathern wallet was slung
+round him, and the rough, clinging jersey he wore, being stretched so
+tightly over his swelling muscles that its yarn could not hold together,
+had a rent on one shoulder.
+
+His slate-gray eyes with jetty pupils, which were miniatures of
+Millinokett Lake at this hour, gazed at the awakened trio in the bunk,
+with a gleam of light shooting athwart them, like a moonbeam crossing
+the face of the lake.
+
+The hunter held in his hand a big roll of the inflammable paper-like
+bark of the white birch-tree, which he had brought in with him to kindle
+his fire, expecting that it had gone out during his absence. Seeing a
+glow still on the hearth, and feeling instantly that the cabin was
+tenanted, he had applied a match to his bark, causing the vivid flare
+which revealed him to the eyes of those who had longed for his
+presence.
+
+"Herb Heal, man, is it you?" shouted Cyrus, his voice like a midnight
+joy-chime, as he sprang from the fir-boughs and gripped the woodsman's
+arm. "I'm delighted to see you, though I was ready to swear you wouldn't
+disappoint us! I didn't fasten the cabin-door, for I thought you might
+possibly get back to camp during the night."
+
+"Cyrus, old fellow, how goes it?" was Herb's greeting. "I had a'most
+given up looking for you. But I'm powerful glad you've got here at
+last."
+
+The hunter's voice had still the quick snap and force which made it
+startling as a rifleshot when he entered the cabin.
+
+"These are my friends, Neal and Adolphus Farrar," said Cyrus,
+introducing the blanketed youths, who had now risen to their feet.
+"Boys, this is Herb Heal, our new guide, christened Herbert Healy--isn't
+that so, Herb?"
+
+"I reckon it is;" answered the young hunter, laughing. "But no woodsman
+could spring a sugary, city-sounding name like that on me. I've been
+Herb Heal from the day I could handle a rifle."
+
+He nodded pleasantly as he spoke to the strange lads, and began to chat
+with them in prompt familiarity, looking straight and strong as a young
+pine-tree in the halo of his birch torch. Garst, whose inches his
+juniors had hitherto coveted, was but a stripling beside Herb Heal.
+
+"Is this your first trip into Maine woods, younkers?" he asked. "Well, I
+guess you've come to the right place for sport. I'm sorry I wasn't on
+hand to welcome you when you arrived. A pretty forest guide you must
+have thought me. But I guess I'll show you a sight to-morrow that'll
+wipe out all scores."
+
+There was such triumph in the hunter's eye that the voices of the trio
+blended into one as they breathlessly asked,--
+
+"What sight is it?"
+
+"A dead king o' the woods, boys," answered Herb Heal, his voice
+vibrating. "A fine young bull-moose, as sure as this is a land of
+liberty. I dropped him by a logon on the east bank of Fir Pond, about
+four miles from here. I started out early, hoping to nab a deer; for I
+had no fresh meat left, and I didn't want to have a bare larder when you
+fellows came along. But the woods were awful still. There didn't seem to
+be anything bigger than a field-mouse travelling. Then all of a sudden
+I heard a tormented grunting, and the moose came tearing right onto me.
+I was to leeward of him, so he couldn't get my scent. A man's gun
+doesn't take long to fly into position at such times, and I dropped him
+with two shots. There he lies now by the water, for I couldn't get him
+back to camp till morning. He's not full-grown; but he's a fine fellow
+for all that, and has a dandy pair of antlers. By George! I'd give the
+biggest guide's fees I ever got if you fellows had been there to hear
+him striking the trees with 'em as he tore along. He was a buster.
+
+"But you'll see him to-morrow anyhow, and have a taste of moose-meat for
+the first time in your lives, I guess."
+
+Here Herb waved the fag-end of his bark roll, threw it down as it
+scorched his horny fingers, and stamped upon it.
+
+The interior of the log cabin, ere it was extinguished, was a scene for
+a painter,--the lithe, muscular figure, tanned face, and gleaming eyes
+of the lucky hunter shown by the flare of his birch torch, and the three
+staring listeners, with blankets draped about them, who feared to miss
+one point of his story.
+
+Cyrus was grinding his teeth in vexation that he had narrowly missed
+seeing the moose alive. The two Farrars were burning with excitement at
+the thought of beholding the monarch of the forest at all, even in
+death. For they had heard enough wood-lore to know that the bull-moose,
+with his extreme caution, is like a tantalizing phantom to hunters.
+Continually he lures them to disappointment by his uncouth noises, or by
+a sight of his freshly made tracks, while his sensitive ears and
+super-sensitive nose, which can discriminate between the smell of man
+and every other smell on earth, will generally lead him off like a
+wind-gust before man gets a sight of him.
+
+"I'm sorry to keep you awake, boys," said Herb Heal, making for the
+fire, after he had finished his story; "but I haven't had a bite since
+morning, and I'm that hungry I could chaw my moccasins. I'll get
+something to eat, and then we'll turn in. We'll have mighty hard work
+to-morrow, getting the moose to camp."
+
+Herb was not long in making ready the stereotyped camp-fare of flapjacks
+and pork. To light his preparations, he took a candle out of a precious
+bundle which he had brought from a town a hundred miles distant, and
+set it in a primitive candlestick. This was simply a long stick of white
+spruce wood, one end of which was pointed, and stuck into the ground;
+the other was split, and into it the candle was inserted, the elasticity
+of the fresh wood keeping the light in place.
+
+The tired hunter did not dawdle over his supper. In a quarter of an hour
+he had finished it, and was building up the fire again. Then he
+stretched himself beside the trio in the rude bunk, drawing one thin
+blanket over him. Neal, who lay on his right, was conscious of some
+prickings of excitement at having such a bedfellow on the
+fir-boughs,--the camper's couch which levels all. There flashed upon the
+fair-haired English boy a remembrance of how Cyrus had once said that
+"in the woods manhood is the only passport." He thought that, measured
+by this standard, Herb Heal had truly a royal charter, and might be a
+president of the forest land; for he looked as free, strong, and
+unconquerable as the forest wind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+A FALLEN KING.
+
+
+The hunter was the only one who slept soundly that night on the fragrant
+boughs. Nevertheless, the moose was on his mind. Again in his dreams he
+imagined himself back by the quiet, shining logon, listening to the ring
+of the antlers as they struck the trees, and to the heaving snorts and
+deep grunts of the noble game as it tore through the forest to its
+death.
+
+The moose was on the minds of his companions too. Again and again they
+awoke, and pictured him lying by the pond, where he had fallen,--a dead
+monarch. They tossed and grumbled, longing for day.
+
+Neal and Dol surprised themselves and their elders by being up and
+dressed shortly after five, before a streak of light had entered the
+cabin. But their guide was not much behind them. Herb had the camp-fire
+going well, and was preparing breakfast before six o'clock. The campers
+tucked away a substantial meal of fried pork, potatoes, and coffee. The
+first glories of the young sun fell on their way as they started across
+the clearing and away through the woods beyond, towards the distant pond
+where the hunter had got his moose.
+
+Lying amid the small growth and grasses, by a lonely, glinting logon,
+they found the conquered king, sleeping that sleep from which never sun
+again would wake him. A bullet-hole, crusted with dark blood, showed in
+his side. The slim legs were bent and stiff, and the mighty forefeet
+could no more strike a ripping blow which would end a man's hunting
+forever. The antlers which had made the forest ring were powerless horn.
+
+"Do you know, boys," said Herb, as he stooped and touched them,
+fingering each prong, "I've hunted moose in fall and winter since I was
+first introduced to a rifle. I've still-hunted 'em, called 'em, and
+followed 'em on snowshoes; but I never felt so thundering mean about
+killing an animal as I did about dropping this fellow. After his antics
+in the woods, when he tramped out onto the open patch where I was
+waiting under cover of those shrubs, I popped up and covered him with my
+Winchester. He just raised the hair on his back and looked at me, with a
+way wild animals sometimes have, as if I was a bad riddle. Like as not
+he'd never seen a human being before, and a moose's eyes ain't good for
+much as danger-signals. It's only when he hears or smells mischief that
+he gets mad scared.
+
+[Illustration: A FALLEN KING.]
+
+"Well, I was out for meat, and bound to have it; so I pulled the
+trigger, and killed him with two shots. When the first bullet stung him
+he reared up, making a sharp noise like a wounded horse. Then he swung
+round as if to bolt; but the second went straight through his heart, and
+he fell where you see him now. I made sure that he was past kicking, and
+crept close to his head, thinking he was dead. He wasn't quite gone,
+though; for he saw me, and laid back his ears, the last pitiful sign a
+moose makes when a hunter gets the better of him. I tell you it made me
+feel bad--just for a minute. I've got my moose for this season, and I'm
+sort o' glad that the law won't let me kill another unless it's a
+life-saving matter."
+
+"How tall should you say this fellow was when alive?" asked Cyrus,
+stroking the creature's shaggy hair, which was a rusty black in color.
+
+"Oh! I guess he stood about as high as a good-sized pony. But I've shot
+moose which were taller than any horse. The biggest one I ever killed
+measured between seven and eight feet from the points of his hoofs to
+his shoulders, and the antlers were four feet and nine inches from tip
+to tip. He was a monster--a regular jing-swizzler! A mighty queer way I
+got him too! I'll tell you all about it some other time."
+
+"Oh! you must," answered Garst. "You'll have to give us no end of
+moose-talk by the camp-fire of evenings. These English fellows want to
+learn all they can about the finest game on our continent before they go
+home."
+
+"Why, for evermore!" gasped Herb, in broad amazement. "Are you
+Britishers? And have you crossed the ocean to chase moose in Maine
+woods? My word! You're a gamy pair of kids. We'll have to try to
+accommodate you with a sight of a moose at any rate--a live one."
+
+Though they would gladly have appropriated the compliment, the "gamy
+kids" were obliged to acknowledge that hunting had not been in their
+thoughts when they traversed the Atlantic. But they avowed that they
+were the luckiest fellows alive, and that the American forest-land, with
+its camps and trails and wild offspring, was such a glorious old
+playground that they would never stop singing its praises until a swarm
+of boys from English soil had tasted the novel pleasures which they
+enjoyed.
+
+"Now, then, gentlemen!" said the guide, "I haven't much idea that we'll
+be able to haul this moose along to camp whole. If I skin and dress him
+here, are you all ready to help in carrying home the meat?"
+
+The trio briskly expressed their willingness, and Herb began the
+dissecting business; while from a tree near by that strange bird which
+hunters call the "moose-bird" screamed its shrill "What cheer? What
+cheer?" with ceaseless persistence.
+
+"Oh, hold your noise, you squalling thing!" said the guide, answering it
+back. "It's good cheer this time. We'll have a feast of moose-meat
+to-night, and there'll be pickings for you."
+
+He then explained, for the benefit of the English lads, that this bird,
+whose cry is startlingly like the hunters' translation of it, haunts the
+spot where a moose has been killed, waiting greedily for its meal off
+the creature after men have taken their share of the meat. Herb declared
+that it had often followed him for hours while he was stealthily
+tracking a moose, to be in at the death. And now it kept up the din of
+its unceasing question until he had finished his disagreeable work.
+
+As the party started back to camp, each one weighted with forty pounds
+or more of meat, Herb carrying a double portion, with the antlers hooked
+upon his shoulders, they heard the moose-bird still insatiably shrieking
+"What cheer?" over its meal.
+
+"Say, boys," said the guide, as he stalked along with his heavy load,
+never blenching, "if you want to get a pair o' moose-antlers, now's your
+time. I ain't a-going to sell these, but I'll give 'em outright to the
+first fellow who can learn to call a moose successfully while he's
+hunting with me. I know what sort of sportsman Cyrus Garst is. He'll go
+prowling through the woods, starting moose and coolly letting 'em get
+off without spilling a drop of blood, while he's watching the length of
+their steps. I b'lieve he'd be a sight prouder of seeing one crunch a
+root than if he got the finest head in Maine. So here's your chance for
+a trophy, boys. I guess 'twill be your only one."
+
+"Hurrah! I'm in for this game!" cried Neal.
+
+"I too," said Cyrus.
+
+"I'm in for it with a vengeance!" whooped Dol. "Though I'm blessed if
+I've a notion what 'calling a moose' means."
+
+"How much have you larned, anyhow, Kid, in the bit o' time you've been
+alive?" asked the woodsman, with good-humored sarcasm.
+
+"Enough to make my fists talk to anybody who thinks I'm a duffer,"
+answered Dol, squaring his shoulders as if to make the most of himself.
+
+"Good for you, young England!" laughed Cyrus.
+
+Herb turned his eyes, and regarded the juvenile Adolphus with amused
+criticism.
+
+"Britisher or no Britisher, I'll allow you're a little man," he
+muttered. "Keep a stiff upper lip, boys; we're not far from camp now."
+
+A word of cheer was needed. Not one of the trio had growled at their
+load, but the flannel shirts of the two Farrars clung wetly to their
+bodies. Their breath was coming in hard puffs through spread nostrils. A
+four-mile tramp through the woods, heavily laden with raw meat, was a
+novel but not an altogether delightful experience.
+
+However, the smell of moose-steak frying over their camp-fire later on
+fully compensated them for acting as butcher's boys. When the taste as
+well as the smell had been enjoyed, the rest which followed by the
+blazing birch-logs that evening was so full of bliss that each camper
+felt as if existence had at last drifted to a point of superb content.
+
+Their camp-door stood open for ventilation; and a keen touch of frost,
+mingling with the night air which entered, made the fragrant warmth
+delightful.
+
+When supper was ended, and the tin vessels from which it had been eaten,
+together with all camp utensils, were duly cleaned, Herb seated himself
+on the middle of the bench, which he called "the deacon's seat," and
+luxuriously lit his oldest pipe. His brawny hands had performed every
+duty connected with the meal as deftly and neatly as those of a
+delicate-fingered woman.
+
+"Well, for downright solid comfort, boys, give me a cosey camp-fire in
+the wilderness, when a fellow is tired out after a good day's outing.
+City life can offer nothing to touch it," said Cyrus, as he spread his
+blankets near the cheerful blaze, and sprawled himself upon them.
+
+Neal and Dol followed his example. The three looked up at their guide,
+on whose weather-tanned face the fire shed wavering lights, in lazy
+expectation.
+
+"Now, Herb," said Garst, "we want to think of nothing but moose for the
+remainder of this trip; so go ahead, and give us some moose-talk
+to-night. Begin at the beginning, as the children say, and tell us
+everything you know about the animal."
+
+Herb Heal swung himself to and fro upon his plank seat, drawing his pipe
+reflectively, and letting its smoke filter through his nostrils, while
+he prepared to answer.
+
+"Well," he said at last, slowly, "it seems to me that a moose is a
+troublesome brute to tackle, however you take him. It's plaguy hard for
+a hunter to get the better of him, and if it's only knowledge you're
+after, he'll dodge you like a will-o'-the-wisp till you get pretty mixed
+in your notions about his habits. I guess these English fellows know
+already that he's the largest animal of the deer tribe, or any other
+tribe, to be seen on this continent, and as grand game as can be found
+on any spot of this here earth. I hain't had a chance to chase lions an'
+tigers; but I've shot grizzlies over in Canada,--and that's scarey work,
+you better b'lieve!--and I tell you there's no sport that'll bring out
+the grit and ingenuity that's in a man like moose-hunting. Now, boys,
+ask me any questions you like, an' I'll try to answer 'em."
+
+"You said something to-day about moose 'crunching twigs,'" began Neal
+eagerly. "Why, I always had a hazy idea that they fed on moss
+altogether, which they dug up in the winter with their broad antlers."
+
+"Land o' liberty!" ejaculated the woodsman. "Where on earth do you city
+men pick up your notions about forest creatures--that's what I'd like to
+know? A moose can't get its horns to the ground without dropping on its
+knees; and it can't nibble grass from the ground neither without
+sprawling out its long legs,--which for an animal of its size are as
+thin as pipe-stems,--and tumbling in a heap. So I don't credit that yarn
+about their digging up the moss, even when there's no other food to be
+had; though I can't say for sure it's not true. In summer moose feed
+about the ponds and streams, on the long grasses and lily-pads. They're
+at home in the water, and mighty fine swimmers; so the red men say that
+they came first from the sea.
+
+"In the fall, and through the winter too, so far as I can make out, they
+eat the twigs and bark of different trees, such as white birches and
+poplars. They're powerful fond of moose-wood--that's what you call
+mountain ash. I guess it tastes to them like pie does to us."
+
+"Well, Dol, I feel that you're twitching all over with some question,"
+said Cyrus, detecting uneasy movements on the part of the younger boy
+who lay next to him. "What is it, Chick? Out with it!"
+
+"I want to hear about moose-calling," so spoke Dol in heart-eager tones.
+
+The guide swung his body to the music of a jingling laugh.
+
+"Oh; that's it; is it?" he said. "You're stuck on winning those antlers;
+ain't you, Dol? Well, calling is the 'moose-hunter's secret,' and it's
+a secret that he don't want to give away to every one. When a man is a
+good caller he's kind o' jealous about keeping the trick to himself. But
+I'll tell you how it's done, anyhow, and give you a lesson sometime.
+Sakes alive! if you Britishers could only take over a birch-bark
+trumpet, and give that call in England, you'd make nearly as much fuss
+as Buffalo Bill did with his cowboys and Injuns. Only 'twould be a
+onesided game, for there'd be no moose to answer."
+
+The young Farrars were silent, breathlessly waiting for more. The
+camp-firelight showed their absorbed faces; it played upon bronzed
+cheeks, where the ruddy tints of English boyhood had been replaced by a
+duller, hardier hue. On Neal's upper lip a fine, fair growth had
+sprouted, which looked white against his sun-tinged skin. As for Cyrus,
+he had never brought a razor into the woods since that memorable trip
+when the bear had overhauled his knapsack; so the Bostonian's chin was
+covered with a thick black stubble.
+
+Neither of the youths, however, was at present giving a thought to his
+hirsute adornment, about which questionable compliments were frequently
+bandied. Their minds were full of moose, and their ears alert for the
+guide's next words.
+
+"P'raps you folks don't know," went on the woodsman, "that there are
+four ways o' hunting moose. The first and fairest is still-hunting 'em
+in the woods, which means following their signs, and getting a shot in
+any way you can, _if_ you can. But that's a stiff 'if' to a hunter. Nine
+times out o' ten a moose will baffle him and get off unhurt, even when a
+man has tracked him for days, camping on his trail o' nights. The
+snapping of a twig not the size of my little finger, or one tramping
+step, and the moose'll take warning. He'll light out o' the way as
+silently as a red man in moccasins, and the hunter won't even know he's
+gone.
+
+"The second way is night-hunting, going after 'em in a canoe with a
+jack-light; same thing as jacking for deer. I guess you've tried that,
+so you'll know what it's like--skeery kind o' work."
+
+Neal nodded an eloquent assent, and Herb went on:--
+
+"The third method is a dog's trick. It's following 'em on snowshoes over
+deep snow. I've tried that once, and I'm blamed if I'll ever try it
+again. It's butchery, not sport. The crust of snow will be strong enough
+for a man to run on, but it can't support the heavy moose. The
+creature'll go smashing through it and struggling out, until its slim
+legs are a sight to see for cuts and blood. Soon it gets blowed, and can
+stumble no farther. Then the hunter finishes it with an axe."
+
+Disgust thickened the voices of the listening three, as with one accord
+they raised an outcry against this cruel way of butchering a game
+animal, without giving it a single chance for its life. When their
+indignation had subsided, the hunter went on to describe the fourth and
+last method of entrapping moose--the calling in which Dol was so
+interested.
+
+"P'raps you won't think this is fair hunting either," he said; "for it's
+a trick, and I'll allow that there's times when it seems a pretty mean
+game. Anyhow, I'd rather kill one moose by still-hunting than six by
+calling. But if you want to try work that'll make your blood race
+through your body like a torrent one minute, and turn you as cold as if
+your sweat was ice-water the next, you go in for moose-calling. I guess
+you know all about the matter, Cyrus; but as these Britishers do not,
+I'll try and explain it to' em.
+
+"Early in September the moose come up from the low, swampy lands where
+they have spent the summer alone, and begin to pair. Then the
+bull-moose, as we call the male, which is generally the most wide-awake
+of forest creatures, loses some of his big caution, an' goes roaming
+through the woods, looking for a mate. This is the time for fooling him.
+The hunter makes a horn out o' birch-bark, somewheres about eighteen
+inches long, through which he mimics the call of the cow-moose, to coax
+the bull within reach of his rifle-shots."
+
+"What is the call like?" asked Neal, his heart thumping while he
+remembered that strange noise which had marked a new era in his
+experience of sounds, as he listened to it at midnight by Squaw Pond.
+
+"Sho! a man might keep jawing till crack o' doom, and not give you any
+idea of it without you heard it," answered Herb Heal, the dare-all
+moose-hunter. "The noise begins sort o' gently, like the lowing of a
+tame cow. It seems, if you're listening to it, to come
+rolling--rolling--along the ground. Then it rises in pitch, and gets
+impatient and lonely and wild-like, till you think it fills the air
+above you, when it sinks again and dies away in a queer, quavery sound
+that ain't a sigh, nor a groan, nor a grunt, but all three together.
+
+"The call is mostly repeated three times; and the third time it ends
+with a mad roar as if the lady-moose was saying to her mate, '_Come_
+now, or stay away altogether!'"
+
+"Joe Flint was right, then!" exclaimed Neal, in high excitement. "That's
+the very noise I heard in the woods near Squaw Pond, on the night when
+we were jacking for deer, and our canoe capsized."
+
+"P'raps it was," answered Herb, "though the woods near Squaw Pond ain't
+much good for moose now. They're too full of hunters. Still, you might
+have heard the cow-moose herself calling, or some man who had come
+across the tracks of a bull imitating her."
+
+"But if the bull has such sharp ears, can't he tell the real call from
+the sham one?" asked Dol.
+
+"Lots of times he can. But if the hunter is an old woodsman and a clever
+caller, he'll generally fool the animal, unless he makes some awkward
+noise that isn't in the game, or else the moose gets his scent on the
+breeze. One whiff of a man will send the creature off like a wind-gust,
+and earthquakes wouldn't stop him. And though he sneaks away so
+silently when he _hears_ anything suspicious, yet when he _smells_
+danger he'll go through the forest at a thundering rush, making as much
+noise as a demented fire-brigade."
+
+"Good gracious!" ejaculated Neal and Dol together.
+
+"Is the moose ever dangerous, Herb?" asked the former.
+
+"I guess he is pretty often. Sometimes a bull-moose will turn on a
+hunter, and make at him full tilt, if he's in danger or finds himself
+tricked. And he'll always fight like fury to protect his mate from any
+enemy. The bulls have awful big duels between themselves occasionally.
+When they're real mad, they don't stop for a few wounds. They prod each
+other with their terrible brow antlers till one or the other of 'em is
+stretched dead. If a moose ever charges you, boys, take my advice, and
+don't try to face him with your rifles. Half a dozen shots mightn't stop
+him. Make for the nearest tree, and climb for your lives. Fire down on
+him then, if you can. But once let him get a kick at you with his
+forefeet, and one thing is sure--_you'll_ never kick again. Are you
+tired of moose-talk yet?"
+
+"Not by a jugful!" answered Cyrus, laughing. "But tell us, Herb, how are
+we to proceed to get a sight of this 'Jabberwock' alive?"
+
+"If to-morrow night happens to be dead calm, I might try to call one
+up," answered the guide. "There's a pretty good calling-place near the
+south end of the lake. As this is the height of the season, we might get
+an answer there. We'll try it, anyhow, if you're willing."
+
+"Willing! I should say we are!" answered Garst. "You're our captain now,
+Herb, and it's a case of 'Follow my leader!' Take us anywhere you like,
+through jungles or mud-swamps. We won't kick at hardships if we can only
+get a good look at his mooseship. Up to the present, except for that one
+moonlight peep, he has always dodged me like a phantom."
+
+"Are you going to be satisfied with a look?" The guide's eyes narrowed
+into two long slits, on which the firelight quivered, as he gazed
+quizzically down upon Cyrus. "If the moose comes within reach of our
+shots, ain't anybody going to pump lead into him? Or is he to get off
+again scot-free? I've got my moose for this season, and I darsn't send
+my bullets through the law by dropping another, so I can't do the
+shooting."
+
+"My friends can please themselves," said the Bostonian, glancing at the
+English lads. "For my own part I'll be better pleased if Mr. Moose
+manages to keep a whole skin. Our grand game is getting scarce enough; I
+don't want to lessen it. I once saw the last persecuted deer in a
+county, after it had been badgered and wounded by men and dogs, limp off
+to die alone in its native haunts. The sight cured me of bloodthirst."
+
+"I guess 'twould be enough to cure any man," responded Herb. "And we
+don't want meat, so this time we won't shoot our moose after we've
+tricked him. Good land! I wouldn't like any fellow to imitate the call
+of my best girl, that he might put a bullet through me. Come, boys, it's
+pretty late; let's fix our fire, and turn in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+MOOSE-CALLING.
+
+
+Nothing was talked about among the campers on the following day but the
+forthcoming sport of the evening--moose-calling.
+
+Herb Heal had decided that his call should be given from the water, his
+"good calling-place" being an alder-fringed logon at the loneliest
+extremity of the lake.
+
+During the afternoon he took Neal and Dol with him into a grove of
+poplars and birches which bordered one end of the clearing, leaving
+Cyrus lounging by the camp-fire. Here the woodsman began the exciting
+work of preparing his birch-bark horn, that primitive but potent trumpet
+through which he would sigh, groan, grunt, and roar, imitating each
+varying mood of the cow-moose. To her call he had often listened as he
+lay for hours on a mossy bed in the far depths of the forest, learning
+to interpret the language of every woodland creature.
+
+Unsheathing his hunting-knife, and selecting a sound white-birch tree,
+Herb carefully removed from it a piece of bark about eighteen inches in
+length and six in width. This he carefully trimmed, and rolled into a
+horn as a child would twist paper into a cornucopia package for sweets,
+tying it with the twine-like roots of the ground juniper. The tapering
+end of the trumpet, which would be applied to the caller's lips,
+measured about one inch across; its mouth measured five.
+
+Returning to camp, Herb dipped the horn in warm water and then let it
+dry, saying that this would produce a mellow ring. He stoutly refused
+all appeals from the boys to give them a few illustrations of
+moose-calling there and then, with a lesson in the art, declaring that
+it would spoil the night's sport, and that they must first hear the call
+amid proper surroundings. From time to time he impressed upon them that
+they were going to engage in an expedition which required absolute
+silence and clever stratagem to make it successful. He vowed to wreak a
+woodsman's vengeance on any fellow who balked it by shaking the boat, or
+by moving body or rifle so as to make a noise.
+
+A light, humming breeze had been blowing all day; but as the afternoon
+waned, it died down. The evening proved clear, chilly, and still.
+
+"Is this a likely night for calling, Herb?" asked Cyrus anxiously,
+taking a survey of sky and lake from the camp-door about an hour before
+the start.
+
+"Fine," answered Herb with satisfaction. "Guess we'll get an answer
+sure, if there's a moose within hearing. There ain't a puff of wind to
+carry our scent, and give the trick away. But rig yourselves up in all
+the clothing you've got, boys; the cold, while we're waiting, may be
+more than you bargain for."
+
+The guide had a light boat on the lake, moored below the camp. At six
+o'clock he seated himself therein, taking the oars in his brawny hands.
+Cyrus and Neal took their places in the stern; while Dol disposed of
+himself snugly in the bow, right under a jack-lamp which Herb had
+carefully trimmed and lit. But he had closed its sliding door, which,
+being padded with buckskin, could be opened and shut without a sound, so
+that not a ray of light at present escaped.
+
+"Moose won't stand to watch a jack as deer do," he said. "Twill only
+scare 'em off. They're a heap too cute to be taken in by an onnatural
+big star floating over the water. But 'taint the lucky side of the moon
+for us. She'll rise late, and her light'll be so feeble that it wouldn't
+show us an elephant clearly if he was under our noses. So if I succeed
+in coaxing a bull to the brink of the water, I'll open the jack, and
+flash our light on him. He'll bolt the next minute as quick as greased
+lightning on skates; but if you only get a short sight of him, I promise
+that 'twill be one you'll remember."
+
+"And if he should take a notion to come for us?" said Cyrus.
+
+"He won't, if we don't fire. The boat will be lying among the black
+shadows, snug in by the bank, and he'll see nothing but the dazzling
+light. But you fellows must keep still as death. Off we go now, boys,
+and mum's the word!"
+
+This was almost the last sentence spoken. Not a syllable moved the lips
+of any one of the four, as the boat glided away from camp towards the
+south end of the lake, the oars making scarcely a sound as Herb handled
+them. By and by he ceased rowing for an instant, took his pipe from his
+mouth, knocked out its ashes, and put it in his pocket with a wise look
+at his companions, murmuring, "Don't want no tobacco incense floating
+around!"
+
+At the same time, from a distant ridge upon the eastern shore, covered
+with evergreens which stood out like dark steeples against the evening
+sky, came a faint, dull noise, as if some belated woodsman was driving a
+blunt axe against a tree. The sound itself would scarcely have awakened
+a hope of anything unusual in the minds of the inexperienced; but,
+combined with the guide's aspect as he pocketed his pipe, it made Cyrus
+and his comrades sit suddenly erect, listening as if ears were the only
+organs they possessed.
+
+The queer, dull noise was once repeated. Then again there was silence
+almost absolute, Herb's oars moving with the softest swish imaginable,
+as the boat skimmed along the lonely, curved bay which he had chosen for
+a calling-place. It came to a stop amid shadows so dense and black that
+they seemed almost tangible, close to a bank fringed with overhanging
+bushes, having a background of evergreens. These last, in the
+fast-gathering darkness, looked like a sable array of mourners in whose
+ranks a pale ghost or two mingled, the spectres being slim white-birch
+trees.
+
+The opposite bank presented a similar scene.
+
+It was amid such surroundings that Neal Farrar heard for the second time
+in his life the weird sound of the moose-hunter's call. He was a strong,
+well-balanced young fellow; yet here again he knew the sensation as if
+needles were pricking him all over, which he had felt once before in
+these wilds, while his heart seemed to be performing athletic sports in
+his body.
+
+Cyrus and Dol confessed afterwards that they were "all shivers and
+goose-flesh" as the call rose upon the night air.
+
+After he had shipped his oars, and laid them down, Herb Heal noiselessly
+turned his body to face the bow, and took up the birch-bark horn which
+lay beside him. He breathed into it anxiously once or twice, then
+paused, drew in all the air which his big lungs could contain, put the
+trumpet again to his lips with its mouth pointing downward, and began
+his summons.
+
+The first part of the call lasted half a minute, or so, without a break.
+During its execution the hunter moved his neck and shoulders first to
+the left, then to the right, and slowly raised the horn above his head,
+the rolling, plaintive sounds with which he commenced gathering power
+and pitch with the ascending motion. As the birch trumpet pointed
+straight upward, they seemed to sweep aloft in a surging crescendo, and
+boom among the tree-tops.
+
+Carrying his head again to the left and right, Herb gradually lowered
+the horn until it was once more pointed towards the bottom of the boat,
+having in its movements described in the air a big figure of eight. The
+call sank with it, and died away in a lonely, sighing, quavering grunt.
+
+Two seconds' pause, two slow, great throbs of the boys' hearts, so loud
+that they threatened to burst the stillness.
+
+Then the call began again, low and grumbling. Again it rose, swelled,
+quavered, and sank, full of lonely longing.
+
+A third time it surged up, and ended abruptly in a wild, ear-splitting
+roar, which struck the tops of distant hills, and rolled off in
+thunder-like echoes among them.
+
+Silence followed. Not a gasp came from Herb after his efforts. Cyrus and
+the Farrars tried to still their heaving chests, while each quick breath
+was an expectation.
+
+An answer! Surely it was an answer! The boys never doubted it; though
+the responding sound they caught was only a repetition of that far-away
+chopping noise, which resembled the heavy thud of an axe against wood.
+This came nearer--nearer. It was followed once by a sort of short, sharp
+bark.
+
+Then the motionless occupants of the boat heard random, guttural grunts,
+a smashing of dead branches, crashing of undergrowth, and the proud ring
+of mighty antlers against the trees. The lord of the forest, a big
+bull-moose, was tearing recklessly through the woods towards the lake,
+in answer to the call of his imaginary mate.
+
+To say that the hearts of our trio were performing gymnastic feats
+during these awfully silent minutes of waiting, is to say little. All
+the repressed motion of their bodies seemed concentrated in these
+organs, which raced, leaped, stopped short, and pounded, vibrating to
+such questions as:--
+
+"Will he come? Where shall we first see him? How near is he now? Does he
+suspect the trick? Will he give us the slip after all?--_Has he gone_?"
+
+For of a sudden dead stillness reigned in the forest. No more trampling,
+grunting, and knocking of antlers. The spirits of the three sank to
+zero. Their breathing became thick. The blood, which a moment before had
+played like wildfire in their veins, now stirred sluggishly as if it was
+freezing. Disappointment, blank and bitter, shivered through them from
+neck to foot.
+
+So passed quarter of an hour. A filmy mist rose from the surface of the
+water, and drifted by their faces like the brushing of cold wings. For
+lack of motion hand and feet felt numb. Mid the pitch-black shadows,
+snug in by the bank, no man could see the face of his fellow, though the
+trio would have given a fortune to read their guide's. Not a word was
+spoken. Once, when a deep breath of impatience escaped him, Neal heard
+the folds of his coat rub each other, and clenched his teeth to stop an
+exclamation at the sound, which he had never noticed before.
+
+Nearly twenty minutes had elapsed since the last noise had been heard in
+the woods, when Herb took up the horn which he had laid down, and put
+it to his mouth. Again the call rolled up. It was neither loud nor long
+this time, ending with a quick, short roar.
+
+As it ceased the guide plunged his arm into the water and slowly
+withdrew it, letting drops dribble from his fingers.
+
+The novices could only suspect that this manoeuvre was another lure for
+the bull-moose, if he chanced to be still within hearing. Its success
+took their breath away.
+
+The wary bull which had answered, having doubtless harbored a suspicion
+that all was not exactly right with the first call, had halted in his
+on-coming rush, with head upreared, and nostrils spread, trying to catch
+any taint in the air which might warn him of danger. But in the dead
+calm the heavy evergreens stirred not; no whiff reached him. The second
+call upset his prudence. Then he heard that splash and dribble in the
+water, and imagined that his impatient mate was dipping her nose into
+the lake for a cool drink.
+
+A snort! A bellowing challenge quite indescribable! On he came again
+with a thundering rush!
+
+Bushes were thrashed and spurned by his sharp hoofs. Branches snapped.
+Trees echoed as his antlers struck them.
+
+A musk-rat leaped from the bank ahead, and dived to reach his hole in
+the bank. Under cover of the noisy splash which the little creature
+made, one whisper was hissed by Herb's tongue into the ears of his
+comrades. It was:--
+
+"Gee whittaker! he's a big one! Listen to them shovels against the
+trees!"
+
+A minute later, with a deep gulp of intense excitement, and a general
+racket as if an engine had broken loose from brakes and checks, and was
+carrying all before it, the monarch of the woods crashed through the
+alders and halted, with his hoofs in the water, scarcely thirty yards
+from where the boat lay in shadow.
+
+This was a supreme moment for our travellers. Leaning forward, fearful
+lest their heart-beats should betray them, they could barely distinguish
+the outlines of the moose, as he stood with his enormous nose high in
+air, giving vent to deep gulps and grunts, and looking to right and left
+in bewilderment for that cow which he had heard calling.
+
+For fully five minutes he stood thus, badly puzzled, now and again
+stamping a hoof, and scattering spray in rising wrath. Then Herb bent
+forward, shot out a long arm, and silently opened the jack.
+
+Meteor-like its silver light flashed forth, to reveal a sight which
+could never be wiped from the memories of the beholders, though it
+affected each of them differently.
+
+Herb Heal involuntarily gripped the loaded rifle which lay beside
+him,--he was too wary a woodsman to be unprepared for emergencies; but
+he did not cock it, for he remembered the law, and the bargain which he
+had made about to-night.
+
+Cyrus's eyes gleamed like fires in a face pale from eagerness, as he
+strove in a minute of time to take in every feature of the monster
+before him, from hoof to horn.
+
+Neal sat as if paralyzed.
+
+Dol--well, Dol lost his head a bit. A deep, throaty gulp, which was a
+weak reproduction of the sound made by the moose, as if the boy and the
+animal were sharing the same throes of excitement, burst from him. There
+was a rattle and struggle of his vocal organs, which in another second
+would have become a shout, had not Herb's masterful left hand gripped
+him. Its touch held in check the speech which Dol could no longer
+control.
+
+The moose was a big one, "about as big as they grow," as the guide
+afterwards declared. Under the jack-light he looked a regular behemoth.
+He must have been over seven feet high at the shoulders, for he was
+taller than the tallest horse the boys had ever seen. His black mane
+bristled. His antlers were thrown back. His great nose, with its dilated
+nostrils, looked as if it were drinking in every scent of the night
+world. His eyes had a green glare in them, as for ten seconds he gazed
+at the strange light which had suddenly burst into view, its silver
+radiance so dazzling him that he saw not the screened boat beneath.
+
+At the rash noise which Dol made his ears twitched. He splashed a step
+forward as if to investigate matters, seeing which, Herb held his
+Winchester in readiness to fly to his shoulder at a moment's notice. But
+the moose evidently regarded the jack-lamp as a supernatural, terrible
+phenomenon. He shrank from it as man might shrink beneath a flaming
+heaven.
+
+With one more despairing look right and left for that phantom cow which
+had deluded him, he wheeled around, and crashed back into the forest,
+tearing away more rapidly than he came.
+
+"He's off now, and Heaven knows when he'll stop!" said Herb, breaking
+the weird spell of silence. "Not till he reaches some lair where nary a
+creature could follow him. Well, boys, you've seen the grandest game on
+this continent, the king o' the woods. What do you think of him?"
+
+All tongues were loosened together. There was a general shifting of
+cramped bodies, accompanied by a gust of exclamations.
+
+"He was a monster!"
+
+"He was a behemoth!"
+
+"Oh! but you're a conjurer, Herb. How on earth did you give such a
+fetching call?"
+
+"I could never have believed that those sounds came from a human throat
+and a birch-bark horn, if I hadn't been sitting in the boat with you!"
+
+When there was a break in the excited chorus, Herb, without answering
+the compliments to his calling powers, asked quietly,--
+
+"Didn't you think we'd lost him, boys, when he stopped short in the
+middle of his rush, and you heard nothing?"
+
+"We just did," answered Cyrus. "That was the longest half-hour I ever
+put in. What made him do it?"
+
+"I guess he was kind o' criticising my music," said the guide, laughing.
+"Mebbe I got in a grunt or two that wasn't natural, and the old boy
+wasn't satisfied with his sweetheart's voice. He was sniffing the air,
+and waiting to hear more. But 'twasn't more 'n twenty minutes before I
+gave the second call, though no doubt it seemed longer to you. A man
+must be in good training to get the better of a moose's ears and nose."
+
+"I'm going to get the better of them before I leave these woods!" cried
+Dol, who was still puffing and gasping with intense excitement. "I'll
+learn to call up a moose, if I crack my windpipe in doing it."
+
+"Hurrah for the Boy Moose-Caller!" jeered Cyrus, with a teasing laugh,
+which Neal echoed.
+
+But Herb Heal, who had from the beginning regarded "the kid of the camp"
+with favor, suddenly became his champion.
+
+"Don't let 'em down you, Dol," he said. "I hate to hear a youngster, or
+a man, 'talk fire,' as the Injuns say, which means _brag_, if he's a
+coward or a chump; but I guess you ain't either. Here we are at camp,
+boys! I tell you the home-camp is a pleasant sort of place, after
+you've been out moose-calling!"
+
+Thereupon ensued loud cheers for the home-camp, the boys feeling that
+they were letting off steam, and atoning for that long spell of silence,
+which had been a positive hardship. In the midst of an echoing hubbub
+the boat was hauled up and moored, and the party reached their log
+shelter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+HERB'S YARNS.
+
+
+The following day was spent by our trio in exploring the woods near
+Millinokett Lake, in listening to more moose-talk, and in attempting the
+trick of calling. Herb gave them many persistent lessons, making the
+sounds which he had made on the preceding night, with and without the
+horn, and patiently explaining the varied language of grunts, groans,
+sighs, and roars in which the cow-moose indulges.
+
+Perhaps the woodsman expended extra pains on the teaching of his
+youngest pupil, whom he had championed. And certainly Dol's own talent
+for mimicry came to his aid. No matter to what cause the success was
+due, each one allowed that Dol made a brilliant attempt to get hold of
+"the moose-hunter's secret," and give a natural call.
+
+The boy had been a genius at imitating the voices of English birds and
+animals; many a trick had he played on his schoolfellows with his carols
+and howls. And his proficiency in this line was a good foundation on
+which to work.
+
+"You'll get there, boy," said Herb, surveying him with approval, as he
+stood outside the camp-door with the moose-horn to his lips. "Make
+believe that there's a moose on the opposite shore of the lake now, and
+give the whole call, from start to finish."
+
+Whereupon Dol slowly carried his head to left and right, as he had seen
+the guide do on the previous night, raising and lowering the horn until
+it had described an enormous figure of eight in the air, while he
+groaned, sighed, rasped, and bellowed with a plaintive intensity of
+expression, which caused his brother and his friend to shriek with
+laughter.
+
+"You'll get there, Kid," repeated the woodsman, with a great triumphant
+guffaw. "You'll be able to give a fetching call sooner than either of
+the others. But be careful how you use the trick, or you'll be having
+the breath kicked out of you some day by a moose's forefeet."
+
+For days afterwards, the birch-bark horn was rarely out of Dol Farrar's
+hands. The boy was so entranced with the new musical art he was
+mastering, which would be a means of communication between him and the
+behemoth of the woods, that he haunted the edges of the forest about the
+clearing, keeping aloof from his brother and friend, practising
+unceasingly, sometimes under Herb's supervision, sometimes alone. He
+learned to imitate every sound which the guide made, working in touching
+quavers and inflections that must tug at the heart-strings of any
+listening moose. He learned to give the call, squatting Indian fashion,
+in a very uncomfortable position, behind a screen of bushes. He learned
+to copy, not the cow's summons alone, but the bull's short challenge
+too; and to rasp his horn against a tree, in imitation of a moose
+polishing its antlers for battle.
+
+And now, for the first time, Dol Farrar of Manchester regarded his
+education as complete. He was prouder of this forest accomplishment,
+picked up in the wilds, than of all triumphs over problems and 'ologies
+at his English school. He had not been a laggard in study, either.
+
+But the finishing of Dol's education had one bad result. If there
+happened to be another moose travelling through the adjacent forests, he
+evidently thought that all this random calling was too much of a good
+thing, had his suspicions aroused, and took himself oft to wilder
+solitudes. Though the guide tried his powers in persuasive summons every
+night at various calling-places, he could not again succeed in getting
+an answer.
+
+At last, on a certain evening, after supper, a solemn camp-council was
+held around an inspiring fire, and Herb Heal suggested that if his party
+were really bent on seeing a moose again, before they turned their faces
+homeward, they had better rise early the following morning, shoulder
+their knapsacks, and set out to do a few days' hunting amid the dense
+woods near the base of Katahdin.
+
+"I killed the biggest bull-moose I ever saw, on Togue Ponds, in that
+region," said the guide meditatively; "and I got him in a queer way. I
+b'lieve I promised to tell you that yarn."
+
+"Of course you did!"
+
+"Let's have it!"
+
+"Go ahead, Herb! Don't shorten it!"
+
+Thus encouraged by the eager three, the woodsman began:--
+
+"It is five years now, boys, since I spent a fall and winter trapping in
+them woods we were speaking of--I and another fellow. We had two
+home-camps, which were our headquarters, snug log shelters, one on Togue
+Ponds, the other on the side of Katahdin. As sure as ever the sun went
+down on a Saturday night, we two trappers met at one or other of these
+home-camps; though during the week we were mostly apart. For we had
+several lines of traps, which covered big distances in various
+directions; and on Monday morning I used to start one way, and my chum
+another, to visit these. Generally it took us five or six days to make
+the rounds of them. While we were on our travels we'd sleep with a
+blanket round us, under any shelter we could rig up,--a few
+spruce-boughs or a bark hut. When the snow came, we were forced to
+shorten our trips, so as to reach one of the home-camps each night.
+
+"Well, it was early in the season, one fine fall evening, that I was
+crossing Togue Ponds in a canoe. I had been away on the tramp for a'most
+a week; and though I had a rifle and axe with me, I had nary an ounce
+of ammunition left. All of a sudden I caught sight of a moose, feeding
+on some lily-roots in deep water. Jest at first I was a bit doubtful
+whether it was a moose or not; for the creature's head was under, and I
+could only see his shoulders. I stopped paddling. I tried to stop
+breathing. Next, I felt like jumping out of my skin; for, with a big
+splash, up come a pair of antlers a good five feet across, dripping with
+water, and a'most covered with green roots and stems, which dangled from
+'em.
+
+"Good land! 'twas a queer sight. 'Herb Heal,' thinks I, 'now's your
+chance! If you can only manage to nab that moose-head, you'll get two
+hundred dollars for it at Greenville, sure!' And mighty few cents I had
+jest then.
+
+"I could a'most have cried over my tough luck in not having one dose of
+lead left. But the bull's back was towards me. The water filled his ears
+and nose, so that he couldn't hear or smell. And he was having a
+splendid tuck-in. It was big sport to hear him crunch those lily-roots."
+
+"I should think it was!" burst out Cyrus enviously. "But did you have
+the heart to kill him in cold blood, in the middle of his meal?"
+
+"I did. I guess I wouldn't do it now; anyhow, not unless I was very
+badly off for food. But I had an old mother living at Greenville that
+time,"--here there was the least possible tremble in the woodsman's
+voice,--"and while I paddled alongside the moose, without making a
+sound, I was thinking that the price I'd be sure to get from some city
+swell for the head would come in handy to make her comfortable. The
+creature never suspicioned danger till I was close to him, and had my
+axe lifted, ready to strike. Then up came his head. Out went his
+forefeet. Over spun the canoe. There was as big a commotion as if a
+whale was there.
+
+"I managed to keep behind the brute so as to dodge his kicks; and
+gripping the axe in one hand, I dug the other into his long hair. He was
+mad scared. He started to swim for the opposite shore, which was about
+half a mile distant, with me in tow, snorting like a locomotive. As his
+feet touched ground near the bank, I jumped upon his back. With one blow
+of the axe I split his spine. Perhaps you'll think that was awful cruel,
+but it wasn't done for the glory of killing."
+
+"And what became of the head? Did you sell it?" asked Dol, who was, as
+usual, the first to break a breathless silence.
+
+There was no reply. Herb feigned not to hear.
+
+"Did you get two hundred dollars for the head?" questioned the impetuous
+youngster again, in a higher key, his curiosity swelling.
+
+"I didn't. It was stole."
+
+The answer was a growl, like the growl of a hurt animal whose sore has
+been touched. The tone of it was so different from the woodsman's
+generally strong, happy-go-lucky manner of speech, that Dol blenched as
+if he had been struck.
+
+"Who stole it?" he gasped, after a minute, scarcely knowing that he
+spoke aloud.
+
+Unnoticed in the firelight, Cyrus clapped a strong hand over the boy's
+mouth, to stifle further questions.
+
+"Keep still!" he whispered.
+
+But Herb, who was, as usual, perched upon the "deacon's seat," leaned
+forward, with a laugh which was more than half a snarl.
+
+"Who stole it?" he echoed. "Why, the other fellow--my chum; the man whom
+I carried for a mile on my back, through a snow-heaped forest, the first
+time I saw him, when I had lugged him out of a heavy drift. _He_ stole
+it, Kid, and a'most everything I owned with it."
+
+[Illustration: THE CAMP ON MILLINOKETT LAKE.]
+
+With a savage kick of his moccasined foot, the woodsman suddenly
+assaulted a blazing log. It sent a shower of sparks aloft, and caused a
+bright flame to shoot, rocket-like, from the heart of the fire, which
+showed the guide's face. His fine eyes reminded Cyrus of Millinokett
+Lake when a thunder-storm broke over it. Their gray was dark and
+troubled; the black pupils seemed to shrink, as if a tempest beat on
+them; fierce flashes of light played through them.
+
+Muttering a half-smothered oath, Herb flung himself off his bench,
+stamped across the cabin to the open camp-door, and passed into the
+darkness outside.
+
+The boys, who had been stretched out in comfortable positions, drew
+themselves bolt upright, and sat aghast. They stared towards the
+camp-door, murmuring disjointedly. Into the mind of each flashed a
+remembrance of some story which Doctor Phil had told about a thieving
+partner who once robbed Herb Heal.
+
+"You've stirred up more than you bargained for, Dol," said Cyrus. "I
+wish to goodness you hadn't been so smart with your questions."
+
+But the words were scarcely spoken when the guide was again in their
+midst, with a smile on his lips.
+
+"It's best to let sleeping dogs lie, young one," he said, looking down
+reassuringly on Dol, who was feeling dumfounded. "I guess you all think
+I'm an awful bearish fellow. But if you had lived the lonely life of a
+trapper, tramping each day through the dark woods till you were
+leg-weary, visiting your steel traps and deadfalls, all to get a few
+furs and make a few dollars; and turned up at camp one evening to find
+that your partner had skipped with every skin you had procured, I reckon
+'twould take you a plaguy long time to get over it."
+
+"I'm pretty sure it would, old man," said Cyrus.
+
+"And I minded the loss of the furs a sight less than I minded losing
+that moose-head," continued Herb, taking his perch again upon the
+"deacon's seat." "The hound took 'em all. Every woodsman in Maine was
+riled about it at the time, and turned out to ketch him; but he gave 'em
+the slip. Now, boys, I've got to feeling pretty chummy with you. Cyrus
+is an old friend; and, to speak plain, I like you Britishers. I don't
+want you to think that I bust up your fun to-night for nothing. I'll
+tell you the whole yarn if you want to hear it."
+
+The looks of the trio were sufficient assent.
+
+"All right, boys. Here goes! Since I was a kid in Maine woods I've
+worked at a'most everything that a woodsman can do. Six year ago I was a
+'barker' in a lumber-camp on the Kennebec River. A 'barker' is a man who
+jumps onto a big tree after a chopper has felled it, and strips the bark
+off with his axe, so that the trunk can be easily hauled over the snow.
+Well, it's pretty hard labor, is lumbering. But our camp always got
+Sunday for rest.
+
+"Well, I was prowling about in the woods by myself one Sunday afternoon,
+when an awful snow-storm come on, a big blizzard which staggered the
+stripped trees like as if 'twould tumble 'em all down, and end our work
+for us. I was bolting for camp as fast as I was able, when I tripped
+over something which was a'most covered over in a heavy drift. 'Great
+Scott!' says I, 'it's a man!' And 'twas too. He was near dead. I hauled
+him out, and set him on his legs; but he couldn't walk. So I threw him
+across my shoulders, same way as I carry a deer. He didn't weigh near as
+much as a good buck, for he was little more'n a kid and awful lean. But
+'twas dreadful travelling, with the snow half blinding and burying you.
+I was plumb blowed when I struck the camp, and pitched in head foremost.
+
+"For an hour we worked over that stranger to bring him round, and we
+succeeded. We saw at once that he was a half-breed. When he could use
+his tongue, he told us that his father was a settler, and his mother a
+Penobscot Indian. He was sick for a spell and wild-like, then he talked
+a lot of Indian jargon; but when he got back his senses, he spoke
+English fust-rate. Chris Kemp he said was his name. And from the start
+the lumbermen nicknamed him 'Cross-eyed Chris; for his eyes, which were
+black as blackberries, had a queer squint in 'em.
+
+"Well, in spite of the squint, I took to Chris, and he to me. And the
+following year, when I decided to give up lumbering, and take to
+trapping fur-bearing animals in the woods near Katahdin, he joined me.
+We swore to be chums, to stick to each other through thick and thin, to
+share all we got; and he made one of his outlandish Indian signs to
+strengthen the oath. A fine way he kept it too!
+
+"Now, if I'm too long-winded, boys, say so; and I'll hurry up."
+
+"No, no! Tell us everything."
+
+"Spin it out as long as you can."
+
+"We don't mind listening half the night. Go ahead!"
+
+At this gust of protest Herb smiled, though rather soberly, and went
+ahead as he was bidden.
+
+"We made camp together--him and me. We had two home-camps where I told
+you, and met at the end of each week, bringing the skins we had taken,
+which we stored in one of 'em. We got along together swimmingly for a
+bit. But Chris had a weakness which I had found out long before. I guess
+he took it from his mother's people. Give him one drink of whiskey, and
+it stirred up all the mud that was in him. There's mud in every man, I
+s'pose; and there's nothing like liquor for bringing it to the surface.
+A gulp of fire-water changed Chris from an honest, right-hearted fellow
+to a crazy devil. This had set the lumbermen against him. But I hoped
+that in the lonely woods where we trapped he wouldn't get a chance to
+see the stuff. He did, though, and when I wasn't there to make a fight
+against his swallowing it.
+
+"It happened that one week he got back to our camp on Togue
+Ponds,--where most of our stuff was stored, and where I kept that
+moose-head, waiting for a chance to take it down to Greenville,--a day
+or two sooner'n me. And the worst luck that ever attended either of us
+brought a stranger to the camp at the same time, to shelter for a night.
+He was an explorer, a city swell; and I guess he didn't know much about
+Injuns or half-breeds, for he gave Chris a little bottle of fiery
+whiskey as a parting present. The man told me about it afterwards, and
+that he was kind o' scared when the boy--for he wasn't much
+more--swallowed it with two gulps, and then followed him into the woods,
+howling, capering, and offering to sell him my grand moose-head, and all
+the furs we had, for another drink of the burning stuff. I guess that
+stranger felt pretty sick over the mischief he had done. He refused to
+buy 'em. But when I got back to camp next day, to find the skins gone,
+antlers gone, Chris gone; when I ran across the traveller and ferreted
+out his story,--I knew, as well as if I seen it, that my partner had
+skipped with all my belongings, to sell 'em or trade 'em at some
+settlement for more liquor. We had a couple of big birch canoes,--one of
+'em was missing too,--and a river being near, the thing could be easy
+managed.
+
+"I'll allow that I raged tremendous. The losses were bad; but to be
+robbed by your own chum, the man you had saved and stuck to, the only
+being you had said a word to for months, was sickening. I swore I'd
+shoot the hound if I found him. I spread the news at every camp and
+farm-settlement through the forest country, and we had a rousing hunt
+after the fellow; but he gave us the slip, though I heard of him
+afterwards at a distant town, where he sold the furs."
+
+"I suppose he left the State," said Cyrus.
+
+"I guess he did. But for a big while I used to think he'd come back to
+our camp some day, and let me have it out with him; for he wasn't a
+coward, and we had been fast chums."
+
+"And he didn't?"
+
+"Not as I know of. The next year I gave up trapping, which was an awful
+cruel as well as a lonely business, and took to moose-hunting and
+guiding. I haven't been anear the old camps for ages."
+
+"Perhaps you will come across him again some day," suggested Dol, with
+unusual timidity.
+
+"P'raps so, Kid. And, faith, when I think of that, it seems as if there
+were two creatures inside o' me fighting tooth and claw. One is all for
+hammering him to a jelly. The other is sort o' pitiful, and says, 'Mebbe
+'twasn't out-an'-out his fault.' Which of them two'll get the best of
+it, if ever I'm face to face with Cross-eyed Chris, I dunno."
+
+Cyrus Garst rose suddenly. He kicked the camp-fire to make a blaze, then
+looked the woodsman fair in the eyes.
+
+"I know, Herb," he said; "the spirit of mercy will conquer."
+
+"Glad you think so!" answered Herb. "But I ain't so sure. Sho! boys,
+I've kept you up till near midnight with my yarns. We must go to roost
+quick, or you'll never be fit to light out for Katahdin to-morrow."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+TO LONELIER WILDS.
+
+
+Before daybreak next morning Herb Heal was astir. Apparently even a
+short night's sleep had driven from him all disturbing memories. He
+whistled and hummed softly, like the strong, hopeful fellow he was,
+controlling his notes so that they should not awaken his companions,
+while he hauled out and overlooked the canvas for a tent, to see if it
+was sound. Next he surveyed the camp-stores, and put up a supply of
+flour, pork, and coffee in a canvas bag, enough for four persons to
+subsist upon with economy during an excursion of six or seven days. For
+he knew that his employers would follow his suggestion, and be eager to
+start for the woods near Katahdin soon after they got their eyes open.
+
+He had been doing his work with a candle held in his brown fingers; but
+as dawn-light began to enter the cabin, he quenched its dingy, yellow
+flicker, opened the camp-door, and surveyed the morning sky.
+
+"It'll be a good day to start out, I guess," he muttered. "Let's see,
+what time is it?"
+
+The stars had not yet paled, and Herb forthwith fell to studying them;
+for they were his jewelled time-piece, by which he could tell the hour
+so long as they shone. Watch he had none.
+
+While he gazed aloft at the glinting specks, he unconsciously began to
+croon, in a powerful bass voice, with deep gutturals, some words which
+certainly weren't woodsman's English.
+
+  "_N'loan pes-saus, mok glint ont-aven,
+  Glint ont-aven, nosh morgan_."
+
+"What on earth is that outlandish thing you're singing, Herb?" roared
+Neal Farrar from the bunk, awakened by the sounds. "Give us that stave
+again--do!"
+
+The guide started. He had scarcely been aware of what he was humming,
+and his laugh was a trifle disconcerted.
+
+"So you're waking up, are ye?" he said. "Tain't time to be stirring yet;
+I ought to be kicked for making such a row."
+
+"But what's that you were singing?" reiterated Neal. "The words weren't
+English, and they had a fine sort of roll."
+
+"They're Injun," was the answer. "I guess 'twas all the talking I done
+last night that brung 'em into my head. I picked 'em up from that fellow
+I was telling you about. He'd start crooning 'em whenever he looked at
+the stars to find out the hour."
+
+"Are they about the stars?"
+
+"I guess so. A city man, who had studied the redskins' language a lot,
+told me they meant:--
+
+  'We are the stars which sing,
+  We sing with our light.'"[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: Mr. Leland's translation.]
+
+Then Herb chanted the two lines again in the original tongue.
+
+"There was quite a lot more," he said; "but I can't remember it. I
+learned some queer jargon from Chris, and how to make most of the signs
+belonging to the Indian sign-talk. The fellow had more of his mother
+than his father in him. I guess I'd better give over jabbering, and cook
+our breakfast."
+
+It was evident that Herb did not want to dwell upon his reminiscences.
+And Neal had tact enough to swallow his burning curiosity about all
+things Indian. He asked no more questions, but rolled off the
+fir-boughs, and dressed himself.
+
+Cyrus and Dol sprang up too. All three were soon busy helping forward
+preparations for the start. They packed their knapsacks with a few
+necessaries; and after a hearty breakfast had been eaten,--their last
+meal off moose-steaks for a while, as Herb informed them he "could not
+carry any fresh meat along,"--the guide's voice was heard shouting:--
+
+"Ready, are ye, boys? Got all yer traps? Here, Cyrus, jest strap this
+pack-basket on my shoulders. Now we're off!"
+
+The pack contained the tent, the camp-kettle, and frying-pan, together
+with the aforementioned provisions, a good axe, etc. It was an
+uncomfortable load, even for a woodsman's shoulders. But Herb strode
+ahead with it jauntily. And many times during that first day's tramp of
+a dozen miles, his comrades--as they trudged through rugged places after
+him, spots where it was hard to keep one's perpendicular, and feet
+sometimes showed a sudden inclination to start for the sky--threw
+envious glances at his tall figure, "straight as an Indian arrow," his
+powerful limbs, and unerring step. Even the horny, capable hands came in
+for a share of the admiration.
+
+"I guess anything that got into your grip, Herb, would find it hard to
+get out again without your will," said Cyrus, studying the knotted fists
+which held the straps of the pack-basket.
+
+"Mebbe so," answered the guide frankly. "I've a sort of a trick of
+holding on to things once I've got 'em. P'raps that was why I didn't let
+go of Chris in that big blizzard 'till I landed him at camp. But I
+hope"--here Herb's shoulders shook with heaving laughter, and the
+cooking utensils in his pack jingled an accompaniment--"I hope I ain't
+like a miserly fellow we had in our lumber-camp. He was awful pious
+about some things, and awful mean about others. So the boys said, 'he
+kept the Sabbath and everything else he could lay his hands upon.' He
+used to get riled at it.
+
+"Not that I've a word to say against keeping Sunday," went on Herb, in a
+different key. "Tell you what, out here a fellow thinks a heap of his
+day o' rest, when his legs can stop tramping, and his mind get a chance
+to do some tall thinking. Now, boys, we've covered twelve good miles
+since we left Millinokett Lake, and you needn't go any farther to-day
+unless you've a mind to. We can make camp right here, near that stream.
+It will be nice, cold drinking-water, for it has meandered down from
+Katahdin."
+
+He pointed to a brook a little way ahead, shimmering in the rays of the
+afternoon sun, of which they caught stray peeps through the gaps in an
+intervening wall of pines and hemlocks. A few minutes brought them to
+its brink. Tired and parched from their journey, each one stooped, and
+quenched his thirst with a delicious, ice-cold draught.
+
+"Was there ever a soda-fountain made that could give a drink to equal
+that?" said Cyrus, smacking his lips with content. "But listen to the
+noise this stream makes, boys. I guess if I were to lie beside it for an
+hour, I'd think, as the Greenlanders do, that I could hear the spirits
+of the world talking through it."
+
+"That's a mighty queer notion," answered Herb; "and I never knew as
+other folks had got hold of it. But, sure's you live! I've thought the
+same thing myself lots o' times, when I've slept by a forest stream.
+Who'll lend a helping hand in cutting down boughs for our fire and bed?
+I want to be pretty quick about making camp. Then we'll be able to try
+some moose-calling after supper."
+
+At this moment a peculiar gulping noise in Neal's throat drew the eyes
+of his companions upon him. His were bright and strained, peering at the
+opposite bank.
+
+"Look! What is it?" he gasped, his low voice rattling with excitement.
+
+"A cow-moose, by thunder!" said Herb. "A cow-moose and a calf with her!
+Here's luck for ye, boys!"
+
+One moment sooner, simultaneously with Neal's gulp of astonishment,
+there had emerged from the thick woods on the other bank a brown,
+wild-looking, hornless creature, in size and shape resembling a big
+mule, followed by a half-grown reproduction of herself.
+
+Her shaggy mane flew erect, her nostrils quivered like those of a
+race-horse, her eyes were starting with mingled panic and defiance.
+
+A snort, sudden and loud as the report of a shot-gun, made the four
+jump. Neal, who was standing on a slippery stone by the brink, lost his
+balance and staggered forward into the water, kicking up jets of shining
+spray. The snort was followed by a grunt, plaintive, distracted, which
+sounded oddly familiar, seeing that it had been so well imitated on
+Herb's horn.
+
+And with that grunt, the moose wheeled about and fled, making the air
+swish as she cut through it, followed by her young, her mane waving like
+a pennon.
+
+"Well, if that ain't bang-up luck, I'd like to know what is," said the
+guide, as he watched the departure. "I never s'posed you'd get a chance
+to see a cow-moose; she's shyer'n shy. Say! don't you boys think that
+I've done her grunt pretty well sometimes?"
+
+"That you have," was the general response. "_We_ couldn't tell any
+difference between your noise and the real thing."
+
+"But she wasn't a patch on the bull-moose in appearance," lamented Dol.
+
+"No more she was, boy. Most female forest creatures ain't so
+good-looking as the males! And that's queer when you think of it, for
+the girls have the pull over us where beauty is concerned. We ain't in
+it with 'em, so to speak."
+
+There was a big gale of laughter over Herb Real's gallant admiration for
+the other sex, and the sigh which accompanied his expression of it. He
+joined in the mirth himself, though he walked off to make camp,
+muttering:--
+
+"Sho! You city fellows think that because I'm a woodsman I never heard
+of love-making in my life."
+
+"Perhaps there is a little girl at some settlement waiting for a home to
+be fixed up out of guide's fees," retorted Cyrus.
+
+And the three shouted again for no earthly reason, save that the
+stimulus of forest air and good circulation was driving the blood with
+fine pressure through their veins, and life seemed such a glorious,
+unfolding possession--full of a wonderful possible--that they must hold
+a sort of jubilee.
+
+Herb, who perhaps in his lonely hours in the woods did cherish some
+vision such as Cyrus suggested, was so infected with their spirit, that,
+as he swung his axe with a giant's stroke against a hemlock branch, he
+joined in with an explosive:--
+
+"Hurrup! Hur-r-r-rup!"
+
+This startled the trio like the bursting of a bomb, and trebled their
+excitement; for their guide, when abroad, had usually the cautious,
+well-controlled manner of the still-hunter, who never knows what chances
+may be lurking round him which he would ruin by an outcry.
+
+"Quit laughing, boys," he said, recovering prudence directly he had let
+out his yell. "Quit laughing, I say, or we may call moose here till
+crack o' doom without getting an answer. I guess they're all off to the
+four winds a'ready, scared by our fooling."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+TREED BY A MOOSE.
+
+
+"I told you so, boys," breathed the guide two hours later, with an
+overwhelming sigh of regret, after he had given his most fetching calls
+in vain. "I told you so. There ain't anything bigger'n a buck-rabbit
+travelling. That tormented row we made scared every moose within
+hearing."
+
+Herb was standing on the ground, horn in hand, screened by the great
+shadows of a clump of hemlocks; the three were perched upon branches
+high above him, a safe post of observation if any moose had answered.
+
+"You may as well light down now," he continued, turning his face up,
+though the boys were invisible; "I ain't a-going to try any more music
+to-night. I guess we'll stretch ourselves for sleep early, to get ready
+for a good day's work to-morrow. An eight-mile tramp will bring us to
+the first heavy growth about the foot of Katahdin, and I'll promise you
+a sight of a moose there."
+
+His companions dropped to earth; and the four sought the shelter of
+their tent, which had been pitched a few hundred yards from the
+calling-place. Some dull embers smouldered before it; for Herb, even
+while preparing supper, had kept the camp-fire very low, lest any
+wandering clouds of smoke should interfere with the success of his
+calling.
+
+Now he heaped it high, throwing on without stint withered hemlock boughs
+and massive logs, which were soon wrapped in a sheet of flame, making an
+isle of light amid a surrounding sea of impenetrable darkness.
+
+Many times during the night the watchful fellow arose to replenish this
+fire, so that there might be no decrease in the flood of heat which
+entered the tent, and kept his charges comfortable. Once, while he was
+so engaged, the placid sleepers whom he had noiselessly quitted were
+aroused to terror--sudden, bewildering night-terror--by a gasping cry
+from his lips, followed by the leaping and rushing of some brute in
+flight, and by a screech which was one defiant note of unutterable
+savagery.
+
+"Good heavens! What's that?" said Cyrus.
+
+"Is it--can it--could it be a panther?" stammered Dol.
+
+"Get out!" answered Neal contemptuously. "The panthers have got out long
+ago, so every one says."
+
+"A lynx! A Canada lynx, boys, as sure as death and taxes!" panted Herb
+Heal, springing into the tent on the instant, with a burning brand in
+his hand. "'Tain't any use your tumbling out, for you won't see him.
+He's away in the thick of the woods now."
+
+Cyrus gurgled inarticulate disappointment. At the first two words he had
+sprung to his legs, having never encountered a lynx.
+
+"The brute must have been prowling round our tent," went on Herb, his
+voice thick from excitement. "He leaped past me just as I was stooping
+to fix the fire, and startled me so that I guess I hollered. He got
+about half a dozen yards off, then turned and crouched as if he was
+going to spring back. Luckily, the axe was lying by me, just where I had
+tossed it down after chopping the last heap of logs. I caught it up,
+and flung it at him. It struck him on the side, and curled him up. I
+thought he was badly hurt; but he jumped the next moment, screeched, and
+made off. A pleasant scream he has; sounds kind o' cheerful at night,
+don't it?"
+
+No one answered this sarcasm; and Herb flung himself again upon his
+boughs, pulling his worn blanket round him, determined not to relinquish
+his night's sleep because a lynx had visited his camp. The city fellows
+sensibly tried to follow his example; but again and again one of them
+would shake himself, and rise stealthily, convinced that he heard the
+blood-curdling screech ringing through the silent night.
+
+It was nearly morning before fatigue at last overmastered every
+sensation, and the three fell into an unbroken sleep, which lasted until
+the sun was high in the sky. When they awoke, their sense of smell was
+the first sense to be tickled. Fragrant odors of boiling coffee were
+floating into the tent. One after another they scrambled up, threw on
+their coats, and hurried out to find their guide kneeling by the
+camp-fire on the very spot from which he had hurled his axe at the lynx
+a few hours before. But now his right hand held a green stick, on which
+he was toasting some slices of pork into crisp, appetizing curls.
+
+"'Morning, boys!" he said, as the trio appeared. "Hope your early rising
+won't opset ye! If you want to dip your faces in the stream, do it
+quick, for these dodgers are cooked."
+
+The "dodgers" were the familiar flapjacks. Herb set down his stick as he
+spoke to turn a batch of them, which were steaming on the frying-pan,
+tossing them high in air as he did so, with a dexterous turn of his
+wrist.
+
+The boys having performed hasty ablutions in the stream, devoted
+themselves to their breakfast with a hearty will. There was little
+leisure for discussing the midnight visit of the lynx, or for anything
+but the joys of satisfying hunger, and taking in nutrition for the day's
+tramp, as Herb was in a hurry to break camp, and start on for Katahdin.
+The morning was very calm; there seemed no chance of a wind springing
+up, so the evening would probably be a choice one for moose-calling.
+
+In half an hour the band was again on the march, the business of
+breaking camp being a swift one. The tent was on Herb's shoulders; and
+naught was left to mark the visit of man to the humming stream but a
+bed of withering boughs on which the lynx might sleep to-night, and a
+few dying embers which the guide had thrashed out with his feet.
+
+No halt was made until four o'clock in the afternoon. Then Herb Heal
+came to a standstill on the edge of a wide bog. It lay between him and
+what he called the "first heavy growth;" that is, the primeval forest,
+unthinned by axe of man, which at certain points clothes the foot of
+Katahdin.
+
+The great mountain, dwelling-place of Pamolah, cradle of the flying
+Thunder and flashing Lightning, which according to one Indian legend are
+the swooping sons of the Mountain Spirit, now towered before the
+travellers, its base only a mile distant.
+
+"I've a good mind to make camp right here," said Herb, surveying the bog
+and then the firm earth on which he stood. "We may travel a longish ways
+farther, and not strike such a fair camping-ground, unless we go on up
+the side of the mountain to that old home-camp I was telling you about,
+which we built when we were trapping. I guess it's standing yet, and
+'twould be a snug shelter; but we'd have a hard pull to reach it this
+evening. What d'ye say, boys?"
+
+"I vote for pitching the tent right here," answered Cyrus.
+
+The English boys were of the same mind, and the guide forthwith
+unstrapped his heavy pack-basket. As he hauled forth its contents, and
+strewed them on the ground, the first article which made its appearance
+was the moose-horn; it had been carefully stowed in on top. Dol snatched
+it up as a dog might snatch a bone, and touched it with longing in every
+finger-tip.
+
+"There's one bad thing about this place," grumbled Herb presently,
+surveying the landscape wherever his eye could travel, "there isn't a
+pint of drinking-water to be seen. There may be pools here and there in
+that bog; but, unless we want to keel over before morning, we'd better
+let 'em alone. Say! could a couple of you fellows take the camp-kettle,
+and cruise about a bit in search of a spring?"
+
+"I volunteer for the job!" cried Dol instantly, with the light of some
+sudden idea shining like a sunburst in his face.
+
+"You don't budge a step, old man, unless I go with you," said Cyrus.
+"Not much! I don't want to patrol the forests like a lunatic for five
+mortal hours in search of you, and then find you roasting your shins by
+some other fellow's camp-fire. One little hide-and-seek game of that
+kind was enough."
+
+"Well! the fact that I did bring up by Doc's camp-fire shows that I am
+able to take care of myself. If I get into scrapes, I can wriggle out of
+them again," maintained the kid of the camp, with a brazen look, while
+his eyes showed flinty sparks, caused by the inspiring purpose hidden
+behind them, which had little to do with water-carrying.
+
+"Why can't you both go without any more palaver?" suggested Herb, as he
+started away towards a belt of young firs to cut stakes for the tent.
+"Cruise straight across the bog, mark your track by the bushes as you go
+'long, don't get into the woods at all, and 'twill be plain sailing. I
+guess you'll strike a spring before very long."
+
+Cyrus caught up the camp-kettle, and stepped out briskly over the
+springy, spongy ground. Dol Farrar followed him. The two were half-way
+across the bog before the elder noticed that the younger was carrying
+something. It was the moose-horn.
+
+"If we run across any moose-signs, I'm going to try a call," said Dol,
+his strike-a-light eyes fairly blazing while he disclosed his purpose.
+"You may laugh, Cy, and call me a greenhorn; but I bet you I'll get an
+answer, at least if there's a bull-moose within two miles."
+
+"That's pretty cheerful," retorted the Boston man; "especially as
+neither of us has brought a rifle. Mr. Moose may be at home, and give
+you an answer; but there's no telling what sort of temper he'll be in."
+
+"I left my Winchester leaning against a tree on the camping-ground,"
+said the would-be caller regretfully. "But you know you wouldn't fire on
+him, Cy, unless he came near making mince-meat of us. If he should
+charge, we could make a dash for the nearest trees. Let's risk it if we
+run across any tracks!"
+
+"And in the meantime, Herb will be wondering where we are, vowing
+vengeance on us, and waiting for the kettle while we're waiting for the
+moose," argued Garst. "It won't do, Chick. Give it up until later on. We
+undertook the job of finding water, and we're bound to finish that
+business first."
+
+"If I wait until later on, I may wait forever," was the boy's gloomy
+protest. "Tonight, when Herb is there, Neal and you will just sit on me,
+and be afraid of my making a wrong sound, and spoiling the sport.
+
+"And I _know_ we'll see moose-tracks before we get back to camp!" wound
+up the young pleader passionately. "I've been working up to it all day.
+I mean I've felt as if something--something fine--was going to happen,
+which would make a ripping story for the Manchester fellows when we go
+home. Do let me have one chance, Cy,--one fair and honest chance!"
+
+There was such a tremendous force of desire working through the English
+boy that it set his blood boiling, and every bit of him in motion. His
+eyes were afire, his eyelids shut and opened with their quick snap, his
+lips moved after he had finished speaking, his fingers twitched upon the
+moose-horn.
+
+He was a picture of heart-eagerness which Cyrus could not resist, though
+he shook with laughter.
+
+"I'll take mighty good care that the next time I go to find water for
+the camp-supper, I don't take a crank with me, who has gone mad on
+moose-calling," he said. "See here! If we do come across moose-signs,
+I'll get under cover, and give you quarter of an hour to call and listen
+for an answer--not a second longer. Now stop thinking about this fad,
+and keep your eyes open for a spring."
+
+But, unfortunately, this seemed to be a thirsty and tantalizing land for
+travellers. The soft sod under their feet oozed moisture; slimy,
+stagnant bog-pools appeared, but not a drop of pure, gushing water, to
+which a parched man dare touch his lips.
+
+They crossed the wide extent of bog, Cyrus breaking off stunted bushes
+here and there to mark his pilgrimage; they reached the dense
+timber-growth at the base of the mountain, longing for the sight of a
+spring as eagerly as ever pilgrims yearned to behold a healing well; but
+their search was unsuccessful.
+
+Decidedly nonplussed, Dol all the time keeping one eye on the lookout
+for water and the other for moose-signs, they took counsel together, and
+determined to "cruise" to the right, skirting the foot of Katahdin,
+hoping to find a gurgling, rumbling mountain-torrent splashing down.
+Having travelled about half a mile in this new direction, with the giant
+woods which they dared not enter rising like an emerald wall on the one
+hand, and the dreary bog-land on the other, they at last, when patience
+was failing, came to a change in the landscape.
+
+The desired water was not in view yet; but the bog gave way to fairer,
+firmer ground, covered with waving grasses, studded with rising knolls,
+and having no timber growth, save stray clumps of birches and hemlocks,
+several hundred yards apart.
+
+"Now, this is jolly!" exclaimed Dol. "This looks a little bit like an
+English lawn, only I'm afraid it's not a likely place for moose-tracks.
+But I'm glad to be out of that beastly bog."
+
+"Confusion to your moose-tracks," ejaculated Cyrus, half exasperated. "I
+wish we could find a well. That would be more to the purpose. Listen,
+Dol, do you hear anything?"
+
+"I hear--I hear--'pon my word! I _do_ hear the bubbling and tinkling of
+water somewhere! Where on earth is it? Oh! I know. It comes from that
+knoll over there--the one with the bushes."
+
+Dol Farrar, as he finished his jerky sentences, pointed to an eminence
+which was two or three hundred yards from where they stood, and a like
+distance from the wall of forest.
+
+"Well! It's about time we struck something at last," grumbled Garst.
+"Catch me ever coming on a water pilgrimage again! I'll let Herb fill
+his own kettle in future. Now, I believe that fellow could smell a
+spring."
+
+"Just as I smelt this one!" exclaimed Dol triumphantly. "I told you
+'twas on the side of the knoll. And here it is!"
+
+"Bravo, Chick! You've got good ears, if you are crazy upon one subject."
+
+And so speaking, Cyrus, with a chuckle of joy, unslung the tin
+drinking-cup which hung at his belt, filled and refilled it, drinking
+long, inspiriting draughts before he prepared to fill the camp-kettle.
+
+"The best water I ever tasted, Dol!" he exclaimed, smacking his lips.
+"It's ice-cold. There's not much of it, but it has quality, if not
+quantity."
+
+The long-sought well was, in truth, a tiny one. It came bubbling up,
+clear and pellucid, from the bowels of the earth, and showed its
+laughing face amid a cluster of bushes--which all bent close to look at
+it lovingly--half-way up the knoll. A wee stream trickled down from
+it,--dribble--dribble--a rivulet that had once been twice its present
+size, judging from the wide margin of spattered clay at each side.
+
+Dol had been following his companion's example, and drinking joyfully
+before thinking of aught else. When the moment came for him to
+straighten his back, and rise upon his legs, instead of this natural
+proceeding, he suddenly crouched close to the ground, his breath coming
+in quick puffs, his eyes dilating, a froth of excitement on his lips.
+
+"What on earth are you staring at?" asked Cyrus. "You look positively
+crazy."
+
+For answer, the English boy shot up from his lowly posture, seized his
+companion by the arm, making him drop the camp-kettle, which he was just
+filling, and forced him to scan the soft clay by the rivulet.
+
+"Look there--and there!" gurgled Dol, his voice sounding as if he was
+being choked by suppressed hilarity. "I told you we'd find them, and you
+didn't believe me! Aren't those moose-tracks? They're not deer-tracks,
+anyhow; they're too big. I may be a greenhorn, but I know that much."
+
+"They _are_ moose-tracks," Cyrus answered slowly, almost unbelievingly,
+though the evidence was before him. "They certainly are moose-tracks,"
+he repeated, "and very recent ones too. A moose has been drinking here,
+perhaps not half an hour ago. He can't be far away."
+
+Garst was now warming into excitement himself. His bass tones became
+guttural and almost inarticulate, while he lowered them to prevent their
+travelling. On the reddish clay at his feet were foot-marks very like
+the prints of a large mastiff. He studied them one by one, even tracing
+the outline with his forefinger.
+
+"Then I'm going to call," whispered Dol, his words tremulous and
+stifled. "Lie low, Cy! You promised you'd give me a fair chance; you'll
+have to keep your word."
+
+"I'll do it too," was the answering whisper. "But let's get higher up on
+the knoll, behind those big bushes at the top. And listen, Dol, if a
+moose makes a noise anywhere near, we must scoot for the trees before he
+comes out from cover. I've got to answer to your father for you."
+
+It was an intense moment in Dol Farrar's life; sensation reached its
+highest pitch, as he crouched low behind a prickly screen, put the
+birch-bark horn to his mouth, and slowly breathed through it with the
+full power of his young lungs, marvellously strengthened by the forest
+life of past weeks.
+
+There was a minute's interval while he removed it again, and drew in all
+the air he could contain. Then a call rose upon the evening air, so
+touching, so plaintive, with such a rising, quavering impatience as it
+surged out towards the woods,--whither the boy-caller's face was
+turned,--that Cyrus could scarcely suppress a "Bravo!"
+
+The summons died away in a piteous grunt. A second time the call rose
+and fell. On the third repetition it broke off, as usual, in an abrupt
+roar, which seemed to strike the tops of the giant trees, and boom among
+them.
+
+A froth was on Dol Farrar's lips, his eyes were reddened, he puffed hard
+through spread nostrils, like a young horse which has been trying its
+mettle for the first time, as he lowered that moose-horn, lifted his
+head, and cocked his ears to listen.
+
+Two soundless minutes passed. Dol, who, if he had mastered the hunter's
+call, had certainly not mastered his patience, put the bark-trumpet
+again to his lips, determined to try the effect of a surpassingly
+expressive grunt.
+
+But he never executed this false movement, which would have given away
+the trick at once.
+
+A bellow--a short, snorting, challenging bellow--burst the silence,
+coming from the very edge of the woods. It brought Cyrus to his feet
+with a jump. It so startled the ambitious moose-caller, that, in rising
+hurriedly from his squatting position, he lost his balance, and rolled
+over and over to the bottom of the knoll, smashing the horn into a
+hundred pieces.
+
+He picked himself up unhurt, but with a sensation as if all the bells in
+Christendom were doing a jumbled ringing in his head. And loud above
+this inward din he heard the sound, so well remembered, as of an axe
+striking repeatedly against a tree, the terrible chopping noises of a
+bull-moose, not two hundred yards away.
+
+No sooner had he scrambled to his legs, than Garst was at his side,
+gripping his arm, and forcing him forward at a headlong run.
+
+"You've done it this time with a vengeance!" bawled the Bostonian. "He's
+coming for us straight! And we without our rifles! The trees! The trees!
+It's our only chance!"
+
+With the belling still in his head, and so bewildered by his terrible
+success that he felt as if his senses were shooting off hither and
+thither like rockets, leaving him mad, Dol nevertheless ran as he had
+never run before, shoulder to shoulder with his comrade, dashing wildly
+for a clump of hemlocks over a hundred yards distant. Yet, for the life
+of him, he could not help glancing back once over his shoulder, to see
+the creature which he had humbugged, luring it from its forest shelter,
+and which now pursued him.
+
+The moose was charging after them full tilt, gaining rapidly too, his
+long thin legs, enormous antlers, broad, upreared nose, and the green
+glare in his starting eyes, making him look like some strange animal of
+a former earth. Dol at last trembled with actual fear. He gave a
+shuddering leap, and forced his legs, which seemed threatened with
+paralysis, to wilder speed.
+
+"Climb up that hemlock! Get as high as you can!" shrieked Cyrus,
+stopping to give him an upward shove as they reached the first friendly
+trunk.
+
+Dol obeyed. Gasping and wild-eyed, he dug his nails into the bark,
+clambering up somehow until he reached a forked branch about eight feet
+from the ground. Here strength failed. He could only cling dizzily,
+feeling that he hung between life and death.
+
+The moose was now snorting like a war-horse beneath. The brute stood off
+for a minute, then charged the hemlock furiously, and butted it with
+his antlers till it shook to its roots, the sharp prongs of those
+terrible horns coming within half an inch of Dol's feet.
+
+With a gurgle of horror the boy tried to reach a higher limb, and
+succeeded; for at the same moment a timely shout encouraged him. Cyrus
+was bawling at the top of his voice from a tree ten feet distant:--
+
+"Are you all right, Dol? Don't be scared. Hold on like grim death, and
+we can laugh at the old termagant now."
+
+"I'm--I'm all right," sang out Dol, though his voice shook, as did every
+twig of his hemlock, which the moose was assaulting again. "But he's
+frantic to get at me."
+
+"Never mind. He can't do it, you know. Only don't you go turning dizzy
+or losing your balance. Ha! you old spindle-legged monster, stand off
+from that tree. Take a turn at mine now, for a change. You can't shake
+me down, if you butt till midnight."
+
+Garst's last sentences were hurled at the moose. The Bostonian, having
+reached a safe height, thrust his face out from his screen of branches,
+waving first an arm, and then a leg, at the besieging foe, hoping that
+the force of those battering antlers would be directed against his
+hemlock, so that his friend's nerves might get a chance to recover.
+
+The ruse succeeded. The moose, reminded that there was a second enemy,
+charged the other tree; stood off for a minute to get breath, then
+charged it again, snorting, bellowing, and knocking his jaws together
+with a crunching, chopping noise.
+
+"Ha! that's how he makes the row like a man with an axe--by hammering
+his jaws on each other. Well, well! but this is a regular picnic, Dol,"
+sang out Cyrus jubilantly, caring nothing for the shocks, and forgetting
+camp, water, peril, everything, in his joy at getting a chance to
+leisurely study the creature he had come so far to visit.
+
+"I owe you something for this, little man!" he carolled on in triumph,
+as he watched every wild movement of the moose. "This is a show we'll
+only see once in our lives. It's worth a hundred dollars a performance.
+Butt and snort till you're tired, you 'Awful Jabberwock!'"--this to the
+bull-moose. "We've come hundreds of miles to see you, and the more you
+carry on the better we'll be pleased."
+
+Indeed, the wrathful king of forests seemed in no hurry to cut short his
+pantomime. He ramped and raged, tearing from one tree to another,
+expending paroxysms of force in vain attempts to overturn one or the
+other of them. The ground seemed to shake under his thundering hoofs.
+His eyes were full of green fire; his nostrils twitched; the black
+tassel or "bell" hanging from his shaggy throat shook with every angry
+movement; his muffle, the big overhanging upper lip, was spotted with
+foam.
+
+As he gulped, grunted, snorted, and roared, his uncouth, guttural noises
+made him seem more than ever like a curious creature of earth's earliest
+ages.
+
+"We came pretty near to being goners, Dol, I tell you!" carolled Cyrus
+again from his high perch in the hemlock, carrying on a by-play with the
+enemy between each sentence. "How in the name of wonder did you manage
+such a call? It would have moved the heart-strings of any moose. I was
+lying flat, you know, peeping through a little gap in the bushes, and
+you had scarcely taken the horn from your mouth when I saw the old
+fellow come stamping out of the woods. My! wasn't he a sight? He stood
+for a minute looking about for the fancied cow; then he bellowed, and
+started towards the knoll. I knew we had better run for our lives. As
+soon as he saw us he gave chase."
+
+"And 'the fancied cow' should go tumbling down the knoll like a rolling
+jackass, and smash that grand horn to bits!" lamented Dol, who now sat
+serenely on his bough, with a firm clasp of the hemlock trunk, and a
+reckless enjoyment of the situation which far surpassed his companion's.
+
+Cyrus began to have an occasional twinge of uneasiness about the
+possible length of the siege, after his first exuberance subsided; but
+the younger boy, his short terror overcome, had no misgivings. He
+coquetted with the moose through a thick screen of foliage, shook the
+branches at him, gibed and taunted him, enjoying the extra fury he
+aroused.
+
+But suddenly the old bull, having kept up his wild movements for nearly
+an hour, resolved on a change of tactics. He stood stock-still and
+lowered his head.
+
+"Goodness! He has made up his mind to 'stick us out!'" gasped Cyrus.
+
+"What's that?" said Dol.
+
+"Don't you see? He's going to lay siege in good earnest--wait till we're
+forced to come down. Here's a state of things! We can't roost in these
+trees all night."
+
+The hemlocks were throwing ever-lengthening shadows on the grass. A slow
+eclipse was stealing over everything. The motionless moose became an
+uncouth black shape. Garst muttered uneasily. His fingers tingled for
+his rifle--a very unusual thing with him. His eyes peered through the
+creeping darkness in puzzled search for some suggestion, some
+possibility of escape.
+
+"If it were only myself!" he whispered, as if talking to his hemlock.
+"If it were only myself, I wouldn't care a pin. 'Twould do me no great
+harm to perch here for hours. But an English youngster, on his first
+camping-trip! Why, the chill of a forest night might ruin him. He
+wouldn't howl or make a fuss, for both those Farrar boys have lots of
+grit, but he'd never get over it. Dol!" he wound up, raising his voice
+to a sharp pitch. "Say, Dol, I'm going to try a shout for help. Herb
+must be getting anxious about us by this time. If we could once make him
+hear, he could try some trick to lure this old curmudgeon away, or creep
+up and shoot him. Something must be done."
+
+Fetching a deep breath, Cyrus sent a distance-piercing "Coo-hoo!"
+ringing through the night-air. He followed it with another.
+
+But, so far as he could hear, the hails fetched no answer, save from the
+moose-jailer. The brute was stirred into a fresh tantrum by the noise.
+He charged the hemlocks once more, butted and shook them like a
+veritable demon.
+
+When his paroxysm had subsided, and he stood off to get breath, Garst
+hailed again.
+
+Glad sound! An answer this time! First, a shrill, long "Coo-hoo!" Next,
+Herb's voice was heard pealing from far away in the bog: "What's up,
+boys? Where in the world are you?"
+
+"Here in the trees--treed by a bull-moose!" yelled Cyrus. "He's the
+maddest old monster you ever saw. Could you coax him off, or sneak up
+and shoot him? He means to keep us prisoners all night."
+
+There was no wordy answer. But presently the treed heroes heard an odd,
+bird-like whistle. Dol thought it came from a feathered creature; his
+more experienced companion guessed that the guide's lips gave it as a
+signal that he was coming, but that he didn't want to draw the moose's
+attention in his direction just yet.
+
+Such a quarter of an hour followed! With the fresh spurt of anger the
+bull-moose became more savage than ever. He grunted, tramped, and
+hooked the trees with his horns, so that the pair who were perched like
+night-birds on the branches had to hold on for dear life, lest a
+surprising shock should dislodge them. Whenever the creature stood off,
+to gather more fury, they could have counted their heart-beats while
+they listened, breathlessly anxious to, know what action the approaching
+woodsman would take.
+
+Once Cyrus spoke.
+
+"Dol Farrar," he said, "I guess this caps all the adventures that you or
+I have had up to date. No wonder you felt all day as if you were working
+up to something. I'll believe in presentiments in future."
+
+The words had scarcely passed his lips, when there was the sharp bang!
+bang! of a rifle not twenty yards distant. A bright sputter of fire cut
+the darkness beneath the hemlocks.
+
+The moose's blind rage threatened to be his own undoing. While he was
+fighting an imaginary danger, ears and nostrils half-choked by fury,
+through the calm night Herb Heal, Winchester in hand, had crept
+noiselessly on, till he reached the very trees which sheltered his
+friends.
+
+Once, twice, three times the rifle snapped. The first shot missed
+altogether. At the second, the moose rose upon his hind-legs, with a
+sharp sound of fright and pain, quite unlike his former noises. Then he
+gave a quick jump.
+
+"Great Governor's Ghost! he's gone;" yelled Cyrus, who had swung himself
+down a few feet, and was hanging by one arm, in his anxiety to see the
+result of the firing. "You needn't shoot again, Herb! He's off! Let him
+go!"
+
+"I guess that second shot cut some hair from him, and drew blood too,"
+answered Herb, his deep voice giving the pair a queer sensation as they
+heard it right beneath. "It was too dark to see plain, but I think he
+reared; and that's a sign that he was hurt, little or much. Don't drop
+down for a minute, boys, till we see whether he has bolted for good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+TRIUMPH.
+
+
+He had bolted for good, vanished into the mysterious deeps of the
+primeval forest, whether hurt unto death, or merely "nipped" in a
+fore-leg, as Herb inclined to think, nobody knew.
+
+"It's too dark to see blood-marks, if there are any, so we can't trail
+him to-night. If he's hit bad--but I guess he ain't--we can track him in
+the morning," said the guide; as, after an interval of listening, the
+rescued pair dropped down from their perches. "Did he chase you, boys?
+Where on earth did you come on him?"
+
+Talking together, their words tumbling out like a torrent let loose,
+Cyrus Garst and Dol Farrar gave an account of the past two
+hours--strangest hours of their lives--filling up the picture of them
+bit by bit.
+
+"Whew! whew! You did have a narrow squeak, boys, and a scarey time; but
+I guess you had a lot of fun out of the old snorter," said Herb, his
+rare laugh jingling out, starting the forest echoes like a clang of
+bells. "You've won those antlers, Dol--won 'em like a man. Blest, but
+you have! I promised 'em to the first fellow who called up a moose; and
+nary a woodsman in Maine could have done it better. I'm powerful glad
+'twasn't your own death-call you gave. I'll keep my eye on you now till
+you leave these woods. Where's the horn?"
+
+"Smashed to bits," answered Dol regretfully.
+
+"And the camp-kettle?"
+
+"Lying by the spring, over there on the knoll, unless the moose kicked
+it to pieces," said Cyrus.
+
+"My senses! you're a healthy pair to send for water, ain't ye? Let's
+cruise off and find it. I guess you'll be wanting a drink of hot coffee,
+after roosting in them trees for so long."
+
+Garst led the way to the spring. Its pretty hum sounded like an angel's
+whisper through the night, after the tumult of the past scene. Herb
+fumbled in his leather wallet, brought out a match and a small piece of
+birch-bark, and kindled a light. With some groping, the kettle was
+found; it was filled, and the party started for camp.
+
+"I heard the distant challenge of a bull-moose a couple of hours ago,"
+said the guide, as they went along. "I never suspicioned he was
+attacking you; but after the camp was a' ready, and you hadn't turned
+up, I got kind o' scared. I left Neal to tend the fire and toast the
+pork, and started out to search. I s'pose I took the wrong direction;
+for I hollered, and got no answer. Afterwards, when I was travelling
+about the bog, I heard a 'Coo-hoo!' and the noises of an angry moose.
+Then I guessed there was trouble."
+
+"Won't Neal look blue when he hears that he was toasting pork while we
+were perched in those trees, with the moose waltzing below!" exclaimed
+Dol. "Well, Cy, I've won the antlers, and I've got my ripping story for
+the Manchester fellows. I don't care how soon we turn home now."
+
+"You don't, don't ye?" said the guide. "Well, I should s'pose you'd want
+to trail up that moose to-morrow, and see what has become of him."
+
+"Of course I do! I forgot that."
+
+And Dol Farrar, who had thought his record of adventure and triumph so
+full that it could hold no more, realized that there is always for
+ambition a farther point.
+
+Neal did feel a little blue over the thought of what he had missed. But,
+being a generous-hearted fellow, he tasted his young brother's joy, when
+the latter cuddled close to him upon the evergreen boughs that night,
+muttering, as if the whole earth lay conquered at his feet:--
+
+"My legs are as stiff as ramrods, but who'd think of his legs after such
+a night as we've had?
+
+"I say, Neal, this is life; the little humbugging scrapes we used to
+call adventures at home are only play for girls. It's something to talk
+about for a lifetime, when a fellow comes to close quarters with a
+creature like that moose. I said I'd get the better of his ears, and I
+did it. Pinch me, old boy, if I begin a moose-call in my sleep."
+
+Several times during the night Neal found it necessary to obey this
+injunction, else had there been no peace in the camp. But, in spite of
+Dol's ravings and riotings in his excited dreams, the party enjoyed a
+needed ten hours' slumber, all save Herb, who, as usual, was astir the
+next morning while his comrades were yet snoring.
+
+He got his fire going well, and baked a great flat loaf of bread in his
+frying-pan, setting the pan amid hot ashes and covering it over.
+Previous to this, he had made a pilgrimage to the distant spring, to
+fill his kettle for coffee and bread-making, and had carefully examined
+the ground about the clump of hemlocks.
+
+The result of his investigation was given to the boys as they ate their
+breakfast under the shade of a cedar, with a sky above them whose
+morning glories were here and there overshot by leaden tints.
+
+"I guess we've got a pretty fair chance of trailing that moose," he
+said. "I found both hair and blood on the spot where he was wounded. I'm
+for following up his tracks, though I guess they'll take us a bit up the
+mountain. If he's hurt bad, 'twould be kind o' merciful to end his
+sufferings. If he ain't, we can let him get off."
+
+"Right, as you always are, Herb," answered Cyrus. "But what on earth
+made the creature bolt so suddenly? If you had seen him five minutes
+before he was shot, you'd have said he had as much fight in him as a
+lion."
+
+"That's the way with moose a'most always. Their courage ain't that o'
+flesh-eating animals. It's only a spurt; though it's a pretty big spurt
+sometimes, as you boys know now. It'll fail 'em in a minute, when you
+least expect it. And, you see, that one last night didn't know where his
+wound came from. I guess he thought he was struck by lightning or a
+thunder-ball, so he skipped. Talking of thunder-balls, boys," wound up
+Herb, "I shouldn't be surprised if the old Mountain Spirit, who lives up
+a-top there, gave us a rattling welcome with his thunders to-day. The
+air is awful heavy for this time of year. Perhaps we'd better give up
+the trailing after all."
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Dol indignantly. "Do you think a shower will melt
+us? Or that we'll squeal like girls at a few flashes of lightning?
+'Twould be jolly good fun to see old Pamolah sending off his artillery."
+
+"Well, there'd be no special danger, I guess, if we were past the heavy
+timber growth before the storm began. There's lots of rocky dens on the
+mountain side where we could shelter under a granite ledge, and be safer
+than we'd be here in tent. Or we might come a-near our old log camp. I
+guess, if that's standing yet, you'd like to see it. Say! we'll leave it
+to Cyrus. He's boss, ain't he?"
+
+Cyrus, desperately anxious to know whether it would be life or death for
+the wounded moose, and regarding the signs of bad weather as by no means
+certain, decided in favor of the expedition. The campers hurriedly
+swallowed the remainder of their breakfast, and made ready for an
+immediate start.
+
+"In trailing a moose the first rule is: go as light as you can; that is,
+don't carry an ounce more stuff than is necessary. Even a man's rifle is
+apt to get in his way when he has to scramble over windfalls, or slump
+between big bowlders of rock, which a'most tear the clothes off his
+back. And we may have to do some pretty tall climbing. So leave all your
+traps in the tent, boys; I'll fasten it down tight. There won't be any
+human robbers prowling around, you bet! Bears and coons are the only
+burglars of these woods, and they don't do much mischief in daytime."
+
+The guide rapidly gave these directions, his breezy voice setting a
+current of energy astir, like a wind-gust cutting through a quiet grove,
+while he rolled his indispensable axe, some bread that was left from the
+meal, and a lump of pork into a little bundle, which he strapped on his
+back.
+
+"Now," he said, "if that trail should give us a long tramp, or if you
+boys should take a notion to go a good ways up Katahdin, or anything
+turns up to hinder our getting back to camp till nightfall, I've our
+snack right here. I can light a fire in two minutes, to toast our pork;
+and we'll wash it down with mountain water, the best drink for climbers.
+I could rig you up a snug shelter, too, in case of accidents. A woodsman
+ain't in it without his axe."
+
+To what strange work that axe would be put ere night again closed its
+shutters over granite peaks and evergreen forest, Herb Heal little knew;
+nor could he have guessed that the coming hours would make the most
+heart-stirring day of his stirring life. If he could, would he have
+started out this morning with a happy-go-lucky whistle, softly modulated
+on his lips, and no more sober burden on his mind than the trail of that
+moose?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+ON KATAHDIN.
+
+
+"See there, boys, I told you so," said Herb, as the party reached the
+ever-to-be-remembered clump of hemlocks, the beginning of the trail
+which they were ready to follow up like sleuth-hounds. "There's plenty
+of hair; I guess I singed him in two places."
+
+He pointed to some shaggy clotted locks on the grass at his feet, and
+then to a small maroon-colored stain beside them.
+
+"Is that blood?" asked Neal.
+
+"Blood, sure enough, though there ain't much of it. But I'll tell you
+what! I'd as soon there wasn't any. I wish it had been light enough last
+night for me to act barber, and only cut some hair from that moose,
+instead of wounding him. It might have answered the purpose as well, and
+sent him walking."
+
+"I don't believe it would have done anything of the kind," exclaimed
+Dol. "He was far too red-hot an old customer to bolt because a bullet
+shaved him."
+
+"Well, I don't set up to be soft-hearted like Cyrus here; and I'm ready
+enough to bag my meat when I want it," said the woodsman. "But sure's
+you live, boys, I never wounded a free game creature yet, and seed it
+get away to pull a hurt limb and a cruel pain with it through the woods,
+that I could feel chipper afterwards. It's only your delicate city
+fellows who come out here for a shot once a year, who can chuckle over
+the pools of blood a wounded moose leaves behind him. Sho! it's not
+manly."
+
+A start was now made on the trail, Herb leading, and showing such
+wonderful skill as a trailer that the English boys began to believe his
+long residence in the woods had developed in him supernatural senses.
+
+"That moose was shot through the right fore-leg," he whispered, as the
+trackers reached the edge of the forest.
+
+"How do you know?" gasped the Farrars.
+
+The woodsman answered by kneeling, bending his face close to the ground,
+and drawing his brown finger successively round three prints on a soft
+patch of earth, which the unpractised eyes could scarcely discern.
+
+"There's no mark of the right fore-hoof," he whispered again presently;
+"nothing but _that_," pointing to another dark red blotch, which the
+boys would have mistaken for maroon-tinted moss.
+
+A breathless, wordless, toiling hour followed. Through the dense woods,
+which sloped steadily upward, clothing Katahdin's highlands, Herb Heal
+travelled on, now and again halting when the trail, because of freshly
+fallen pine-needles or leaves, became quite invisible. Again he would
+crouch close to the ground, make a circle with his finger round the last
+visible print, and work out from that, trying various directions, until
+he knew that he was again on the track which the limping moose had
+travelled before him.
+
+His comrades followed in single file, carrying their rifles in front of
+their bodies instead of on their shoulders, so that there might be no
+danger of a sudden clang or rattle from the barrels striking the trees.
+Following the example of their guide, each one carefully avoided
+stepping on crackling twigs or dry branches, or rustling against bushes
+or boughs. The latter they would take gingerly in their hands as they
+approached them, bend them out of the way, and gently release them as
+they passed. Heroically they forebore to growl when their legs were
+scraped by jagged bowlders or prickly shrubs, giving thanks inwardly to
+the manufacturers of their stout tweeds that their clothes held
+together, instead of hanging on them like streamers on a rag-bush.
+
+It was a good, practical lesson in moose-trailing; but, save for the
+knowledge gained by the three who had never stalked a moose before, it
+was a failure.
+
+The air beneath the dense foliage grew depressing--suffocating. Each one
+longed breathlessly for the minute when he should emerge from this heavy
+timber-growth, even to do more rugged climbing. Distant rumbles were
+heard. Herb's prophecy was being fulfilled. Pamolah was grumbling at the
+trailers, and sending out his Thunder Sons to bid them back.
+
+But it was too late for retreat. If they gave up their purpose, turned
+and fled to camp, the storm, which was surely coming, would catch them
+under the interlacing trees, a danger which the guide was especially
+anxious to avoid. He pressed on with quickened steps, stooping no more
+to make circles round the moose's prints. Old Pamolah's threatenings
+grew increasingly sullen. At last the desired break in the woods was
+reached; the trackers found themselves on the open side of Katahdin,
+surrounded by a tangled growth of alders and white birches struggling up
+between granite rocks; then the mountain artillery broke forth with
+terrifying clatter.
+
+A loud, long thunder-roll was echoed from crag, slide, forest, spur, and
+basin. The "home of storms" was a fort of noise.
+
+"Ha! there'll be a big cannonading this time, I guess. Pamolah is going
+to let fly at us with big shot, little shot, fire and water--all the
+forces the old scoundrel has," said Herb Heal, at last breaking the
+silence which had been kept on the trail, and looking aloft towards the
+five peaks guarding that mysterious basin, from which heavy, lurid
+clouds drifted down.
+
+At the same time a blustering, mighty wind-gust half swept the four
+climbers from their feet. A great flash of globe lightning cut the air
+like a dazzling fire-ball.
+
+"We'll have to quit our trailing, and scoot for shelter, I'm thinking!"
+exclaimed Cyrus.
+
+"Good land, I should say so!" agreed the guide. "The bull-moose likes
+thunder. He's away in some thick hole in the forest now, recovering
+himself. We couldn't have come up with him anyhow, boys, for them
+blood-spots had stopped. I guess his leg wasn't smashed; and he'll soon
+be as big a bully as ever. Follow me now, quick! Mind yer steps, though!
+Them bushes are awful catchy!"
+
+Undazzled by the lightning's frequent flare, unstaggered by the
+down-rushing wind, as if the mountain thunders were only the roll of an
+organ about his ears, Herb Heal sprang onward and upward, tugging his
+comrades one by one up many a precipitous ledge, and pulling them to
+their feet again when the tripping bushes brought their noses to the
+ground and their heels into the air.
+
+"Hitch on to me, Dol!" he cried, suddenly turning on that youngster, who
+was trying to get his second breath. "Tie on to me tight. I'll tow you
+up! I wish we could ha' reached that old log camp, boys. 'Twould be a
+stunning shelter, for it has a wall of rock to the back. But it's higher
+up, and off to the right. There! I see the den I'm aiming for."
+
+A few energetic bounds brought Herb, with Dol in tow, to a platform of
+rock, which rose above a bed of blueberry bushes. It narrowed into a
+sort of cave, roofed by an overhanging bowlder.
+
+"We'll be snug enough under this rock!" he exclaimed, pointing to the
+canopy. "Creep in, boys. We'll have tubs of rain, and a pelting of hail.
+The rumpus is only beginning."
+
+So it was. The storm had been creeping from its cradle. Now it swept
+down with an awful whirl and commingling of elements.
+
+The boys, peering out from their rocky nest, saw a magnificent panorama
+beneath them. The regiments of the air were at war. Lightning chains
+encircled the heavens, lighting up the forests below. Winds charged down
+the mountain-side, sweeping stones and bushes before them. Hail-bullets
+rattled in volleys. Thunder-artillery boomed until the very rocks seemed
+'to shake.
+
+"It's fine!" exclaimed Cyrus. "It's super-fine!"
+
+Then a curtain of thick rain partly hid the warfare, the lightning still
+rioting through it like a beacon of battle.
+
+"The stones up above will have to be pretty firmly fixed to keep their
+places," said Herb. "Boys, I hope there ain't a-going to be slides on
+the mountain after this."
+
+"Slides?" echoed Dol questioningly.
+
+"Landslides, kid. Say! if you want to be scared until your bones feel
+limp, you've got to hear a great big block of granite come ploughing
+down from the top 'o the mountain, bringing earth and bushes along with
+it, and smashing even the rocks to splinters as it pounds along."
+
+"I guess that's a sensation we'd rather be spared," said Cyrus gravely.
+
+And under the quieting spell of the airy warfare there was silence for a
+while.
+
+"Do you think it's lightening up, Herb?" asked Neal, after the storm had
+raged for three-quarters of an hour.
+
+"I guess it is. The rain is stopping too. But we'll have an awful slushy
+time of it getting back to camp. To plough through them soaked forests
+below would be enough to give you city fellows a shaking ague."
+
+"Couldn't we climb on to your old log camp?" suggested Garst. "If we
+have the luck to find the old shanty holding together, we can light a
+fire there after things dry out a bit, and eat our snack. Then we
+needn't be in a hurry to get down. We'll risk it, anyhow."
+
+"I reckon that's about the only thing to be done," assented the guide.
+
+And in twenty minutes' time the four were again straining up Katahdin,
+clutching slippery rocks, sinking in sodden earth, shivering as they
+were besprinkled by every bush and dwarfed tree, and dreadfully hampered
+with their rifles.
+
+"Never mind, boys; we'll get there! Clinch yer teeth, and don't squirm!
+Once we're past this tangle, the bit of climbing that's left will be as
+easy as rolling off a log!"
+
+So shouted Herb cheerfully, as he tore a way with hand and foot through
+the stunted growth of alders and birch, which, beaten down by the winds,
+was now an almost impassable, sopping tangle.
+
+"Keep in my tracks!" he bellowed again. "Gracious! but this sort o' work
+is as slow as molasses crawling up-hill in winter."
+
+But ten minutes later, when the dripping jungle was behind, he dropped
+his jesting tone.
+
+He came to a full stop, catching his breath with a big gulp.
+
+"Boys," he cried, "it's standing yet! I see it--the old home-camp! There
+it is above us on that bit of a platform, with the big rock behind it.
+And I've kep' saying to myself for the last quarter of an hour that we
+wouldn't find it--that we'd find nary a thing but mildewed logs!"
+
+A wealth of memories was in the woodsman's eyes as he gazed up at the
+timber nest, the log camp which his own hands had put up, standing on a
+narrow plateau, and built against a protecting wall of rock that rose in
+jagged might to a height of thirty or forty feet.
+
+An earth bank or ridge, covered with hardy mosses and mountain creepers,
+sloped gently up to the sheltered platform. To climb this was, indeed,
+"as easy as rolling off a log."
+
+"We used to have a good beaten path here, but I guess it's all growed
+over," said Herb in a thick voice, as if certain cords in his throat
+were swelling. "Many's the time I've blessed the sight of that old
+home-camp, boys, after a hard week's trapping. Hundert's o' night's I've
+slept snug inside them log walls when blasts was a-sweeping and
+bellowing around, like as if they'd rip the mountain open, and tear its
+very rocks out."
+
+While the guide spoke he was leaping up the ridge. A few minutes, and he
+stood, a towering figure, on the platform above, waving his battered hat
+in salute to the old camp.
+
+"I guess some traveller has been sheltering here lately!" he cried to
+Neal Farrar, as the latter overtook him. "There's a litter around,"
+pointing to dry sticks and withered bushes strewn upon the
+camping-ground. "And the door's standing open. I wonder who found the
+old shanty?"
+
+Neal remembered, hours afterwards, that at the moment he felt an odd
+awakening stir in him, a stir which, shooting from head to foot, seemed
+to warn him that he was nearing a sensation, the biggest sensation of
+this wilderness trip.
+
+He heard the voices of Cyrus and Dol hallooing behind; but they sounded
+away back and indistinct, for his ears were bent towards the deserted
+camp, listening with breathless expectation for something, he didn't
+know what.
+
+One minute the vague suspense lasted, while he followed Herb towards the
+hut. Then heaven and earth and his own heart seemed to stand still.
+
+Through the wide-open door of the shanty came random, crooning snatches
+of sound. Was the guttural voice which made them human? The English boy
+scarcely knew. But as the noise swelled, like the moaning of a dry wind
+among trees, he began, as it were, to disentangle it. Words shaped
+themselves, Indian words which he had heard before on the guide's
+tongue.
+
+  "_N'loan pes-saus, mok glint ont-aven,
+  Glint ont-aven, nosh morgun_."
+
+These lines from the "Star Song," the song which Herb had learned from
+his traitor chum, floated out to him upon Katahdin's breeze. They struck
+young Farrar's ears in staggering tones, like a knell, the sadness of
+which he could not at the moment understand. But he had a vague
+impression that the mysterious singer in the deserted camp attached no
+meaning to what he chanted.
+
+"Look out, I say! I don't want to come a cropper here."
+
+It was Dol's young voice which rang out shrilly among the mountain
+echoes. Side by side with Cyrus, the boy had just gained the top of the
+ridge when the guide suddenly backed upon him, Herb's great
+shoulder-blade knocking him in the face, so that he had to plant his
+feet firmly to avoid spinning back.
+
+But Herb had heard that guttural crooning. Just now he could hear
+nothing else.
+
+Twice he made a heaving effort to speak, and the voice cracked in his
+throat.
+
+Then, as he sprang for the camp-door, four words stumbled from his
+lips:--
+
+"By thunder! it's Chris."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+THE OLD HOME-CAMP.
+
+
+The silence which followed that ejaculation was like the hush of earth
+before a thunder-storm.
+
+Not a syllable passed the lips of the boys as they followed Herb into
+the log hut, but feeling seemed wagging a startled tongue in each
+finger-tip which convulsively pressed the rifles.
+
+And not another articulate sentence came from the guide; only his throat
+swelled with a deep, amazed gurgle as he reached the interior of the
+shanty, and dropped his eyes upon the individual who raised that queer
+chanting.
+
+On a bed of withered spruce boughs, strewn higgledy-piggledy upon the
+camp-floor--mother earth--lay the form of a man. Thin wisps of
+blue-black hair, long untrimmed, trailed over his face and neck, which
+looked as if they were carved out of yellow bone. His figure was
+skeleton-like. His lips--the lips which at the entrance of the strangers
+never ceased their wild crooning--were swollen and fever-scorched. His
+black eyes, disfigured by a hideous squint, rolled with the sick fancies
+of delirium.
+
+Cyrus and the Farrars, while they looked upon him, felt that, even if
+they had never heard Herb's exclamation, they would have had no
+difficulty in identifying the creature, remembering that story which had
+thrilled them by the camp-fire at Millinokett. It was Herb Heal's
+traitor chum--the half-breed, Cross-eyed Chris.
+
+And Herb, backing off from the withered couch as far as the limited
+space of the cabin would allow, stood with his shoulders against the
+mouldy logs of the wall, his eyes like peep-holes to a volcano, gulping
+and gurgling, while he swallowed back a fire of amazed excitement and
+defeated anger, for which his backwoods vocabulary was too cheap.
+
+A flame seemed scorching and hissing about his heart while he
+remembered that during some hour of every day for five years, since last
+he had seen the "hound" who robbed him, he had sworn that, if ever he
+caught the thief, he would pounce upon him with a woodsman's vengeance.
+
+"I couldn't touch him now--the scum! But I'll be switched if I'll do a
+thing to help him!" he hissed, the flame leaping to his lips.
+
+Yet he had a strange sensation, as if that vow was broken like an
+egg-shell even while he made it. He knew that "the two creatures which
+had fought inside of him, tooth and claw," about the fate of his enemy,
+were pinching his heart by turns in a last hot conflict.
+
+His eyes shot flinty sparks; he drew his breath in hard puffs; his
+knotted throat twitched and swelled, while they (the man and the brute)
+strove within him; and all the time he stood staring in grisly silence
+at the half-breed.
+
+The latter still continued his Indian croon; though from the crazy roll
+of his malformed eyes it was plain that he knew not whether he chanted
+about the stars, his old friends and guides, or about anything else in
+heaven or earth.
+
+But one thing quickly became clear to Cyrus, and then to the Farrar
+boys,--less accustomed to tragedy than their comrade,--that this strange
+personage, in whose veins the blood of white men and red men met,
+carrying in its turbid flow the weaknesses of two races, was singing his
+swan-song, the last chant he would ever raise on earth.
+
+At their first entrance, as their bodies interfered with the broad light
+streaming through the cabin-door, Chris had lifted towards them a
+scared, shrinking stare. But, apparently, he took them for the shadows
+which walked in the dreams of his delirium. Not a ray of recognition
+lightened the blankness of that stare as Herb's big figure passed before
+him. Letting his eyes wander aimlessly again from log wall to log wall,
+from withered bed to mouldy rafters, his lips continued their crooning,
+which sank with his weakening breath, then rose again to sink once more,
+like the last wind-gusts when the storm is over.
+
+Suddenly his shrunken body shivered in every limb. The humming ceased.
+His yellow teeth tapped upon each other in trouble and fear. He raised
+himself to a squatting posture, with his knee-bones to his chin, the
+wisps of hair tumbling upon his naked chest.
+
+"It's dark--heap dark!" he whimpered, between long gasps. "Can't strike
+the trail--can't find the home-camp. Herb--Herb Heal--ole pard--'twas I
+took 'em--the skins. 'Twas--a dog's trick. Take it out--o' my hide--if
+yer wants to--yah! Heap sick!"
+
+Not a ray of sense was yet in the half-breed's eyes. An imaginary,
+vengeance-dealing Herb was before him; but he never turned a glance
+towards the real, and now forgiving, old chum, who leaned against the
+wall not ten feet away. His voice dropped to a guttural rumble, in which
+Indian sounds mingled with English.
+
+But the flame at Herb's heart was quenched at the first whimpered word.
+His stiffened muscles and lips relaxed. With a gurgle of sorrow, he
+crossed the camp-floor, and dropped into a crawling position on the
+faded spruces.
+
+"Chris!" he cried thickly. "Chris,--poor old pard,--don't ye know me?
+Look, man! Herb is right here--Herb Heal, yer old chum. You're 'heap
+sick' for sure; but we'll haul you off to a settlement or to our camp,
+and I'll bring Doc along in two days. He'll"--
+
+But Cross-eyed Chris became past hearing, his flicker of strength had
+failed; he keeled over, and lay, with his limp legs curled up, faint and
+speechless, upon the dead evergreens.
+
+"You ain't a-going to die!" gasped Herb defiantly. "I'll be jiggered if
+you be, jest as I've found you! Say, boys! Cyrus! Neal! rub him a bit,
+will ye? We ain't got no brandy, I'll build a fire, and warm some
+coffee."
+
+It was strange work for the hands of the Bostonian, and stranger yet for
+those of young Farrar,--son of an English merchant-prince,--this
+straightening and rubbing of a dying half-Indian, a "scum," as Herb
+called him, drunkard, and thief. Yet there was no flash of hesitation on
+Farrar's part, as they brought their warm friction to bear upon the
+chill yellow skin, piebald from dirt and the stains of travel, as if it
+were the very mission which had brought them to Katahdin.
+
+They had grave thoughts meanwhile that the old mountain was decidedly
+gloomy in its omens, first a thunder-storm and then a tragedy; for, rub
+as they might with brotherly hands, they could not pass their own
+warmth into the body of the half-breed, though he still lived.
+
+But the mountain had not ended its terrors yet.
+
+Its mumbling lips began to speak, with a threatening, low at first like
+muttered curses, but swelling into a nameless noise--a rumbling,
+pounding, creeping, crashing.
+
+"Great Governor's Ghost! what's that?" gasped Cyrus, stopping his
+rubbing. "Pamolah or some other fiend seems to be bombarding us from the
+top now."
+
+"It's more thunder rolling over us," said Neal; but as he spoke his
+tongue turned stiff with fear.
+
+"Sounds as if the whole mountain was tumbling to pieces. Perhaps it's
+the end of the world," suggested Dol, as a succession of booming shocks
+from above seemed to shake the camping-ground under his feet.
+
+There was one second of awful indecision. The boys looked at each other,
+at the dying man, at the roof above them, in the stiffness of uncertain
+terror.
+
+Then a figure leaped into their midst, with an armful of dry sticks,
+which he dashed from him. It was Herb, with the fuel for a fire. And,
+for the first and last time in his history, so far as these friends of
+his knew it, there was that big fear in his face which is most terrible
+when it looks out of the eyes of a naturally brave man.
+
+"Boys, where's yer senses?" he yelled cuttingly. "Out, for your lives!
+Run! There's a slide above us on the mountain!"
+
+"Him?" questioned Cyrus's stiff lips, as he pointed to the breathing
+wreck on the spruce boughs. "He's not dead yet."
+
+"D'ye think I'd leave him? Clear out of this camp--you, or we'll be
+buried in less'n two minutes! To the right! Off this ridge! Got yer
+rifles? I'm coming!"
+
+The woodsman flung out the words while his brawny arms hoisted the body
+of his old chum. His comrades had already disappeared when he turned and
+sprang for the camp-door with his limp burden, but his moccasined foot
+kicked against something.
+
+A great hiccough which was almost a sob rose from Herb's throat. It was
+his one valuable possession, his 45-90 Winchester rifle, his second
+self, which he had rested against the log wall.
+
+"Good-by, Old Blazes!" he grunted. "You never went back on me, but I
+can't lug him and you! My stars! but that was a narrow squeak."
+
+For, as he cleared the camping-ground with a blind dash, with head bent
+and tongue caught between his clenched teeth, with a boom like a Gatling
+gun, a great block of granite from the summit of Katahdin struck the
+rock which sheltered the old camp, breaking a big piece off it, and shot
+on with mighty impetus down the mountain.
+
+An avalanche of loose earth, stones, and bushes, brought down by this
+battering-ram of the landslide, piled themselves upon the log hut,
+smashing to kindling-wood its walls, which had stood many a hard storm,
+burying them out of sight, and flinging wide showers of dust and small
+missiles.
+
+A scattered rain of clay caught Herb upon the head, and lodged, some of
+it, on the little pack containing axe and lunch which was strapped upon
+his shoulders.
+
+He shook. His grip loosened. The limp, dragging body in his arms sank
+until the feet touched the earth.
+
+But with the supreme effort, moral and physical, of his life, the forest
+guide gathered it tight again.
+
+"I'll be blowed if I'll drop him now," he gasped. "He ain't nothing but
+a bag o' bones, anyhow."
+
+Only a strong man in the hour of his best strength could have done it.
+With a defiant snort Herb charged through the choking dust-clouds,
+pelted by flying pebbles, sods, and fragments of sticks.
+
+"This way, boys!" he roared, after five straining, staggering minutes,
+as he caught a glimpse of his comrades ahead, tearing off to the right,
+as he had bidden them. "You may let up now. We're safe enough."
+
+They faced back, and saw him make a few reeling, descending steps, then
+lay what now seemed to be an out-and-out lifeless man on a bed of moss
+beneath a dwarfed spruce.
+
+The nerves of the three were in a jumping condition, their brains felt
+befuddled, and their hearts sinking and melting in the midst of their
+bones, from the astounding shock and terror of the land-slide. But, as
+they beheld the guide deposit his burden, with its helplessly trailing
+head and limbs, a cheer in unsteady tones rang above the slackening
+rattle of earth and stones, and the far-away boom of the granite-block
+as it buried itself in the forest beneath.
+
+"Hurrah! for you, Herb, old boy," yelled Cyrus triumphantly. "That was
+the grittiest thing I ever saw done' Hurrah! Hurrah! Hoo-ray!"
+
+The English boys, open-throated, swelled the peal.
+
+But their cheering broke off as they came near, and saw the mask-like
+face over which Herb bent.
+
+"Is he gone, poor fellow?" asked Garst. "What do you suppose caused
+it--the slide?"
+
+"Why, it was a thundering big lump of granite from the top o' the
+mountain," answered Herb, replying to the second question. "That plaguy
+heavy rain must ha' loosened the earth around it the clay and bushes
+that kep' it in place. So it got kind o' top-heavy, and came slumping
+and pitching down, slow at first, and then a'most as quick as a
+cannon-ball, bringing all that pile along with it. I've seen the like
+before; but, sho! I never came so near being buried by it."
+
+He pointed as he spoke to the late camping-ground, with its lodgment of
+clay, sods, pygmy trees, and pieces of rock, big and little.
+
+[Illustration: "HERB CHARGED THROUGH THE CHOKING DUST-CLOUDS.]
+
+"The old camp's clean wiped out, boys," he said; "and I guess one of the
+men that built it is gone, or a'most gone, too. Stick your arm under
+his head, Cyrus, while I hunt for some water."
+
+Garst did as he was bidden, but his help was not needed long. The guide
+went off like a racer, covering the ground at a stretching gallop. He
+remembered well the clear Katahdin spring, which had supplied the
+home-camp during that long-past trapping winter. He returned with his
+tin mug full.
+
+When the ice-cold drops touched Chris's forehead, and lay on his parted
+lips, gem-like drops which he was past swallowing, his malformed eyes
+slowly opened. There was intelligence in them, shining through the
+gathering death-film, like a sinking light in a lantern.
+
+He was groping in the dim border-land now, and in it he recognized his
+old partner with shadowy wonder; for delirium was past, with the other
+storms of a storm-beaten life.
+
+"Herb," he gurgled in snatches, the words being half heard, half guessed
+at, "'twas I--took 'em--the skins--an' the antlers. I wanted--to get--to
+the ole camp--an' let you--take it out o' me--afore I--keeled over."
+
+Herb had taken Cyrus's place, and was upholding him with a tenderness
+which showed that the guide's heart was in this hour melted to a jelly.
+Two tears were dammed up inside his eyelids, which were so unused to
+tears that they held them in. He neither wiped nor winked them away
+before he answered:--
+
+"Don't you fret about that--poor kid. We'll chuck that old business
+clean out o' mind. You've jest got to suck this water and try to chipper
+up, and--we'll make camp together again."
+
+But Herb knew as well as he knew anything that the man who had robbed
+him was long past "chippering up," and was starting alone to the unseen
+camping-grounds.
+
+"How long since you got back here?" he' asked, close to the dulling ear.
+
+"Couldn't--keep--track--o' days. Got--turned--round--in woods.
+Lost--trail--heap--long--getting--to--th' old--camp."
+
+The words seemed freezing on the lips which uttered them. Herb asked no
+more questions. Silence was broken only by the rolling voice of the
+land-slide, which had not yet ceased. Occasional volleys of loose earth
+and stones, dislodged or shaken by the down-plunging granite, still
+kept falling at intervals on the buried camp.
+
+At one unusually loud rattle, Chris's lips moved again. In those strange
+gutturals which the boys had heard in the hut, he rumbled an Indian
+sentence, repeating it in English with scared, breaking breaths.
+
+It was a prayer of her tribe which his mother had taught him to say at
+morning and eve:--
+
+"God--I--am--weak--Pity--me!"
+
+"Heap--noise! Heap--dark!" he gasped. "Can't--find--th' old--camp."
+
+"You're near it now, old chum," said Herb, trying to soothe him. "It's
+the home-camp."
+
+"We'll--camp--to-ge-ther?"
+
+"We will again, sure."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The last stone pounded down on the heap above the old camp; and Herb
+gently laid flat the body of the man he had sworn to shoot, closed the
+malformed eyes, and turned away, that the fellows he was guiding might
+not see his face.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+BROTHERS' WORK.
+
+
+They buried Chris upon Katahdin's breast. It was a good cemetery for
+woodsmen, so Herb said, granite above and forest beneath.
+
+But, good or bad, this was the one thing to be done. An attempt to
+transfer the body to a distant settlement would be objectless labor;
+for, as far as the guide knew, the half-breed had not a friend to be
+interested in his fate, father and mother having died before Herb found
+him in the snow-heaped forest.
+
+There were three reliable witnesses, besides the man who was known to
+have a grudge against him, to testify as to the cause and manner of his
+death when the party returned to Greenville; so no suspicious finger
+could point at Herb Heal, with a hint that he had carried out his old
+threat.
+
+How long Chris, in lonely, crazed repentance, had sheltered in the camp
+on the mountain-side could only be a matter of guess. Herb inclined to
+think that he had been there for weeks,--months, perhaps,--judging from
+the withered spruce bed and the dry boughs and sticks upon the
+camping-ground, which had evidently been gathered and broken for fuel.
+His ravings made it clear that, on returning to the old haunts after
+years of absence, he had missed the trail he used to know, and wandered
+wearily in the dense woods about the foot of Katahdin before he escaped
+from the prison of trees, and climbed to the hut he sought.
+
+Such wanderings, Herb declared, generally ended in "a man having wheels
+in his head," being half or wholly insane, though he might keep
+sufficient wits to provide himself with food and warmth, as Chris had
+done while his strength held out. This was not long; for the
+half-breed's words suggested that he felt near to the great change he
+roughly called "keeling over," when he started to find his cheated
+partner.
+
+But Cyrus, while he watched the guide making preparations for the
+mountain burial, pictured the poor weakling tramping for hundreds of
+miles through rugged forest-land, doubtless with aching knee-joints and
+feet, that he might make upon his own skin justice for the skins which
+he had stolen, and so, in the only way he knew, square things with his
+wronged chum. And the city man thought, with a tear of pity, that even
+that poor drink-fuddled mind must have been lit by some ray of longing
+for goodness.
+
+It was a strange funeral.
+
+The guide chose a spot where the earth had been much softened by the
+recent rain; and, with the ingenuity of a man accustomed to wilderness
+shifts, he broke up the drenched ground with the axe which he took from
+his shoulders.
+
+That axe, which had so often made camp, had never before made a grave;
+the Farrars doubted that it ever would. But Herb worked away upon his
+knees, moisture dripping from his skin, putting sorrow for years of
+anger into every blow of his arms. Then, stopping a while, he went off
+down the mountain to the nearest belt of trees, and cut a limb from one,
+out of which, with his hunting-knife, he fashioned a rude wooden
+implement, a cross between a spade and shovel.
+
+With this he scooped out the broken earth until a grave appeared over
+three feet deep. He lined it with fragrant spruce-boughs from the
+wind-beaten tangle below.
+
+These Cyrus and Dol had busied themselves in cutting. Neal thought of
+other work for his fingers. Getting hold of Herb's axe when the owner
+was not using it, he felled one of the dwarf white birches. Out of its
+light, delicate wood, with the help of his big pocket-knife and a ball
+of twine that was hidden somewhere about him, he made a very presentable
+cross, to point out to future hunters on Katahdin the otherwise unmarked
+grave.
+
+He was a bit of a genius at wood-carving, and surveyed his work with
+satisfaction when he considered it finished, having neatly cut upon it
+the name, "Chris Kemp," with the date, "October 20th, 1891."
+
+"Couldn't you add a text or motto of some kind?" suggested Dol, glancing
+over his shoulder. "Twould make it more like the things one sees in
+cemeteries. You're such a dab at that sort of work."
+
+"Can't think of anything," answered the elder brother.
+
+Then, with a sudden lighting of his face, he seized the knife again, and
+worked in, in fine lettering, the frightened prayer he had heard on the
+half-breed's lips:--
+
+"God, I am weak; pity me!"
+
+Herb and Cyrus lowered the body into its resting-place, and covered it
+with the green spruces.
+
+The four campers knelt bare-headed by the grave.
+
+"Couldn't one of you boys say a bit of a prayer?" asked Herb in a thick
+voice. "I ain't used to spouting."
+
+All former help had been easily given. This was a harder matter, yet not
+so difficult as it would have been amid a city congregation.
+
+Garst tried to recall some suitable prayer from a funeral service; so
+did Neal. Both failed.
+
+But here upon Katahdin's side, where, in the large forces of storm and
+slide, in forest and granite, through every wind-swept bush, waving
+blade, and tinted lichen, breathed a whisper from God, it seemed no
+unnatural thing for a man or a boy to speak to his Father.
+
+"Can't one of you fellers say a prayer?" asked Herb again.
+
+Then the river of feeling in Cyrus broke the dam of reserve, and flowed
+over his lips in a prayer such as he had never before uttered.
+
+It was the prayer of a son who was for the minute absorbed in his
+Father.
+
+It left the five, those who were camping here and one who had gone to
+unseen camping-grounds, with son-like trust to the Father's dealings.
+
+Herb and the Farrars responded to it with heart-eager "Amens!" the
+fervor of which was new to their lips.
+
+"I thank you as if he were my own brother, boys," said the woodsman,
+while he filled in the grave, and planted Neal's cross at its head.
+"Sho! when it comes to a time like we've been through to-day, a man, if
+he has anything but a gizzard in him, must feel as how we're all
+brothers,--every man-jack of us,--white men, red men, half-and-half men,
+whatever we are or wherever we sprung."
+
+"A fellow is always hearing that sort of thing," said Neal Farrar to
+Cyrus. "But I'm blessed if I ever felt it stick in me before! that we're
+all of the one stuff, you know--we and that poor beggar. Some of us
+seem to get such precious long odds over the others."
+
+"All the more reason why we should do our level best to pull the
+backward ones up to us," answered the American.
+
+The words struck into the ears of Dol--that youngster listening with a
+soberness of attention seldom seen in his flash-light eyes.
+
+A few years afterwards, when Neal Farrar was a newly blown lieutenant in
+his Queen's Twelfth Lancers, as full of heroic impulses and enthusiasms
+as a modern young officer may be,--while his half-fledged ambitions were
+hanging on the chances of active service, and the golden, remote
+possibility of his one day being a V.C.,--there was a peaceful honor
+which clung to him unsought.
+
+During his first year of army life, he became the paragon of every poor
+private and raw recruit struggling with the miseries of goose-step, with
+whom he came even into momentary contact. For sometimes through a word
+or act, sometimes through a flash of the eye, or a look about the mouth,
+during the brief interchange of a military salute, these "backward ones"
+saw that the progressive young officer looked on them, not as
+men-machines, but as brothers, as important in the great schemes of the
+nation and the world as he was himself; that he was proud to serve with
+them, and would be prouder still to help them if he could.
+
+It was an understanding which inspired many a tempted or newly joined
+fellow to drill himself morally as his sergeant drilled him physically,
+with a determination to become as fine a soldier and forward a man as
+his paragon.
+
+But only one American friend of Lieutenant Farrar's, who has let out the
+secret to the writer, knows that the binding truth of human brotherhood
+was first born into him when, on Katahdin's side, he helped to bury a
+thieving half-Indian.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+"KEEPING THINGS EVEN."
+
+
+"Now, you musn't be moping, boys, because of this day's work that you
+took a hand in, and that wasn't in your play-bill when you come to these
+woods. We'll have to try and even things up to-morrow with some big
+sport. You look kind o' wilted."
+
+So said Herb when the tired party were half-way back to camp, doing the
+descent of the mountain in a silence clouded by the scene which they had
+been through.
+
+The woodsman seemed troubled with a rasping in his throat. He cleared it
+twice and spat before he could open a passage for a decently cheerful
+voice in which to suggest a rise of spirits. But Herb was too faithful
+a guide to bear the thought that his employers' trip should end in any
+gloom because the one painful chapter in his own life had closed
+forever. Moreover, although more than once, as he fought his way through
+a jungle or jumped a windfall, something nipped his heart, pinching him
+up inside, and making his eyes leak, he felt that the thing had ended
+well for him--and for Chris.
+
+Herb, in his simple faith, scarcely doubted that the old chum, whom he
+had forgiven, had reached a Home-Camp where his broken will and stunted
+life might be repaired, and grow as they had poor chance to grow here.
+
+"Say, boys!" he burst forth, a few minutes after his protest against
+"moping," and when the band were within sight of the spring whence they
+had started, an age back, as it seemed, on the trail of the moose. "Say,
+boys! I've been all these years raging at Chris. Seems to me now as if
+he was a poor sort of overgrowed baby, and not so bad a thief as the
+chump who gave him that whiskey, and stole his senses. It's a thundering
+big pity that man hadn't the burying of him to-day.
+
+"He was always the under dog,--was Chris," he went on slowly, as if he
+was seeking from his own heart an excuse for those unforeseen impulses
+which had worked it and his body during the past five hours. "Whites and
+Injuns jumped on him. They said he was criss-cross all through, same as
+his eyes. But he warn't. Never seed a half-breed that had less gall and
+more grit, except when the hanker for whiskey would creep up in him, and
+boss him. He could no more stand agen it, and the things it made him do,
+than a jack-rabbit."
+
+"Another reason why we Americans ought to feel our responsibility
+towards every man in whose veins runs Indian blood, a thousand times
+more hotly than we do!" burst out Cyrus. "It maddens a fellow to think
+that we made them the under dogs, and as much by giving them a 'boss,'
+as you say, in fire-water, as by anything else."
+
+"I kind o' think that way myself sometimes," said Herb.
+
+And there was silence until the guide cried:--
+
+"Here's our camp, boys. I'll bet you're glad to see it. I must get the
+kettle, and cruise off for water. 'Tain't likely I'll trust one of you
+fellers after last night. But you can hustle round and build the
+camp-fire while I'm gone."
+
+Herb had a shrewd motive in this. He knew that there is nothing which
+will cure the blues in a camper, if he is touched by that affliction,
+rare in forest life, like the building of his fire, watching the little
+flames creep from the dull, dead wood, to roar and soar aloft in
+gold-red pennons of good cheer.
+
+The result proved his wisdom. When he returned in a very short time from
+that ever-to-be-famous spring, with his brimming kettle, he found a
+glorious fire, and three tired but cheerful fellows watching it, its
+reflection playing like a jack-o'-lantern in each pair of eyes.
+
+"Now I'll have supper ready in a jiffy," he said. "I guess you boys feel
+like eating one another. Jerusha! we never touched our snack--nary a
+crumb of it."
+
+In the strange happenings and chaotic feelings of the day, hunger,
+together with the bread and pork for satisfying it which Herb had
+carried up the mountain, were forgotten until now.
+
+"Never mind! We'll make up for it. Only hurry up!" pleaded Dol. "We're
+like bears, we're so hungry."
+
+"Like bears! You're a sight more like calves with their mouths open,
+waiting for something to swallow," answered Herb, his eyes flashing
+impudence, while, with an energy apparently no less brisk than when he
+started out in the morning, he rushed his preparations for supper.
+
+"Say I'm like a Sukey, and I'll go for you!" roared Dol, a gurgling
+laugh breaking from him, the first which had been heard since the four
+struggled through that tangle on Katahdin to a sight of the old camp.
+
+Once or twice during supper the mirth, which had been frozen in each
+camper's breast by a sight of the drifted wreck of a human life, warmed
+again spasmodically. Herb did his manly best to fan its flame, though
+his heart was still pinched by a feeling of double loss.
+
+Later in the evening, when the party were huddling close to the
+camp-fire, he lifted his right hand and looked at it blankly.
+
+"My!" he gasped, "but it will feel awful queer and empty without Old
+Blazes. That rifle was a reg'lar corker, boys. I was saving up for three
+years to buy it. An' it never went back on me. Times when I've gone far
+off hunting, and had nary a chance to speak to a human for weeks, I'd
+get to talking to it like as if 'twas a living thing. When I wasn't
+afeard of scaring game, I'd fire a round to make it answer back and
+drive away lonesomeness. Folks might ha' thought I was loony, only there
+was none to see. Well, it's smashed to chips now, 'long with the old
+camp."
+
+"What awfully selfish jackasses we were, to skip off with our own
+rifles, and never think of yours, or that you couldn't save it, carrying
+that poor fellow! I feel like kicking myself," said Cyrus, sharp
+vexation in his voice. "But that slide business sprang on us so quickly.
+The sudden rumbling, rattling, and pounding jumbled a fellow's wits. I
+scarcely understood what was up, even when we were scooting for our
+lives."
+
+"I felt a bit white-livered myself, I tell ye; and I'm more hardened to
+slides than you are," was the woodsman's answer.
+
+The confession, taken in the light of his conduct, made him doubly a
+hero to his city friends.
+
+They thought of him staggering along the mountain, blinded, bewildered,
+pelted by clay, with that dragging burden in his arms, a heart tossed by
+danger's keenest realization in his breast. And they were silent before
+the high courage which can recognize fear, yet refuse to it the mastery.
+
+Neal, whose secret musings were generally crossed by a military thread,
+seeing that he had chosen the career of a cavalry-soldier, and hoped
+soon to enter Sandhurst College, stared into the heart of the camp-fire,
+glowering at fate, because she had not ordained that Herb should serve
+the queen with him, and wear upon his resolute heart--as it might
+reasonably be expected he would--the Victoria Cross.
+
+Young Farrar's feeling was so strong that it swept his lips at last.
+
+"Blow it all! Herb," he cried. "It's a tearing pity that you can't come
+into the English Lancers with me. I don't suppose I'll ever be a V.C.,
+but you would sooner or later as sure as gun's iron."
+
+"A 'V.C.!' What's that?" asked Herb.
+
+"A Vigorous Christian, to be sure!" put in Cyrus, who was progressive
+and peaceful, teasingly.
+
+But the English boy, full of the dignity of the subject to him, summoned
+his best eloquence to describe to the American backwoodsman that little
+cross of iron, Victoria's guerdon, which entitles its possessor to
+write those two notable letters after his name, and which only
+hero-hearts may wear.
+
+But a vision of himself, stripped of "sweater" and moccasins, in cavalry
+rig, becrossed and beribboned, serving under another flag than the Stars
+and Stripes, was too much for Herb's gravity and for the grim regrets
+which wrung him to-night.
+
+"Oh, sugar!" he gasped; and his laughter was like a rocket shooting up
+from his mighty throat, and exploding in a hundred sparkles of
+merriment.
+
+He laughed long. He laughed insistently. His comrades were won to join
+in.
+
+When the fun had subsided, Garst said:--
+
+"Herb Heal, old man, there's something in you to-night which reminds me
+of a line I'm rather stuck on."
+
+"Let's have it!" cried Herb.
+
+And Cyrus quoted:--
+
+  "As for this here earth,
+  It takes lots of laffin' to keep things even!"
+
+"Now you've hit it! The man that wrote that had a pile o' sense. Come,
+boys, it's been an awful full day. Let's turn in!"
+
+As he spoke, Herb began to replenish the fire, and make things snug in
+the camp for the night.
+
+But shortly after, when he threw himself on the spuce-boughs near them,
+the boys heard him murmur, deep in his throat, as if he took strength
+from the words:--
+
+  "It takes lots of laffin' to keep things even!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+A LITTLE CARIBOU QUARREL.
+
+
+But things on this old planet seemed even enough the next day, when,
+after a dozen hours of much needed sleep, the campers' eyes opened upon
+a scene which might have stirred any sluggish blood--and they were not
+sluggards.
+
+A fresh breath of frost was in the air to quicken circulation and
+hunger. Under a smiling sun an October breeze frolicked through leaves
+with tints of fire and gold, humming, while it swiftly skimmed over
+their beauties, as if it was reading a wind's poem of autumn.
+
+Katahdin looked as though it had suddenly taken on the white crown of
+age, with age's stately calm. The weather had grown colder during the
+night. Summer--the balmy Indian summer, with its late spells of
+sultriness--had taken a weeping departure yesterday. To-day there was no
+threatening of rain-storm or slide. The mountain's principal peaks had
+fleecy wraps of snow.
+
+"Ha! Old Katahdin has put on its nightcap," exclaimed Cyrus, when the
+trio issued from their tent in the morning. "Listen, you fellows! This
+is the 21st of October. I propose that we start back to our home-camp
+to-morrow. It will take us two days to reach Millinokett Lake. Then
+we'll set our faces towards civilization the first week in November, or
+thereabouts."
+
+"Oh, bother it! So soon!" protested Dol.
+
+"Now, Young Rattlebrain,"--Garst took the calm tone of
+leadership,--"please consider that this is the first time you've camped
+out in Maine woods. You might find it fun to be snowed up in camp during
+a first fall, and to tramp homewards through a thawing slush. But your
+father wouldn't relish its effects on your British constitution. And out
+here--once we're well into November--there's no knowing when the
+temperature may drop to zero with mighty short notice. I've often
+turned in at night, feeling as if I were on 'India's coral strands' and
+woke up next morning thinking I had popped off in my sleep to
+'Greenland's icy mountains.' Herb Heal! you know what tricks a
+thermometer, if we had one, might play in our camp from this out; talk
+sense to these fellows."
+
+Herb, who had risen an hour before his charges, had already fetched
+fresh water, coaxed up the fire, and was busily mixing flapjacks for
+breakfast. His ears, however, had caught the drift of the talk.
+
+"Guess Cyrus is right," he said. "Seeing as it's the first time you
+Britishers have slept off your spring mattresses, I'd say, light out for
+the city and steam-heat afore the snow comes. Oh! you needn't get your
+mad up. I ain't thinking you'd growl at being snowed in. I know better.
+
+"By the great horn spoon! I b'lieve I'll go right along to Greenville
+with you," exclaimed the guide a minute later. "I might get a chance to
+pick up a bargain of a second-hand rifle there. And I guess you'd be
+mighty sick o' your luck, Dol, if you had to lug them moose-antlers part
+o' the way yerself. I ain't stuck on carrying 'em either, if we can get
+a jumper."
+
+But there was a third reason, still more powerful than these two, why
+he should make a trip to the distant town, which stirred Herb's mind
+while he stirred his cakes. His sturdy sense told him that it would be
+well he should put in an appearance when Cyrus made a statement before
+the Greenville coroner as to the cause and manner of Chris's death.
+
+"Now, you boys, we don't want no fooling this blessed day," he said,
+when breakfast was in order, and the campers were emptying for the
+second time their tin mugs of coffee. "There's sport before us--tearing
+good sport. Whatever do you s'pose I come on this morning when I was
+cruising over the bog for water? Caribou-tracks! Caribou-tracks, as sure
+as there's a caribou in Maine!
+
+"Who's for following 'em? We hain't got much provisions left; and I
+guess a chunk of broiled caribou-steak about as big as a horse's upper
+lip would cheer each of us up, and make us feel first-rate. What say,
+boys?"
+
+"By all that's glorious!" ejaculated Cyrus, his eyes striking light.
+"Caribou-signs! Of course we'll follow them. A bit of fresh meat would
+be pretty acceptable, and a good view of a herd of caribou would be
+still more so--to me, at any rate. That would just about top off our
+exploring to a T."
+
+"We've got to be mighty spry, then," said the woodsman, lurching to his
+feet, muscles swelling, and nostrils spreading like a sleuth-hound's.
+"If you want caribou, you've got to take 'em while they're around. Old
+hunters have a saying: 'They're here to-day, to-morrow nowhere.' And
+that's about the size of it."
+
+"Let's start off this minute!" Dol jerked out the words while he bolted
+the last salt shreds of his pork. "Hurry up, you fellows! You're as slow
+as snails. I'd eat the jolliest meal that was ever cooked in three
+minutes."
+
+"No wonder you squirm and shout all night, then, until sane people with
+good digestions feel ready to blow your head off," laughed Cyrus, who
+was one of the laggards; but he disposed of the last mouthfuls of his
+own meal with little regard for his digestive canal.
+
+In rather less than twenty minutes the four were scanning with wide eyes
+certain fresh foot-marks, plainly printed on a patch of soft oozing
+clay, midway on the boggy tract.
+
+"Whew! Bless me! Those caribou-tracks?" Cyrus caught his breath with
+amazement while he crouched to examine them. "Why, they're bigger than
+any moose-tracks we've seen!"
+
+"Isn't that great?" gasped Dol.
+
+"Well, come to think of it, it is," answered the guide, in the stealthy
+tones of an expectant hunter; "for a full-grown bull-caribou don't stand
+so high as a full-sized moose by two or three feet, and he don't weigh
+more'n half as much. Still, for all that, caribou deer beat every other
+animal of the deer tribe, so far's I know, in the size of their hoofs,
+as you'll see bime-by if luck's with us! And my stars! how they scud
+along on them big hoofs. I'd back 'em in a race against the smartest of
+your city chaps that ever spun through Maine on his new-fangled 'wheel,'
+that he's so sot on."
+
+Garst, who was an enthusiastic cyclist, with a gurgle of unbelieving
+mirth, prepared to dispute this. There might have ensued a wordy
+sparring about caribou versus bicycle, had not the guide been impressed
+with the necessity for prompt action at the expense of speech.
+
+"We must quit our talk and get a move on," he whispered, and led the
+forward march across the bog, his eyes every now and again narrowing
+into two gleaming slits, as if he were debating within himself, while he
+studied the ground or some bush which showed signs of being nibbled or
+trampled. Then he would sweep the horizon with long-range vision.
+
+But not a tuft of hair or glancing horn hove in sight.
+
+The marsh was left behind. The hoof-marks were lost in a wide meadowy
+sweep of open ground, bounded at a distance by an irregular line of
+hills, sparsely covered with spruce-trees.
+
+Towards these Herb headed, leaving Katahdin away back in the rear.
+
+"'Shaw! I'm afeard they're 'nowhere' by this time," he whispered, when
+the hunters reached the rising ground, glancing at Dol, who stepped
+lightly beside him.
+
+The boy's lips parted to breathe out compressed disappointment; but his
+answer was lost in a sharp whirr! whirr! and a sudden flutter of wings
+above his head. His eyes went aloft towards a bough about eight feet
+from the ground. So did Herb's, and lit with a new, whimsical hope.
+
+"A spruce partridge!" hissed the guide, his voice thrilling even in its
+stealthy whisper. "That's luck--dead sure! The Injuns say, 'The red eye
+never tells a lie;'" and the woodsman pointed out the strip of bare red
+skin above the beady eyes of the bird, which cuddled itself on its
+branch, and looked down at them unfrighted.
+
+Dol Farrar, who in this region of moose-birds and moose-calls could
+believe in anything, felt both his spirits and credulity rise together.
+He managed to keep abreast of the trained hunter, as the latter, with
+swift, stretching, silent steps climbed the hill. And he heard the
+hunter's sudden cluck of triumph as he reached the top, and looked down
+upon the valley at the other side, the inarticulate sound being followed
+by one softly rung word,--
+
+"Caribou!"
+
+"Caribou? They look awfully like quiet Alderney cows, except for the big
+antlers!" The amazed exclamation stirred the English boy's tongue, but
+he did not make it audible.
+
+Following Herb's example, he stretched himself flat upon his stomach
+under a spruce, and stared over the brow of the hill at a forest
+pantomime which was being acted in the valley.
+
+Cautiously slipping from tree to tree, Cyrus and Neal, who had lagged a
+few steps behind, joined the leaders, and lay low, eagerly gazing too.
+
+On its farther side the hill was yet more sparsely covered, the
+scattered spruces showing gaps between them where the lumberman's axe
+had made havoc. Through these openings, which were as shafts of light
+amid the evergreen's waving play, the hunters saw the sun silver a brown
+pool in the valley. A few maples and birches waved their shrivelling
+splendors of scarlet and buff at irregular distances from the water. And
+in and out among these trees moved in graceful woodland frolic four or
+five large animals,--perhaps more,--their doings being plainly seen by
+the watchers on the hill.
+
+Their coats, like those of the smaller deer, were of a brown which
+seemed to have caught its dye from the autumnal tints surrounding them.
+In shape they justified Dol's criticism; for they certainly were not
+unlike cows of the Alderney breed, save for the widely branching horns.
+
+Of the strength of these antlers the hidden spectators got sudden,
+startling proof, as the two largest caribou drew off from the rest, and
+charged each other in a real or sham fight, the battle-clang of their
+meeting horns sounding far away to the hill-top.
+
+"Them two bulls are having a big time of it. Look at 'em now, with the
+small one. That's a stranger in the herd," hummed Herb into the ear of
+the boy next to him, his voice so light and even that it might have been
+but the murmur of a falling leaf. "It's an all-fired pity that we're
+jest too far off for a shot."
+
+The "stranger," which the woodsman's long-range eye had singled out, was
+of a smaller size and paler color than the other caribou; and Herb--who
+could interpret the forest pantomime far better than he would have
+explained the acting of human beings on a stage--told his companions in
+whispers and signs that it was in distressed dread of its company.
+
+The attentions which the rest paid to it seemed at first only friendly
+and facetious. The two big bulls, after trying their mettle against each
+other for a minute, separated, and moved towards it, prodded it lightly
+with their horns, and playfully bit its sides, a sport in which the
+other members of the herd joined.
+
+"They're playing it, like a cat with a mouse; but I guess they'll murder
+it in the long run if it's sickly or weak. Caribou are the biggest
+bullies in these woods--to each other," whispered Herb.
+
+"By the great horn spoon! they're doing for it now," he gasped, a minute
+later. "Sho!... if I only had my old Winchester here, I'd soon stop
+their lynching. Try it, you, Cyrus! You're a sure shot, an' you can
+creep within a hundred yards of 'em without being scented. Try it, man!"
+
+The guide's flashing eyes and quick signs conveyed half his meaning; his
+excited sentences were so low that Garst only caught fag-ends of them.
+But they were emphasized unexpectedly by a faint bleating sound rising
+from the valley,--the helpless bleat of a buffeted creature.
+
+"We want meat, and I'm going to spring a surprise on those bullies,"
+muttered Cyrus, setting his teeth.
+
+Still lying flat, he shot his eyes down the hill-slope, forming a plan
+of descent; then he lifted the rifle beside him, and jammed some fresh
+cartridges into the magazine.
+
+Ere a dozen long breaths had been drawn, he was stealthily moving
+towards the valley, slipping from spruce to spruce--an arrowlike,
+unnoticeable figure in his dark gray tweeds.
+
+He was close to the foot of the hill when the three breathless fellows
+above saw him raise his rifle, just as the unfortunate little caribou,
+after many efforts to escape, had been beaten to its knees.
+
+"He'll drop one, sure! He's a crack shot--is Cyrus! There! he's drawing
+bead. Bravo!... he's floored the biggest!"
+
+Herb's gusty breath blew the sentences through his nostrils, while the
+sudden, explosive bang of the Winchester cut through all other sounds,
+and set the air a-quiver.
+
+Twice Cyrus fired.
+
+The largest bull-caribou leaped three feet upward, wheeled about,
+staggered to his knees. A third shot stopped his bullying forever.
+
+"Hurrah! I guess you've got the leader--the best of the herd. That other
+bull was a buster too! You might ha' dropped him, if you'd been in the
+humor!" bellowed the guide, springing to his legs, and letting out his
+pent-up wind in a full-blast roar of triumph.
+
+He well knew that Cyrus, "being a queer specimen sportsman," and the
+right sort after all, would be satisfied with the one inevitable deed of
+death.
+
+As their leader fell, the caribou raised their heads, stared in
+stiffened wonder for a few seconds, offering a steady mark for the
+smoking rifle if it had been in the grasp of a butcher. Then, as though
+propelled by one shock, they cut for the wood at dazzling speed.
+
+A minute--and they were in the distance as tufts of hair blown before a
+storm-wind.
+
+The half-killed weakling sought shelter more slowly in another
+direction.
+
+"Well done, Cy!"
+
+"Congratulations, old man!"
+
+"You've got a trophy now. You'll never leave this splendid head behind.
+My eye, what antlers!"
+
+Such were the exclamations blown to Garst's ears by the hot breath of
+his English friends, as they reached his side, and stooped with him to
+examine the fallen forest beauty.
+
+"No; I guess we can manage to haul the head back to camp, with as much
+meat as we need. You'll have your 'chunk of caribou-steak as big as a
+horse's upper lip,' to-night, Herb, and bigger if you want it. I'm
+tickled at getting the antlers, especially as I didn't shoot this beauty
+for the sake of them. I'll hook them on my shoulders when we start back
+to Millinokett to-morrow."
+
+So answered the successful hunter, tingling with some pride in the skill
+which, because of his reverence for all life, he generally kept out of
+sight.
+
+And he stuck to his purpose about the antlers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Cheered and invigorated by a sumptuous supper and breakfast of broiled
+caribou-steaks, supplemented by Herb's lightest cakes, and carrying some
+of the meat with them as provision for the way, the campers accomplished
+their backward tramp to the log camp on Millinokett Lake in fulness of
+strength and spirits.
+
+Once or twice during the journey, when the guide was stalking ahead, and
+thought himself unnoticed, the city fellows saw him lift his right hand
+and look at it for a full minute. Then it swung heavily back to his
+side.
+
+"He's missing his rifle, the partner that never went back on him," said
+Cyrus. "Say, boys! I've got an idea!"
+
+"Out with it if it's worth anything," grunted Dol. "I never have ideas
+these days. Too much doing. I don't feel as if there was a steady peg in
+me to hang one on."
+
+"Oh! quit your nonsense, Chick, and listen. Herb will wait for us in a
+few minutes," was the Boston man's impatient rejoinder.
+
+Then followed a low-toned consultation, in the course of which such talk
+as this was heard:--
+
+"Our Pater will want to shell out when he hears about Chris."
+
+"So will mine. He'll be for sending Herb a cool five hundred or thousand
+dollars, right away. And, as likely as not, Herb would feel flaring mad,
+and ready to chuck it in his face. He's not the sort of fellow to stand
+being paid by an outsider for a plucky act, done in the best hour of his
+life."
+
+"Oh, I say! wouldn't it be decenter to manage the thing ourselves,
+without letting anybody who doesn't know him meddle in it?" This
+suggestion was in Dol's voice. "Neal and I could draw our allowances for
+three months in advance; the Pater will be willing enough. We'll be
+precious hard up without them, but we'll rub through somehow. Then you
+can chip in an even third, Cy, and we'll order an A I rifle,--the best
+ever invented, from the best company in America,--silver plate, with his
+name,--and all the rest of it. I'd swamp my allowance for a year to see
+Herb's face when he gets it."
+
+"That's the plan! You do have occasional moments of wisdom, Dol; I'll
+say that much for you," commented the leader. "Well, Herb has taken a
+special sort of liking to you. You may tip him a hint to wait in
+Greenville for a few days, and not to go looking for second-hand rifles
+till he hears from us. Better not say anything until we're just parting.
+Ten to one, though, you'll blurt the whole thing out in some harebrained
+minute, or give it away in your sleep."
+
+"Blow me if I do!" answered Dol solemnly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+DOC AGAIN.
+
+
+Herb, turning back at that minute to wait for his party, experienced a
+shock of curiosity which was new to him, at seeing the three in close
+counsel, shouldering each other upon a trail a couple of feet wide.
+
+But the sensation passed. Dol for once was not guilty of an
+indiscretion, waking or sleeping. The woodsman got no hint of what
+matter had been discussed until more than two weeks later, when he stood
+in the main street of Greenville, beside a tanned, muscular, newly
+shaven trio, waiting for their departure for Boston.
+
+A few pleasant days, marked by no particular excitements, had been spent
+at the log camp on Millinokett after that wonderful trip into the
+forests of Katahdin. Then the weather turned suddenly blustering and
+cold; and Cyrus, as captain, ordered an immediate forced march to
+Greenville.
+
+Under Herb's guidance that march was made with singularly few hardships.
+He managed to hire a "jumper" from a new settler who had a farm a couple
+of miles from their camp. This contrivance was a rough sort of sled,
+formed of two stout ash saplings, and hitched to a courageous horse. The
+"jumper's" one merit was that it could travel along many a rough trail
+where wheels would be splintered at the outset. But since, as Herb said,
+it went at "a succession of dead jumps," no camper was willing to trust
+his bones to its tender mercies. However, it answered admirably for
+carrying the tent, knapsacks, and trophies of the party, tightly
+strapped in place, including Neal's bear-skin, which was duly called
+for, and the moose-antlers, more precious in Dol's sight than if they
+had been made of beaten gold.
+
+Thus the campers journeyed homeward with their backs as light as their
+spirits, caring little for the chills of a couple of nights spent under
+canvas and rubber coverings.
+
+Two gala evenings they had,--one with Uncle Eb in his bark hut near
+Squaw Pond, where they were regaled with a sumptuous supper, for "coons
+war in eatin' order now;" and the second with Doctor Phil Buck at his
+little frame house near Moosehead Lake.
+
+Dear old Doc was as ever a power,--a power to welcome, uplift,
+entertain.
+
+The campers sought him immediately on their arrival at Greenville; and
+he stood by them while Cyrus made a full statement before the local
+coroner about the death and burial of the half-breed, Chris Kemp, the
+Farrars and Herb confirming what was said with due dignity.
+
+But dignity was blown to the four winds by the very unprofessional and
+very woodsman-like cheer that Doc raised, and that was echoed
+thunderously by Joe Flint and a few other guides and loungers who had
+collected to hear the story, when Cyrus described the splendid rush
+which Herb made, with the dying man in his arms, and the clay of the
+landslide half smothering him.
+
+"I'm sorry I wasn't near to try and do something for the poor fellow,"
+said the doctor, later on, when his friends were gathered round a
+blazing wood-fire in his own snug house. "But I doubt if I could have
+helped him. I guess he was born with the hankering for whiskey, and when
+that is in the mongrel blood of a half-breed it is pretty sure to wreck
+him some time. We must leave him to God, boys, and to changes larger
+than we know."
+
+"I've a letter for you, Neal," added the host presently in a lighter
+tone. "It was directed to my care. It is from Philadelphia, from Royal
+Sinclair, I think."
+
+Neal slit the envelope which was handed to him, and read the few lines
+it contained aloud, with a longing burst of laughter.
+
+Royal was as short with his pen as he was dash-away with his tongue. The
+letter was a brief but pressing invitation to Cyrus and the Farrars to
+visit their camping acquaintances of the Maine wilds at the Sinclairs'
+home in Philadelphia before the English boys recrossed the Atlantic.
+
+"Come you must!" wrote Roy. "We've promised to give a big spread, and
+invite all the crowd we train with to meet you. We'll have a great old
+time, and bring out our best yarns. Don't let me catch you refusing!"
+
+[Illustration: GREENVILLE,--"FAREWELL TO THE WOODS."]
+
+"We won't if we can help it," commented Neal; "if only we can coax the
+Pater to give us another week in jolly America."
+
+The campers slept upon mattresses that night for the first time in many
+weeks.
+
+The following morning saw them grouped in the main street of Greenville,
+with Doc and Herb on hand for a final farewell, waiting for the
+departure of the coach which was to bear them a little part of the way
+towards Boston civilization.
+
+Dol was turning over in his jostled thoughts the delicate wording of the
+hint which he was to convey to Herb about the rifle, when he became
+aware that Doctor Phil was pinching his shoulder, and saying, while he
+drew Neal's attention in the same way:--
+
+"Well, you fellows! I'm glad to have known you. If you ever come to
+Maine again, remember that there's one old forest fogy who'll have a
+delightful welcome for you in his house or camp, not to speak of the
+thing he calls his heart. And I hope you'll keep a pleasant corner in
+your memories for our Pine Tree State, and for American States
+generally, so far as you've seen them."
+
+Dol tried to answer; but recalling the evening when, wrecked at heart,
+with stinging feet, he had stumbled at last into the trail to Doc's
+camp, he could only mutter, "Dash it all!" and rub his leaking eyes.
+
+"Of course I'll think in an hour from now of all the things I want to
+say," began Neal helplessly, and stopped. "But I'll tell you how I feel,
+Doc," he added, with a sudden rush of breath: "I think I can never see
+your Stars and Stripes again without taking off my hat to them, and
+feeling that they're about equal to my own flag."
+
+"Neatly put, Neal! I couldn't have done it better," laughed Cyrus.
+
+"Shake!" and Doc offered his hand in a heart-grip, while the hairs on it
+bristled. "Boy! long life to that feeling. You men who are now being
+hatched will show us one day what Young England and Young America, as a
+grand brotherhood under comrade flags, can do to give this old earth a
+lift which she has never had yet towards peace and prosperity. We're
+looking to you for it!"
+
+"Hur-r-r-rup!" cheered Herb, subduing his shout to the requirements of a
+settlement, but sending his battered hat some ten feet into the air, and
+recovering it with a dexterous shoot of his long arm, by way of giving
+his friends an inspiring send-off.
+
+"Tell you what it is!" he said suddenly, turning upon the Farrars, "I
+never guided Britishers till now; but, wherever you sprung from, you're
+clean grit. If a man is that, it don't matter a whistle to me what
+country riz him."
+
+A few minutes afterwards, with a jingle, jangle, lurch, and rattle, the
+stage-coach was swaying its way out of Greenville. Dol, stooping from
+his seat upon it, gripped the guide's hand in a wringing good-by.
+
+"Herb," he said, "we three fellows want you to stay here for a few days,
+and not to do anything about a second-hand rifle until you hear from us.
+Mind!"
+
+And so it happened that, ten days or so later, while the three were
+enjoying the hospitalities of the Sinclairs and "their crowd" in the
+Quaker City, Herb, who was still in Greenville, waiting for a fresh
+engagement as guide, was accosted by the driver of the coach from
+Bangor.
+
+"Herb Heal, here's a bully parcel for you," said the Jehu, with a
+knowing grin. "Came from Boston, I guess. I war booked to take
+pertik'lar care of it."
+
+And Herb, feeling his strong fingers tingle, undid many wrappers, and
+hauled out, before the eyes of Greenville loungers, a rifle such as it
+is the desire of every Maine woodsman's heart to possess.
+
+A best grade, 45-90, half-magazine Winchester it was, fitted with
+shot-gun stock and Lyman sights, and bearing a gleaming silver plate, on
+which was prettily lettered:--
+
+  HERB HEAL
+  IN MEMORY OF OCTOBER, 1891.
+
+Underneath was engraved a miniature pine, its trunk bearing three sets
+of initials.
+
+Herb stalked straight off a distance of one mile to Doctor Buck's house,
+pushed the door open as if it had been the door of a wilderness camp,
+and shot himself into Doc's little study.
+
+"Look what those three gamy fellows have sent me," he said; and his eyes
+were now like Millinokett Lake under a full sun-burst. "I thought the
+old one was a corker, but this"--
+
+Here the woodsman's dictionary gave out.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+CHRISTMAS ON THE OTHER SIDE.
+
+
+"'Christmas, 1893.' Those last two figures are a bit crooked; aren't
+they, Dol?" said a tall, soldierly fellow, who was no longer a boy, yet
+could scarcely in his own country call himself a man.
+
+He read the date critically, having fixed it as the centre-piece in a
+festive arch of holly and bunting, which spanned the hall of a mansion
+in Victoria Park, Manchester.
+
+"I believe that's better," he added, straightening a tipsy "93," and
+bounding from a chair-back on which he was perched, to step quickly
+backward, with a something in gait and bearing that suggested a cavalry
+swing.
+
+"'Christmas, 1893,'" he read musingly again. "Goodness! to think it's
+two years since we laid eyes on old Cyrus, and that he has landed on
+English soil before this, may be here any minute--and Sinclair too. I
+guess"--these two words were brought out with a smile, as if the speaker
+was putting himself in touch with the happiness of a by-gone time--"I
+guess that 'Star-Spangled Banner' will look home-like to them."
+
+And Neal Farrar, just back for a short vacation from Sandhurst Military
+College, twice gravely saluted the gay bunting with which his Christmas
+arch was draped, where the Union Jack of old England kissed the American
+Stars and Stripes.
+
+"I say!" he exclaimed, turning to a tall youth, who had been inspecting
+his operations, "that Liverpool train must be beastly late, Dol. Those
+fellows ought to be here before this. The Mater will be in a stew. She
+ordered dinner at five, as the youngsters dine with us, of course,
+to-day, and it's past that now."
+
+"Hush! will you? I'll vow that cab is stopping! Yes! By all that's
+splendid, there they are!" and Dol Farrar's joy-whoop rang through the
+English oaken hall with scarcely less vehemence than it had rung in
+former days through the dim aisles of the Maine forests.
+
+A sound of spinning cab-wheels abruptly stopping, a noise of men's feet
+on the steps outside, and the hall-door was flung wide by two pairs of
+welcoming hands.
+
+"Cyrus! Royal! Got here at last? Oh! but this is jolly."
+
+"Neal, dear old boy, how goes it? Dol, you're a giant. I wouldn't have
+known you."
+
+Such were the most coherent of the greetings which followed, as two
+visitors, in travelling rig, their faces reddened by eight days at sea
+in midwinter, crossed the threshold.
+
+There could be no difficulty in recognizing Cyrus Garst's well-knit
+figure and speculative eyes, though a sprouting beard changed somewhat
+the lower part of his face. And if Royal Sinclair's tall shoulders and
+brand-new mustache were at all unfamiliar, anybody who had once heard
+the click and hum of his hasty tongue would scarcely question his
+identity.
+
+The Americans had steamed over the Atlantic amid bluster of elements,
+purposing a tour through southern France and Italy. And they were to
+take part, before proceeding to the Continent, in the festivities of an
+English Christmas at the Farrars' home in Manchester.
+
+"Oh, but this is jolly!" cried Neal again, his voice so thickened by the
+joy of welcome that--embryo cavalry man though he was--he could bring
+out nothing more forceful than the one boyish exclamation.
+
+Dol's throat was freer. Sinclair and he raised a regular tornado in the
+handsome hall. Questions and answers, only half distinguishable, blew
+between them, with explosions of laughter, and a thunder of claps on
+each other's shoulders. When their gale was at its noisiest, Royal's
+part of it abruptly sank to a dead calm, stopped by "an angel unawares."
+
+A girl of sixteen, with hair like the brown and gold of a pheasant's
+breast, opened a drawing-room door, stepped to Neal's side, and
+whispered,--
+
+"Introduce me!"
+
+"My sister," said Neal, recovering self-possession. "Myrtle, I believe
+I'll let you guess for yourself which is Garst and which is Sinclair."
+
+"Well, I've heard so much about you for the past two years that I know
+you already, all but your looks. So I'm sure to guess right," said
+Myrtle Farrar, scrutinizing the Americans with a pretty welcoming
+glance, then giving to each a glad hand-shake.
+
+Royal's tongue grew for once less active than his eyes, which were so
+caught by the golden shades on the pheasant-like head that for a minute
+he could see nothing else. Even Cyrus, who was accustomed to look upon
+himself as the cool-blooded senior among his band of intimates, tingled
+a little.
+
+"You're just in time for dinner--I'm so glad," laughed Miss Myrtle. "A
+Christmas dinner with a whole tribe of Farrars, big and little."
+
+"But our baggage hasn't come on yet," answered Garst ruefully. "Will
+Mrs. Farrar excuse our appearing in travelling rig?"
+
+"Indeed she will!" answered for herself a fair, motherly-looking English
+woman, as pretty as Myrtle save for the gold-brown hair, while she came
+a few steps into the hall to welcome her sons' friends.
+
+Five minutes afterwards the Americans found themselves seated at a table
+garlanded with red-berried holly, trailing ivy, and pearl-eyed
+mistletoe, and surrounded by a round dozen of Farrars, including several
+youngsters whose general place was in schoolroom or nursery, but who,
+even to a tot of three, were promoted to dine in splendor on Christmas
+Day.
+
+"Well, this is festive!" remarked Cyrus to Myrtle, who sat next to him,
+when, after much preparatory feasting, an English plum-pudding,
+wreathed, decorated, and steaming, came upon the scene. Fluttering amid
+the almonds which studded its top were two wee pink-stemmed flags. And
+here again, in compliment to the newly arrived guests, the
+"Star-Spangled Banner" kissed the English Union Jack.
+
+"Say, Neal!" exclaimed Cyrus, his eyes keenly bright as he looked at the
+toy standards, "wouldn't this sort of thing delight our friend Doc? By
+the way, that reminds me, I have a package for you from him, and a
+message from Herb Heal too. Herb wants to know 'when those gamy
+Britishers are coming out to hunt moose again?' And Doc has sent you a
+little bundle of beaver-clippings. They are from an ash-tree two feet in
+circumference, felled by that beaver colony which we came across near
+the _brûlée_ where you shot your bear and covered yourself with glory.
+Doc asked you to put the wood in sight on Christmas Night, and to think
+of the Maine woods."
+
+"Think of them!" Neal ejaculated. "Bless the dear old brick! does he
+think we could ever forget them and the stunning times we had in camp
+and on trail?"
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Camp and Trail, by Isabel Hornibrook
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