THE FOREST KING 169 



full of untoward chances, and the ground around 

 him quaked and yawned. There was more in this 

 tundra bog than met the eye of the wisest moose. 



Without so much as a backward glance of sym- 

 pathy, the renegade wheeled about and made off at 

 a lurching trot to the safety of the forest. The 

 booming of the waterfall sounded in his ears like 

 the voice of a comforter. It was the music of his 

 own river. Tundra bogs were not for moose, for 

 caribou only. How warily he would go hencefor- 

 ward I 



As he breasted an intervening hill the wild music 

 vibrated in all the air. Then, suddenly, without 

 any warning, the glory of the famihar falls burst on 

 his vision. A great torrent rolled down the pre- 

 cipitous sides of a gigantic granite kloof in exceed- 

 ing volume, and broke up, descending quite slowly, 

 like snow. 



The sun gave a glint to the whiteness which was 

 indescribably beautiful, the etchings were limned 

 so clearly, the colours painted so definitely. At 

 the bottom, where the fall met the river, was an 

 indistinguishable boiling-pot ; and the tossed spray 

 arose, enshrouding the falls, and as it lighted on 

 the titanic masses of granite, meeting a different 



22 



