176 THE MOOSE 



as he dared to the edge of the yards, fearing always 

 to risk a chancy shot lest he drove the beasts out 

 into the open and far beyond the confines of a 

 region he had more or less explored. Once, as he 

 thought his prize as good as won, he came almost 

 face to face with a cow moose, which had been 

 screened from view by a patch of thick bushes, and 

 almost as he caught sight of her she was off at a 

 gallop across the open ground, uttering a loud cry 

 as she went, which gave the warning. 



So quickly did the whole thing happen that the 

 hunter had no time to get in a shot ere the big bull 

 disappeared, and realizing that the startled animals 

 were off on a big stampede, he turned his attention 

 to his trap-line, economizing his blood-thirst. Had 

 it been past the time of the horn-shedding, he 

 would have resorted to the often successful loop- 

 snare arranged on a well-beaten trail — a scheme 

 beloved of trappers, and not to be considered as 

 unsporting in the least, or at any rate not so un- 

 sporting as the luring of a beast into the presence 

 of a hunter by an artificial mating cry. There's 

 something rotten in the state of Denmark there! 



In a kind of amble, which in fleetness equalled a 

 gallop, the moose travelled over a snowy upland 



