WHERE THE WAYS DIVIDE 237 



listening. He was so close to Pitka that the hunch- 

 back could count his antler points easily, and gather 

 that he was looking on horns which exceeded in 

 size and symmetry the finest Alaska had produced. 



Why did not the personally-conducted tourist 

 sportsmen take the wondrous chance ? Was ever 

 so easy a shot ? The veriest tyro must have brought 

 it off. 



The nearest got up his rifle and — missed by that 

 hair which old Omar says divides the false and true. 



Off went the moose, like a stone from a catapult. 

 He made an almost impossible mark as he dashed 

 away. Deer in daylight thickets are difficult to 

 see, but at night in the tricky shadows and moonlit 

 slants are wellnigh invisible. 



Chagrined beyond the telling, the little hunch- 

 back levelled his own prehistoric weapon, a rusty 

 Winchester, and pulled off. The bullet told heavily, 

 but the moose did not drop to it, nor slacken his 

 tempestuous rush. Through the thick cover his 

 thundering pace carried him, and so to safety. 



