240 THE MOOSE 



holt and took the water soundlessly ; a musk-rat 

 from the colony in the river-bank snorted, and the 

 faint aroma of him blew in on Moosewa as he lay. 



If it might be that a strong bull moose could 

 travel so far that he outdistanced, and for ever, 

 these human things who lived but to deal death 

 and desolation wheresoe'er they went ! He would 

 try. This Kenai country, with its settlements here, 

 its settlements there, was no moose country — a 

 death-trap merely. 



In the extremity of his terror of the night before 

 one thought crowded in on him, and one memory, 

 excluding all others — the thought of his long- 

 dead mother, who had so warned him against the 

 challenge call, and the memory of the island where 

 the beavers built and the black bear denned up. 



It was all many years agone — the weariness in 

 the bull's limbs told of that. But if he could find 

 the island, no human devastators would be there. 

 If he could find the island I 



The moose sought the river. The persistent 

 flies and myriad biting gnats troubled him, and his 

 wound had commenced to throb again. Haltingly 

 and slow, half-dragging, half-carrying his injured 

 leg, he pushed off into the water deep, deep until 



