With Gun ^ Rod in Canada 



hear him tearing up the ground with his front feet. We 

 could see the saplings swaying when he hooked them with 

 his horns. This performance kept up for more than an 

 hour. During that time he threatened to come out 

 every minute. First, I would pick up my camera and 

 resolve to have the moral courage to try to get a picture 

 if he did come out. Then I would throw down my 

 camera and pick up my rifle, feeling that this might be 

 my last chance to get a moose. Then I would drop the 

 rifle and go back to the camera. I fully believe that if 

 that big bull had finally come out, I would have tried 

 to shoot him with the camera in one hand and rifle in 

 the other. Ike had both barrels of the shotgun loaded 

 with ball cartridges, and he would have blazed away 

 with both barrels if the bull had stuck his head out, 

 although the distance was far too great for a smooth- 

 bore to do any execution. At last the old cow wandered 

 into the woods, and we neither saw nor heard any more 

 of them. 



Chapter 14. — Desperation. 



The sun was going down when we paddled back to the 

 motor-boat. We ran over to a big cove on the western 

 shore of the lake to camp for the night. We intended 

 to call the next morning — our last chance — from a high 

 knoll overlooking some extensive barrens. It was pitch 

 dark when we got to the beach and landed our duffle. 

 Ike took the axe and began to chop a dry pine stump on 

 the shore to get a fire started. At about the third stroke 

 of the axe, we were startled by a bull speaking in the 

 bushes not over a hundred feet from where we were 

 making camp. It was too dark to go after him, and the 

 woods were too thick to try to get a shot at him, so we 

 decided to make a quiet camp, eat a cold supper, and 



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