bull was his quarry. Where he lay he was 

 invisible against the dark background of 

 tree and brush. Presently he reached for his 

 rifle and for a trumpet-like roll of birch bark 

 which lay close by. Noiselessly as a snake he 

 crawled to the shelter of a thicket of young 

 firs. Then he arose to his feet and slipped into 

 the forest. 



At the same instant the moose, as if some 

 warning of his unseen foe had been flashed 

 into his consciousness, turned and strode off, 

 without a sound, into the woods. 



Soon the tiny camp-fire had died to a few 

 white ashes, and the half-dark of a cloudless 

 night had fallen still, and chill, and faintly 

 sweet with damp, tonic scents of spruce, bay- 

 berry, and bracken. There was that in the 

 air which s^oke of frost before morning. It 

 wanted nearly an hour of moonrise. The 

 wide, vague world of the night, that seemed 

 so empty, so unstirring, grew populous with 

 unseen, furtive life life hunting and hunted ; 

 loving, fearing, trembling ; enjoying or aveng- 

 ing. But there was no sound, except now 

 and then the inexplicable rustle of a dead leaf, 

 or an elvish gurgle of water from somewhere 

 in the shadows along shore. 



At last the hunter, threading his way 

 through the forest as noiselessly as the craftiest 



