76 SPORT INDEED 



that was breaking the bushes and whose tread was 

 not heavy enough for a moose and yet too heavy for 

 a deer. Then we heard a splash and then another. 

 " They're in the water ; we'll soon see what they are," 

 said the guide. We pushed the canoe softly up the 

 stream, but the creatures, whatever they were, had 

 heard us and left the water. The stream was narrow, 

 not more than twenty feet wide, with high alders on 

 each bank, and on either side of us was some animal, 

 we knew not what, that probably had its eyes and 

 ears open for our every motion, watching us suspi- 

 ciously as though we were freebooters and had no 

 right to be filibustering in its domain. 



The guide now whispered to me, " If they are moose, 

 you will find the one on the right hand is the bull." 



We could see nothing, yet we sat there for fully 

 an hour straining our eyes through the darkness and 

 opening our ears for a clue that would tell us at least 

 what sort of creatures they were. 



The night was getting colder and my teeth began 

 to rattle like a pair of castanets. It was quite nat- 

 ural therefore that I should be anxious for our sus- 

 pense to come to an end of some sort; and it did. 

 With a snort — or, rather, two snorts — the animals 

 bounded away, and in a twinkling both were gone. 



They were deer, not moose as we had hoped. Dis- 

 appointed, and chilled to the bone, we paddled sadly 

 back to our camp and turned in, as it seemed unlikely 



