196 SPORT INDEED 



it was so arranged — that I should get out and walk 

 through the woods, meeting them further up and at 

 a point where the road and stream met again, some 

 two miles away. I took my rifle and started. The 

 Avalking was good, and my observation, therefore, 

 was not interrupted by any necessity for picking my 

 steps. I saw about me fresh signs of moose and 

 many indications- of caribou. In fact I became so 

 much interested that I forgot all about my canoe and 

 for what I was walking. I had already passed the 

 meeting point without knowing it, and it now lay 

 behind me a mile or more. 



The road wound back over the ridges quite a dis- 

 tance from the river, but I thought it wouldn't be 

 wise to retrace my steps as I might thereby miss 

 the canoes, and therefore resolved to go on and take 

 whatever chances might be ahead of me. 



About eleven o'clock I heard rifle shots which my 

 fancy told me were signals from the canoe party. I 

 fired three shots in reply and waited for a response ; 

 but none came. Did my fancy make a mistake about 

 their being signals ? Perhaps ; but I soon heard an- 

 other sort of signal about which my fancy could make 

 no mistake — I was getting " as hungry as the sea." 



Now, a hungry stomach is a multi-sceptred poten- 

 tate. Despot, autocrat, oligarch and " cock of the 

 walk " generally, it has no ears for argument, no ap- 

 petite for excuses. It has plenty of jaw, at times, but 



