THE MOOSE 83 



away, and a great hush brooded over the forest, but the 

 roar still rang in our ears. We sprang to our feet. It 

 was a bull-moose calling to his mate. 



"Up rose a big crimson moon, glowing with rosy fire. 

 The bellow rumbled again across the wilderness and 

 we listened intently for the response of the cow, but 

 no wailing answer shivered through the sleeping forest. 

 Our hearts beat hot with the lust of the hunter. ' Boys,' 

 said old John Markham, ' that bull is our meat.' 



"Wetting out the fire, we stole through the pitchy 

 gloom of the woods to Shallow Lake, a small pond 

 about a quarter of a mile from our camp. Holmes 

 and I carried our rifles, and Markham his birch-bark 

 horn, a small megaphone made of a sheet of bark about 

 sixteen inches square. At the small end it is an inch 

 in diameter, at the larger end, six inches, and is tied 

 around with spruce-roots. 



"Slowly the lifting moon rolled above the tree-tops, 

 changed to a dull gold, and sailed high among the 

 clustered stars, paling to silver. The brilliant radiance 

 varnished the still oval of the little pond, and brightly 

 lit its spruce-palisaded shores. At the head of the 

 pond a broad beach of yellow sand, bathed in moon- 

 light, sloped gently to the water's edge. Behind this, 

 in the indigo shadow of a mighty hemlock, we took 

 position. As we did so, a gust of wind stirred the air, 

 shivered the silver mirror of the pond, and mourned in 

 the woods. 



"Again the bull-moose in his passion bellowed wist- 

 fully and the deep, hoarse sound reverberated through 

 the shadowy colonnades of the woods. We judged that 

 the bull was not more than half a mile away, and Mark- 



