84 THE DEER FAMILY 



ham raised the horn to his lips and upon the waiting 

 silence arose the call of the moose-cow. Soft and low 

 at first, a tremulous, whimpering, sobbing wail, it 

 swelled into a great wave of sound, vibrant with eager 

 longing, then ebbing fainter, fainter, fainter, it died 

 away. 



"Intently we listened. The forest stirred with a 

 vague unrest, and we seemed to hear soft murmurings 

 and whisperings, and the sighing of a thousand sleep- 

 ers. Far away a wolf bayed like a hound. . . 

 ' He's coming,' whispered old Markham, and we felt 

 the heat of savage exultation. The bull grunted. 

 Lifting the horn, Markham answered him with a short, 

 coaxing bellow. The animal grunted again. Appar- 

 ently without a touch of suspicion, he was approaching 

 rapidly from the foot of the lake, following the narrow 

 arc of sand-beach. Our fingers crooked on the trig- 

 gers. Soon we heard the hollow thudding of his 

 swinging hoofs on the hard sand. But within twenty- 

 five yards, just out of sight from the place where we 

 stood, he halted. Markham dropped upon his knees, 

 laid down the horn and rapidly snatched up handfuls of 

 the short grass. The sound was that of a cow grazing. 

 It reached the sharp ears of the listening moose and 

 reassured him. Into the moon-glare he rushed, a 

 splendid beast to look upon. Against the moonlit 

 beach his immense bulk and enormous head with 

 its magnificent antlers loomed twice their natural 

 size. 



" We were filled with admiration, but the desire to 

 kill burned within us. The steady rifle-nozzles jetted 

 flame as we pressed the triggers. The great bub 



