CHAPTER XXIX. 



A MYSTERIOUS SOUND TREED BY A MOOSE ANGLING FOB 

 A POWDER HORN AN UNHEEDED WARNING AND THE CON- 

 SEQUENCES. 



As Spalding ceased speaking, there came from away off, 

 over the forest in the direction of the tall mountain peaks, 

 a faint sonnd like the boom of a cannon, so distant that it 

 could scarcely be heard, and yet it was distinct and palpable 

 to the senses. I say^that it came from the direction of the 

 mountains, seen dim and shadowy in the distance, and yet 

 none of us were quite sure of this. We all heard it, but 

 not one of us could assert that the direction from which it 

 came was a fixed fact in his mind. 



" There, Judge " said Cullen, " I've hearn that sound 

 often among the mountains, and when I've been driftin' 

 about on these lakes, i! never seems much louder or nearer. 

 It always seems to come from the mountains, and yet you'll 

 hear it while shantyin' at their base, and it sounds just as 

 faint and far off as it did just now. What it is, or where it 



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