TREED BY A MOOSE. 
37 
while his eyes seemed fairly to flash fire. His long^ 
ungainly head drooped lower ; it was evident that affairs 
were reaching a crisis, and Robert concluded it was time 
to act. An old hunter would have walked backward softly 
to the turn in the path, and then run for his life, leaving 
the two forest princes to fight it out as they pleased. 
Unfortunately, the boy did no such thing. He raised 
his rifle, sighted a spot in the very centre of the moose's 
broad breast, and fired. 
At the very same instant, the latter made up his mind 
to knock that bear into small bits, and bounded forward. 
The bear was watching for this, and rose on his haunches 
to meet his antagonist. 
So it happened that the rifle ball, instead of doing its 
work as was intended, merely scored the bear's right 
shoulder, and inflicted a slight wound on the flank of the 
moose. 
Both the brutes were startled by the heavy report of 
the gun, and enraged by the sting of the ball. The im- 
petus of the big "horned horse" was so great that he 
could not stop himself, but struck the bear squarely on 
the snout, causing Bruin to roll over backward, with the 
moose on top of him. 
The two huge creatures scrambled to their feet, and 
simultaneously caught sight of Robert, who pluckily drew 
a bead on the brown, struggling mass, and fired a second 
time, with as little apparent result as before. 
Then he started for the nearest tree, which, luckily for 
