hat this moose, at least, had come to what
he thought was the call of a mate. Moonlight is deceptive beyond a few
feet; so when the low grunt sounded in the shadow of the great rock he
was sure he had found the coy creature at last, and broke out of his
concealment resolved to keep her in sight and not to let her get away
again. That is why he swam after us. Had he been investigating some new
sound or possible danger, he would never have left the land, where alone
his great power and his wonderful senses have full play. In the water he
is harmless, as most other wild creatures are.

I paddled cautiously just ahead of him, so near that, looking over my
shoulder, I could see the flash of his eye and the waves crinkling away
before the push of his great nose. After a short swim he grew suspicious
of the queer thing that kept just so far ahead, whether he swam fast or
slow, and turned in towards the shore whining his impatience. I followed
slowly, letting him get some distance ahead, and just as his feet
struck bottom whispered to Simmo for his softest call. At the sound the
bull whirled and plunged after us again recklessly, and I led him across
to where the younger bull was still ranging up and down the shore,
calling imploringly to his phantom mate.

I expected a battle when the two rivals should meet; but they paid
little attention to each other. The common misfortune, or the common
misery, seemed to kill the fierce natural jealousy whose fury I had more
than once been witness of. They had lost all fear by this time; they
ranged up and down the shore, or smashed recklessly through the swamps,
as the elusive smells and echoes called them hither and yon in their
frantic search.

Far up on the mountain side the sharp, challenging grunt of a master
bull broke out of the startled woods in one of the lulls of our exciting
play. Simmo heard and turned in the bow to whisper excitedly: "Nother
bull! Fetch-um Ol' Dev'l this time, sartin." Raising his horn he gave
the long, rolling bellow of a cow moose. A fiercer trumpet call from the
mountain side answered; then the sound was lost in the _crash-crash_ of
the first two bulls, as they broke out upon the shore on opposite sides
of the canoe.

We gave little heed now to the nearer play; our whole attention
was fixed on a hoarse, grunting roar--_Uh, uh, uh! eeeyuh!
r-r-r-runh-unh!_--with a rattling, snapping crash of underbrush for an
accompaniment. The younger bull heard it; lis