Then with hurried
hands he stripped some birch bark, and rolled himself a serviceable
torch. When this blazed up with its smoky flame, he held it well off
to one side and a little behind him, and made his way warily to the
scene of the disturbance.

A turn in the trail, and the mystery stood revealed. With a cry of
indignation the man darted forward, no longer cautious. What he saw
before him was a great, gaunt moose-cow reared upon her hind legs,
caught under the jaws by a villainous moose-snare. With her head high
among the branches, she lurched and kicked in a brave struggle for
life, while every effort but drew tighter the murdering noose. A few
feet away stood her lanky calf, trembling, and staring stupidly at the
light.

The man lost not a moment. Dropping his bundle and paddle, but
carefully guarding the torch, he climbed the tree above the victim,
lay out on a branch, reached down, and dexterously severed the noose
with his knife. What matter if, with his haste and her struggles, he
at the same time cut a slash in the beast's stout hide? The
blood-letting was a sorely needed medicine to her choked veins. She
fell in a heap, and for a minute or two lay gasping loudly. Then she
staggered to her feet, and stood swaying, while she nosed the calf
with her long muzzle to assure herself that it had not been hurt in
the cataclysm which had overtaken her.

The man watched her until his torch was almost gone, then climbed down
the tree (which was not a birch) to get himself another. Noticing him
now for the first time, the moose pulled herself together with a
mighty effort, and thrust the calf behind her. Could this be the enemy
who had so nearly vanquished her? For a moment the man thought she was
going to charge upon him, and he held himself in readiness to go up
the tree again. But the poor shaken beast thought better of it. Pain,
rage, fear, amazement, doubt,--all these the man fancied he could see
in her staring, bloodshot eyes. He stood quite still, pitying her, and
cursing the brutal poachers who had set the snare. Then, just before
the torch gave its last flicker, the great animal turned and led her
calf off through the woods, looking back nervously as she went.

When the light was out, and silence had come again upon the forest,
the man resumed his journey. He travelled noisily, whistling and
stamping as he went, as a warning to all wild creatures that a man
was in their woods, and that they must give room