that they can deceive
the males, and thus bring them toward them. These artificial sounds
were not long unanswered. Louder and louder still were the roarings
that came at intervals from the deep forest. Soft and varied were the
responses as the Indian in the rear of Mr Ross and Alec blew his
inviting notes, but in the rear of the others there sounded out the
enticing strains.

"Listen," said Mr Ross, "there is the roar of another old moose, and we
are in for a battle."

Fortunately the wondrous auroras came shooting up from below the horizon
and flashing and dancing along the northern sky; they almost dispelled
the darkness, and lit up the landscape with a strange, weird light.
This necessitated a quick change of base on the part of the hunters, and
so, as soon as possible, they retired under the shadows of some dense
balsam trees. Hardly were they well hidden from view before a great
moose showed himself in full sight in a wide opening, where the fire,
years before, had burned away the once dense forest. In response to his
loud calls the three Indians with their horns replied, and this seemed
to greatly confuse him. He would move first a little in one direction
and then in another, and then hesitated and sent out his great roar
again. Quickly, and in a lower strain, did the Indians closely imitate
the female's call. Before there could be the responsive answer on his
part to them there dashed into the open space from the forest, not many
hundreds of yards from him, another moose bull that roared out a
challenge that could not be mistaken.

The Indians with their birch horns again imitated the calls of the
female moose. This they did with the purpose of bringing the bulls
within range before they engaged in battle.

It is a singular characteristic of many wild animals, that when the
rival males battle for the possession of the females, they like to do it
in the presence, of those for whom they fight. Their presence seems to
be a stimulus to nerve them to greater courage. So it is with the moose
and other deer species, and so by the light of the dancing auroras the
three boys and those with them watched these two great moose, each
standing at the foreshoulders over sixteen hands high, as they thus came
on toward the spot where Mr Ross and Alec were well hid from
observation, and behind whom the Indian kept now softly lowing like a
moose cow.

In their hurried movements they had gradually approached each o