tory-teller. "We three--Doc, my guide, and myself--were stupidly
tired, and slept so soundly that we did not discover the theft nor who
the marauder was until the following morning. Then we found my knapsack
gone, and the tracks of a huge bear in some soft earth near our shelter.
We traced his footprints through a bog until we found the spot, not far
off, where, overcome by greed or curiosity, he ripped up that strong
leather knapsack as if it was _papier mache_ and made hay of its
contents."

The boys had all crowded near to listen. It was now the social hour for
campers. By the camp-fire more reminiscences followed; and the two
guides chimed in it with moose stories, bear stories, panther stories,
wild tales of every imaginable and unimaginable kind of adventure, until
the lads thought no mythology which they had ever learned could rival in
marvels the forest lore.

At this opportune time, Neal suddenly thought of describing, or
attempting to describe, that strangest of strange calls which he had
heard, after the capsizing of the canoe, on the preceding night, when
Cyrus and he were jacking for deer on Squaw Pond.

Joe grunted expressively. "So help me! it was the moose call!" he
ejaculated. "What say, Doc?"

"I guess it was," answered Dr. Phil. "It was either the cow-moose
herself calling, or some hunter imitating her with his birch-bark
trumpet. It's a weird sort of experience, to hear that call for the
first time; I shouldn't wonder if your heart went whack-whack, lad?"

"I only hope he'll get a chance to hear it again before he goes back to
England," said Cyrus.

Forthwith, the Harvard man proceeded to explain that he was bent on
pressing forward for a distance of sixty miles or so, to the heart of
the wilderness, to search for moose, but that he intended to do the
journey in a leisurely, zigzag fashion, camping for a couple of nights
at various points, in order to do the honors of the forest to his
English comrades.

"So you're English, are you! Ha! Ha! Ho! Ho!" exclaimed the doctor,
looking at the young Farrars. "Well, I suppose we'll have to put our
best foot foremost to give you a good time in American woods."

"I think that's what we're having, sir--such a jolly good time that
we'll never forget it," answered Neal courteously.

"Yes, it's jolly enough now; but I tell you I didn't find it so to-day,"
grumbled Dol, while his eyes gleamed like polished steel with the light
of present fun. "But as long