l, Dol lost his head a bit. A deep, throaty gulp, which was a
weak reproduction of the sound made by the moose, as if the boy and the
animal were sharing the same throes of excitement, burst from him. There
was a rattle and struggle of his vocal organs, which in another second
would have become a shout, had not Herb's masterful left hand gripped
him. Its touch held in check the speech which Dol could no longer
control.

The moose was a big one, "about as big as they grow," as the guide
afterwards declared. Under the jack-light he looked a regular behemoth.
He must have been over seven feet high at the shoulders, for he was
taller than the tallest horse the boys had ever seen. His black mane
bristled. His antlers were thrown back. His great nose, with its dilated
nostrils, looked as if it were drinking in every scent of the night
world. His eyes had a green glare in them, as for ten seconds he gazed
at the strange light which had suddenly burst into view, its silver
radiance so dazzling him that he saw not the screened boat beneath.

At the rash noise which Dol made his ears twitched. He splashed a step
forward as if to investigate matters, seeing which, Herb held his
Winchester in readiness to fly to his shoulder at a moment's notice. But
the moose evidently regarded the jack-lamp as a supernatural, terrible
phenomenon. He shrank from it as man might shrink beneath a flaming
heaven.

With one more despairing look right and left for that phantom cow which
had deluded him, he wheeled around, and crashed back into the forest,
tearing away more rapidly than he came.

"He's off now, and Heaven knows when he'll stop!" said Herb, breaking
the weird spell of silence. "Not till he reaches some lair where nary a
creature could follow him. Well, boys, you've seen the grandest game on
this continent, the king o' the woods. What do you think of him?"

All tongues were loosened together. There was a general shifting of
cramped bodies, accompanied by a gust of exclamations.

"He was a monster!"

"He was a behemoth!"

"Oh! but you're a conjurer, Herb. How on earth did you give such a
fetching call?"

"I could never have believed that those sounds came from a human throat
and a birch-bark horn, if I hadn't been sitting in the boat with you!"

When there was a break in the excited chorus, Herb, without answering
the compliments to his calling powers, asked quietly,--

"Didn't you think we'd lost him, boys, when he stopped sh