and, the love he bore to a woman whose
memory was enshrined in his heart, and that woman was his mother. So
now his love for the fairest maiden at Loyal kept him from laying
violent hands upon her father, the man who had insulted him.

And as he lay there his calmness gradually returned, until he once
again felt master of himself. He could not remain longer at the
settlement with the Colonel's anger hot against him. Something would
be sure to happen which might separate him forever from the girl of his
heart's choice. He must go away and lose himself for a time in the
heart of the forest. But before going, he must see Jean once more, see
her unknown to her father, and ask her to wait and be patient. The
thought of going to the Colonel for a reconciliation never once entered
his mind; such a thing was most foreign to his independent nature.

Time passed unheeded as he remained there lost in thought. At length
he was startled by the report of a gun, followed almost immediately by
a ringing cry of fear. Leaping to his feet, he dashed into the open,
and looked intently up across the wild meadow. Nothing unusual was to
be seen, but a great crashing could be plainly heard among the bushes.
To Dane that sound was similar to a discordant note to a trained
musician's sensitive ear. He had often heard it before, and knew its
meaning. It always meant danger, and never more so than now.

Bounding forward in the direction of the sound, in a few seconds his
eyes fell upon the cause of the disturbance. A great bull moose was
charging, and the object of his rage was the Colonel, frantically
striving to free himself from a tangle of fallen tree-tops into which
he had plunged. That the man had fled a short distance after wounding
the moose was quite evident. But to escape now by flight from that
infuriated animal was utterly impossible. This the Colonel realised,
so his only hope lay in seeking refuge amidst the tops of the fallen
trees. This position, however, was most precarious, for the branches
were half rotten and brittle, absolutely unable to withstand the
terrific goring impact of those wide-spread antlers, impelled by
insensate rage and over one thousand pounds of flesh, bone, and sinewy
muscles.

In an instant Dane comprehended the seriousness of the situation. He
knew that there was no time to lose, so bringing his musket to his
shoulder, he took a quick, careful aim and fired. The great antlered
demon was