ind leg
lifted itself till its claws took firm grip on a projection near the top
of the rock. He was like a catapult, bent and ready.

When the moose came just opposite, the giant spring was loosed. The
ponderous shape of the bear launched out over the top of the rock and
seemed to shoot through the air.

Magnificent as the leap was, however, it just fell short of its mark;
for the moose, taking instinctive alarm before any cause was actually
perceptible, had swerved a yard aside from the place of ambush. Instead
of falling directly upon him, therefore, and bearing him to the ground
with a broken back, the bear landed at his side, just close enough to
strike him a savage blow on the neck.

Powerful as the neck of a bull moose is, had that blow struck true it
would have ended the fight. But it fell rakingly, rending hide and
muscle but breaking no bones. Brave as he was cautious, the moose
wheeled to strike back.

Jumping aside with the agility of a red buck, he gained room to lower
his antlers, and lunged forward upon the foe with all the force of his
seven hundred pounds behind these formidable weapons. The bear, skilful
as a boxer at parrying, with his big fore paw turned aside the direct
thrust; but owing to the spread of the antlers, one long, keen spike
caught him right under the shoulder and drove home.

Then began a terrific uproar of crashing and growling and coughing and
grunting, while the underbrush was beaten flat beneath the ponderous
combatants. The bear clung to the antlers, wrenching and twisting, now
trying to pull his antagonist to the ground, now striving to reach past
his pronged defences and rend his throat.

For a time the moose succeeded in keeping his feet, struggling to force
his assailant backward and pierce his flank. Then he was lucky enough
to tear himself free. Instantly he reared like a mad horse, and brought
down his sharp hoofs on the enemy's shoulder.

It was a terrific blow, battering like a sledge-hammer and cutting like
an axe, and the bear roared under it. But it was not a finishing blow,
and it let the foe reach close quarters. The bear got the bull's neck
into the grip of his mighty forearms, and pulled him down. The moose
struggled valiantly, thrashing backward with jagged antlers, and tearing
up the ground in desperate efforts to regain his feet. But victory was
now, beyond peradventure, within the clutch of the bear.

At the first sound of the battle the cow had come t