CHAPTER VIII
AGAIN ON THE TRAIL
"Here's about where I stood when I heard something rushing off, andlooked just in time to get a peek at the moose."
As he said this Ethan pointed down to where the marks of his snow-shoescould be plainly seen.
"Now lead me to where you saw the moose, which I take it must have beenover there in that direction," remarked Phil.
"As sure as you live," declared the other; "and I guess you knew thatfrom the way my tracks set, eh, Phil?"
"Just what I did look at the first thing," confessed the other.
Presently they were bending over the trail in the deep snow which showedwhere the alarmed moose had gone plunging off.
"It's a moose, all right," Phil admitted, without much delay.
"Can you tell if it was a bull?" asked the other.
"Well, not from the tracks. Did you happen to notice any horns on thebeast?" was what Phil inquired.
"I can't just say I did; but then it all happened so quick I couldn't bedead sure either way. It's a good-sized critter anyway, I think, Phil."
"Yes, no doubt about that, Ethan. But let's get started on the trail."
That pleased Ethan, for he was full of eagerness. The love for huntingran full and strong in his veins. Phil used to be built in the same way,but since discovering the peculiar fascination of hunting with aflashlight camera he seemed to be losing much of his former liking forkilling game. He would much rather spend his time playing his skill andbrains against the natural caution of the wearers of fur, in endeavoringto photograph them in their native haunts.
For a while they continued to move along. Sometimes they could makepretty good speed, where the going was easy; and then again it becamenecessary to push through thickets where the branches were so thick asto hold them up.
"Have you any idea yet whether it's a bull or a cow?" asked Ethan, afterthey must have been going fully two hours.
"Not absolutely," returned Phil; "but I've got an idea we're going tofind it the latter."
"Tell me what you base your judgment on, please, Phil."
"I may be all wrong at that," replied the other, who never set himselfup as infallible. "There have been a few places where the chase led usthrough thick woods, with the lower limbs of the trees hanging downunder their snow burden just so far. If the moose had big horns, whichwould be the case in a bull, no matter how far back on his shoulders helaid them they would be apt to break some of the twigs loose above, andwe'd have seen them lying on the snow."
"Then I take it from what you say there were none of these signs, eh,Phil?"
"Not that I could see, and I looked carefully, not once but severaltimes. I'm afraid, Ethan, your moose is going to turn out a big cowafter all."
"And we promised ourselves we wouldn't shoot a cow moose even if we hadto go without such big game, didn't we, Phil?"
"That's where I have the bulge on you, Ethan," laughed the other.
"As how?" demanded the eager hunter; "you sure subscribed to that rulewith the rest of us, Phil."
"Yes, but only so far as my gun went," he was told; "I can shoot thatcow with my camera, and never injure a hair of her hide, you see."
At that Ethan shrugged his shoulders, and made a grimace.
"Yes, that's a fact, you have got the jump on us, Phil. But I suppose,then, we can keep on the move, and take our chance of catching up withthe cow, so as to let you get in a snap-shot of the same?"
"We'll keep going up, to a certain limit," figured Phil; "I wouldn'tcare to tramp beyond that. We'd want to be able to make the home camp bynight, you know."
"As for that," said Ethan, indifferently, "what should we worry abouteven if we had to stay out a night? Fact is, I'd rather enjoy theexperience in your company. So don't count me in when you're figuringthings, Phil. I c'n take pot-luck any old time."
As on the previous day Phil could readily tell that they were gaining onthe animal they followed. He had shown Ethan where the moose spent theprevious night and it seemed as though the animal could not have beenvery greatly alarmed by seeing the young hunter, for it had not gonemore than two miles after that before stopping to browse upon sometender branches of a certain tree, and stop until another day dawned.
The trail did not always keep on in a direct line, but there was more orless of a zigzag movement about it. From this Phil drew the conclusionthat the moose must be scouring the bush in hopes of meeting up withothers of its kind, so as to keep company with them for the balance ofthe long winter.
It began to get along toward high noon.
Ethan felt hungry, since they had been on the tramp a long while now.Still he did not dream of stopping to build a fire, and waste time withsuch foolishness, thus losing most of the advantage they had gained.
"We can chew at something as we keep right along, eh, Phil?" heremarked, after mentioning the subject of lunch.
"Yes, unless we come up with our game before the sun is at the zenith,"the other replied. "Of course, after we've met the moose we needn't bein such a hurry, and an hour's rest would make both of us feel a heapbetter for the return journey."
Apparently Ethan was quite content to let it go at that, for he did notmention the subject again.
A short time afterward Phil whispered that the trail was so fresh hewould not be surprised if they came in sight of the moose at any moment.He had slung his gun to his back and held his camera ready for instantuse in case the chance came.
Of course they could never have come so close to the animal had the windbeen blowing from them toward the moose; but the animal followed thehabit of most of the deer tribe in advancing into the wind, so as to beable to detect any danger ahead.
Then all at once Ethan gave a low cry.
"Look, Phil!"
There was a snap, and Phil had secured a picture of a big animal notunlike a hornless domestic cow standing there staring at them. He evenhad time to roll the film and get his camera in condition for businessagain before, with a sudden plunge the unwieldy beast went off throughthe drifts.
"Got two beauty shots at her, didn't you?" queried Ethan; "oh! what adandy chance for me to pull trigger, if it had only been a big bull withmassive horns. But I'm glad for your sake there was so fine a picture.It ought to make a dandy showing, with the snow woods for a background,and those dark firs on the right."
Of course now that the excitement was all over the boys began to feelsomewhat tired after such tedious walking with the clumsy snow-shoes; sowhen Phil suggested that they find a good place, make a cheerful fire,and sit around in comfort while they ate their lunch, there was noobjection from his companion.
A fire is certainly the hunter's best friend, in winter time at least.Without it how gloomy and cheerless would his surroundings appear, andwhat physical discomfort must he endure?
The two boys sat there for more than an hour, a friendly log servingthem for a seat.
There was plenty of fuel to be had for the gathering; indeed, the sitehad been selected on that very account.
"I'm trying to make out just which way we ought to go so as to strikethat little stream," Phil was saying, when the other asked what he wasdoing with a pencil and paper.
"Oh! you mean the one McNab called Cranberry Creek, and that has thebeaver colony on it, somewhere like five miles from our lake; is thatit, Phil?"
"Yes, and this is how I figure it," continued the other, showing what hehad done in drawing a rough map on the paper. "Here is the camp on thelake; this is the way we got to where we are sitting now, having headedpretty generally into the north. This is the way the creek runs, so ifwe start from here and keep bending a little to the west we're likely tostrike the stream."
"Looks good to me, Phil."
"Then let's call that our program," Phil wound up with saying.
"According to the way you figure how long a distance would you thinkwe'd have to cover before we got to the creek?" asked Ethan.
"Oh! anywhere between half a mile, and three times a
s far," the othertold him.
"And after we reach the frozen creek," continued Ethan, "all we have todo is to follow it down to the lake, hoping to run across the beavervillage on the way."
"Just so, and since we've rested and feel in good trim again, suppose wemake a start right away?"
Ethan had no objections. He liked to be on the move, and besides, theremay have been a lingering hope still lodged in his mind that they mighthappen to come upon a noble bull moose before the tramp was over. Ifthere was one of those animals wandering around that region why notothers?
So as he strode along Ethan was careful to keep in condition forbusiness. And if by good luck they did happen on game he meant to do histype of shooting even as Phil pressed the button and featured the moosefor admiring eyes at home to see.
They were heading pretty generally into the west, though it was Phil'sidea to swing around gradually, and begin to aim more for the lake.Ethan left all that to his chum. He never boasted of his ability to keeptrack of localities; in fact, on numerous occasions Ethan had losthimself. It was a weakness, he admitted it, and one so ambitious ahunter ought to be ashamed of; but somehow Ethan rather enjoyed thesensation of finding himself suddenly thrown on his own resources, andbeing compelled to find his way out of a labyrinth.
"I always did like to solve any old puzzle when I was a little kid," heused to say when Phil took him to task for his lack of forethought inthis particular, "and when you wake up to the knowledge that you'rereally and truly without your bearings, seems like you had a new andintricate riddle to guess. And I haven't starved to death yet, younotice. Guess I'll always be able to _smell_ my way home, one way oranother."
At the same time Ethan frankly confessed that his way was not the rightone, and he did not advise any one else to copy after him. They mightnot enjoy the sensation like he did; or have that faculty for "smelling"home, the instinct that causes a bee to start on a straight line for thehive after loading itself up with nectar from the blossoms, even when amile distant from home.
The cold seemed to be getting worse, if anything, and Ethan predictedthat they would have a bitter night of it.
"But then what do we care?" he added, with a laugh; "with plenty of goodgrub, a warm fire under a snug shelter, and blankets to wrap around us,we can afford to snap our fingers at the cold weather clerk. Let himorder out one of those Canada blizzards we've heard so much about, if hewants to give the Mountain Boys a run for their money."
"We must have covered a whole mile after leaving the place where we saton that log and ate our lunch," remarked Phil.
"And no creek yet, as far as I've seen, Phil!"
"Nothing doing," admitted the other; "so I think we'd better begin toswing around a little more to the southwest from now on."
"You'll try another half mile, you said, didn't you?" asked Ethan.
"That will be all I care to risk. If the old creek hasn't cropped up bythen we might as well give it up for to-day. Another time I'll start upfrom where it flows into the lake."
"That would be the better way, Phil; you'd make sure then of finding thebeaver colony, if it was still there. As we're going we may even strikethe creek below the dam, and have all our extra walk for nothing."
The woods seemed very still. Even the crows had gone somewhere for theday to find their rations. Early in the morning the boys had seen flocksflying in a certain quarter, and Phil had given it as his opinion theywere heading toward a large lake that would not be frozen up so early inthe winter, and along the shores of which doubtless crows could pick upplenty of food.
"Looks like I wasn't going to be treated to that shot at a moose to-day,at any rate," half grumbled Ethan, who had been considerablydisappointed because the animal they had tracked so persistently hadfailed to turn out to be a bull with towering horns, and a fit subjectfor his skill with the rifle.
"Other days coming," Phil told him, consolingly; "and we've had a finetramp on our snow-shoes to boast of, even if I hadn't secured thesnapshots I did."
"Excuse me for speaking in the way I did, Phil; I forgot myself thattime. It's all in a day's work, I guess. And I want you to understandthat it's a treat for me just to get out in the woods along with you."
"I thought I heard something just then," said Phil, quickly, swinginghis camera around so as to be ready; while Ethan drew back the hammer ofhis rifle once more, his eyes sparkling with renewed anticipation.
"Yes, I can get it, too, Phil," he whispered; "it sounds as if it mightbe over yonder in that thick patch of trees. Move a little to the left,so we can have a clear field in case it rushes out. Now let's advanceslowly."
They kept on going ahead, and nothing burst into view. Still that queersound came to their ears. It was not unlike a sob, Ethan thought; thoughhe immediately took himself to task for imagining such a silly thing.
Picking up a stick he gave it a toss into the thicket. The soundstopped, it was true, but not a thing appeared.
Then a minute later and they heard it again. The two boys turnedwondering eyes on each other.
"What in the dickens can it be?" whispered Ethan, in a puzzled way.
"I give it up; let's push in and see. Be ready, if it's a cat, which isthe only thing I can think of," said Phil.
With that they started ahead again, and gradually working into thethicket soon found themselves staring at a sight calculated to amazethem.