CHAPTER XII
CHUNKY MEETS A BULL MOOSE
"That was as fine a piece of trailing as ever a mountaineer did,Master Tad," announced Cale approvingly as they came in sight of thelittle lake where the permanent camp was pitched.
"Oh, it is easy to follow a trail so plainly marked as was that,"answered Butler.
"Not so easy as you would make it out to be. None but an experiencedWoodsman could follow even that trail, let me tell you, young man.And even on a clear trail there isn't that man living who doesn't getlost once in a while. When you do get lost, sit down and think itover. Don't get the willyjigs and go all to pieces."
"I never do," replied Tad. "Still, that isn't saying that I wouldn'tget them up here."
"What are the willyjigs?" asked Stacy.
"Going into a panic; in other words, getting rattled when you realizethat you are lost."
"Is it anything like buck fever when you are trying to shoot at ananimal?" asked Rector.
"About the same thing."
"That's what Ned had when he shot the rope off the bear the otherday," piped Stacy.
"I didn't," expostulated Ned.
"Master Stacy is right at that, I guess," laughed Vaughn. The guideraised his voice in a signal to the camp. "There is Charlie John," hesaid.
The Indian came down to the shore of the lake upon hearing the call.He made out the party in a moment, though they had halted in theshadows of the trees to see if he would discover them. Charlie did.
"Indians have sharp eyes," said Tad.
"Yes, even the half-breeds," agreed Cale.
"Hold my gun. I'm going to swim it," announced Tad.
"The water is too cold," objected Cale.
"I don't care."
Tad quickly stripped off his clothes, and Ned decided that he, too,needed a swim, so he undressed. The two lads plunged into the littlelake, and Ned uttered a yell when his body came in contact with thealmost ice-cold water.
"Swim hard and you will not notice it," chattered Tad.
"I s-s-s-see you don't," answered Ned.
"Race me for the other side. Now, go!" cried Tad.
The boys struck out in swift, powerful strokes. Cale Vaughn's eyessparkled as he observed the swimmers.
"I would give a great deal if I could swim like that," he mused.
"Oh, that's nothing. I can beat that swimming with my feet tied,"answered Stacy. "I'm a natural-born swimmer."
"I should say you were a natural everything, according to your ideaof yourself," grinned the guide.
"Don't make fun of me. I am sensitive about that," replied Chunkywith an injured look on his face.
"Come, we had better be on the move. Those two boys will be wantingtheir clothes," answered Cale. They started around the shore of thelake, finding very good traveling. But the swimmers were ahead ofthem. Tad and Ned were running up and down the beach to stir theircirculation, their teeth chattering, their bodies blue with the cold.
"Hurry, hurry!" yelled Tad.
"I'm a human icicle. I'll freeze fast to the shore if you don'thurry!" chattered Ned.
"Never mind. We can break you loose with an axe," retorted Stacy ina jeering tone.
By this time the Professor had brought towels, whereat the two boysbegan rubbing down, and in a few moments the blue of their fleshturned to pink. Chunky cast their clothes on the ground.
"You fellows do love to work, don't you?" he grunted.
"All healthy human beings should like to work," answered Tad.
"I smell dinner."
"Dinner!" cried Chunky, starting on a run for the campfire where theIndian was preparing the noonday meal.
After dinner Stacy went to sleep while his companions were relatingthe story of their experiences to the Professor, and the guide wastelling him what a clever woodsman Master Tad was.
Stacy was awakened by the voices of his companions. With a growl ofdisgust at being disturbed, he scrambled to his feet and startedsleepily out into the forest, hoping to find a snug place in which tolie down and finish his nap. The boy was almost asleep as he blindlymade his way from camp, but without attracting the attention of theothers. Getting a little way from camp he leaned heavily against atree. One solitary snore escaped his lips. Stacy pulled himselftogether, opening his eyes slightly, then closing them again.Somehow he had a faint idea that he had seen something that was not apart of the forest, something that had made him start withdisagreeable expectation.
Before Him Stood a Huge Animal]
Being brave, however, Chunky forced himself to open his eyes.
"Wow!" he gasped.
Before him, some five rods away, stood a huge animal, of aspect soterrifying that young Brown couldn't, for the moment, even guess towhich class of lower animals it belonged. It was huge, this solidapparition, with a long, beak-shaped nose. From its head branchedupward a pair of enormous antlers with many branches. The ends ofthese antlers looked as though they might be as sharp as needles.When the animal pawed the ground and snorted Stacy shivered again,yet seemed unable to run.
It was a giant bull moose, a savage enough fellow even whenconfronted by an armed, cool and experienced hunter.
Again it snorted, its beak-like jaw lowering toward the ground.
"It's going to nibble at the grass--I must be slipping away," thoughtthe terrified fat boy. Next he discovered that the animal's gazewas fastened upon him.
Then, suddenly, the great bulk, its head still lowered, and thecruel-looking antlers pointed straight at the boy, charged!
"The fellows will never know how scared I died!" gasped the shakingboy, who was now incapable of motion.
Stacy tried to shut his eyes, but was so fascinated that he couldn't.He couldn't remove his gaze from those awful antlers!
Then kindly Nature stepped in. Stacy's swift despair reached such aheight of frenzy that he swooned. Sideways he toppled, away from thetree.
_Bump!_ went the bull moose's lowered head against the tree, withfearful force and an awesome noise. The impact was so terrific thatthe moose, stunned, recoiled, then toppled over just as Stacy haddone.