The Gold Hunters / A Story of Life and Adventure in the Hudson Bay Wilds

re the dense stretches of forest, broken here and there by other plains and meadows, and a dozen lakes glistened in the red tints of the setting sun. When Rod first looked upon that country a

eam which they were to follow up to the chasm. Last winter it h

a mile away. At that distance they appeared hardly larger than dogs, and

th he caught him

oo

her calf,

ou know?"

from here I can see that she is pacing. A moose never trots or gallops, like a deer, but paces, using b

be about the same size," r

a calf, because it is too old; but so long as young moose stick to their mothers

his way!" whisper

upon which they stood. Wabi drew his companion behind a b

sprouting poplar along the mountain side. Just been ov

e wind blows. No matter how slight the movement of the air may be, one side of the finger dries first, in an instant

ing straight toward them. Unless we are so high that o

e and Rod nud

e withi

n't shoot. We d

ought herself to a dead stop so sudd

way. See how she holds her head, her great ears chucked forward to hear,

eming to shoulder it back, and in another moment the two were racing swi

eyes glowing. "Do you notice

t! I never thought of i

d of her in retreat, so that if harm came to either of them it would come to her. Isn't that the human mother instinct? And the bull is glorious! In the mating season he will face a dozen men in defense of his cow. If she falls first he will stand between her body and the hunters' rifles, pawing the earth, his eyes glaring defiance, until he is riddled with bullets. Once I saw a wounded cow, and

and the calf had disappeare

ing me new things about this big wilderness every day. I'v

on ready. After their meal the three sat for a long time near the fire, for there was still a slight chill in the night air, and talked mostly about Wolf and his adventures. Rod, in his distant home in civilization had read and heard much that was false about wild ani

als, and very few of them were true. All sorts of people write about the wilderness, and yet not one out of a hundred o

ened himself

et I have seen more wonderful things about anima

y would be laughed at down where you came from. Where your writers make their mistake is in bringing them into too close association with human beings, and making them half human. Wolf remained with us because he knew

p down in his throat, and Ro

eve that,

f go

Rod, to whom the discussion was of absorb

ories are as wrong as those which give wild animals human endowments. Animals do think. Don't you suppose that mother moose was thinking when she stopped out there in the plain? Wasn't she turning the situation over in her mind, if you want to

ion?" ass

as some nature writers would like to have you believe, and yet he can go from this m

-" mused R

pack," finished

oftly, as thou

r. Two moons past, Wolf, heem tame. Now wild.

t it is natur

t footstep of man, there came to Roderick Drew the thought that God must be nearer to earth here than anywhere else in the world. For the first time his soul was filled with something that was almost love for the red man's Great Spirit. And why not? For was not that Great Spirit his own God? Sad, lonely, silent, mysterious, a whole world lay before him, a world that was the Indian Bible, that contained for the red man of the North the teachings and the voice of t

the marrow of his bones, a terrible scream close to his ears. He sat bolt upright, quaking in every limb. For a mo

ing screams. Even now the white youth shivered at the sound, so much like the terrible cry of some person in dying agony. He leveled his gun. There was a flash in the moonlight, a sharp report, and a shout from the direction of the camp. In another moment Rod was upon his feet, and sorry that he had shot. It flashed u

on met him on the oppo

nga," grinned the old

nture on this sam

shortly. "What a sc

cent of the mountain. Mukoki went on ahead of Rod and Wabigoon with his pack, and the two boys had not made more than two of the six miles in the portage across the plain when he met them again, returning for his second load. By noon the canoe and its contents were safely at the creek, and the gold hunters halted until after dinner. The

ght," said the old Indian

instant the old Indian, who was in the bow, half turned to them, and for two strokes his paddle rested in mid air. From the stern Wabi reached forward and poked Rod, and the white youth understood. Next to Minnetaki and Wabigoon, and perhaps himself, he knew that the faithful pathfinder loved Wolf best, and that; he was

nd stop their comrade. "No persuasion could turn Mukoki now. He wants to reach

teps were quick, and yet cautious, every movement in his advance was one of listening and watchful expectancy. A person watching the old warrior would have said that he was keenly on the alert for game, or danger. And yet the safety of his rifle was locked, a fresh trail of bear aroused no new interest in him, and when he heard a crashing in the brush on his right,

rth, creeping from one footprint to the next ahead of it, and stopping always where the right forefoot had left its track. It was that foot which had held Wolf a captive in

remains of the old cabin. For many minutes he rested, his gaze fixed on those blackened reminders of their thrilling battle for life the winter before. His wild blood leaped again at the thought of the strife, of the desperate race that he and Roderick had run over the mountain to the burning cabin, and of their rescue of Wabigoon. Suddenl

the night: the chuckling notes of birds that awakened when the earth masked itself in darkness, the hoot of an owl, the faint wailing echo of a far-away lynx cry, the plunge of a mink in the lake. And now the wind began whispering in the balsams, singing gently its age-old song of loneliness, of desolation, of mystery, a

the falling of a small rock upon a larger one. And as he looked there came from the darkness of the boulders a flash of fire and the explosion of a gun, and as Mukoki crumpled down in his tracks there followed a cry so terrible, so unhuman, so blood-curdling that, as he fell, an an

h, a nameless fear chilling the blood in his veins. And the cry came again, and yet again, always farther and farther away, now at the foot of the mountain, now upon the plain, now floating away toward the chasm, echoing and reechoing between the mountain ridges, startling t