an extravagant bonus if the quest should be successful.

The lake, lying low between its wooded hills, was like a glimmering
mirror in the misty October twilight when Jabe and the Famous Hunter
crept stealthily down to it. In a dense covert beside the water's edge
they hid themselves. Beside them stretched the open ribbon of a narrow
water-meadow, through which a slim brook, tinkling faintly over its
pebbles, slipped out into the stillness. Just beyond the mouth of the
brook a low, bare spit of sand jutted forth darkly upon the pale
surface of the lake.

[Illustration: "IT WAS NOT UNTIL THE MOON APPEARED ... THAT JABE BEGAN TO
CALL."]

It was not until the moon appeared--a red, ominous segment of a
disk--over the black and rugged ridge of the hills across the lake,
that Jabe began to call. Three times he set the hollow birch-bark to
his mouth, and sent the hoarse, appealing summons echoing over the
water. And the man, crouching invisible in the thick shadow beside
him, felt a thrill in his nerves, a prickling in his cheeks, at that
mysterious cry, which seemed to him to have something almost of menace
in its lure. Even so, he thought, might Pan have summoned his
followers, shaggy and dangerous, yet half divine, to some symbolic
revel.

The call evoked no answer of any kind. Jabe waited till the moon,
still red and distorted, had risen almost clear of the ridge. Then he
called again, and yet again, and again waited. From straight across
the strangely-shadowed water came a sudden sharp crashing of
underbrush, as if some one had fallen to beating the bushes furiously
with sticks.

"That's him!" whispered Jabe. "An' he's a big one, sure!"

The words were not yet out of his mouth when there arose a most
startling commotion in the thicket close behind them, and both men
swung around like lightning, jerking up their rifles. At the same
instant came an elusive whiff of pungency on the chill.

"Pooh! only a bear!" muttered Jabe, as the commotion retreated in
haste.

"Why, he was close upon us!" remarked the visitor. "I could have poked
him with my gun! Had he any special business with us, do you
suppose?"

"Took me for a cow moose, an' was jest a-goin' to swipe me!" answered
Jabe, rather elated at the compliment which the bear had paid to his
counterfeit.

The Famous Hunter drew a breath of profound satisfaction.

"I'll be hanged," he whispered, "if your amiable New Brunswick
backwoods can't get up a thrill quite