d feeling instantly that the cabin was
tenanted, he had applied a match to his bark, causing the vivid flare
which revealed him to the eyes of those who had longed for his
presence.

"Herb Heal, man, is it you?" shouted Cyrus, his voice like a midnight
joy-chime, as he sprang from the fir-boughs and gripped the woodsman's
arm. "I'm delighted to see you, though I was ready to swear you wouldn't
disappoint us! I didn't fasten the cabin-door, for I thought you might
possibly get back to camp during the night."

"Cyrus, old fellow, how goes it?" was Herb's greeting. "I had a'most
given up looking for you. But I'm powerful glad you've got here at
last."

The hunter's voice had still the quick snap and force which made it
startling as a rifleshot when he entered the cabin.

"These are my friends, Neal and Adolphus Farrar," said Cyrus,
introducing the blanketed youths, who had now risen to their feet.
"Boys, this is Herb Heal, our new guide, christened Herbert Healy--isn't
that so, Herb?"

"I reckon it is;" answered the young hunter, laughing. "But no woodsman
could spring a sugary, city-sounding name like that on me. I've been
Herb Heal from the day I could handle a rifle."

He nodded pleasantly as he spoke to the strange lads, and began to chat
with them in prompt familiarity, looking straight and strong as a young
pine-tree in the halo of his birch torch. Garst, whose inches his
juniors had hitherto coveted, was but a stripling beside Herb Heal.

"Is this your first trip into Maine woods, younkers?" he asked. "Well, I
guess you've come to the right place for sport. I'm sorry I wasn't on
hand to welcome you when you arrived. A pretty forest guide you must
have thought me. But I guess I'll show you a sight to-morrow that'll
wipe out all scores."

There was such triumph in the hunter's eye that the voices of the trio
blended into one as they breathlessly asked,--

"What sight is it?"

"A dead king o' the woods, boys," answered Herb Heal, his voice
vibrating. "A fine young bull-moose, as sure as this is a land of
liberty. I dropped him by a logon on the east bank of Fir Pond, about
four miles from here. I started out early, hoping to nab a deer; for I
had no fresh meat left, and I didn't want to have a bare larder when you
fellows came along. But the woods were awful still. There didn't seem to
be anything bigger than a field-mouse travelling. Then all of a sudden
I heard a tormented grunting, and the moose came te