'll squeal like girls at a few flashes of lightning?
'Twould be jolly good fun to see old Pamolah sending off his artillery."

"Well, there'd be no special danger, I guess, if we were past the heavy
timber growth before the storm began. There's lots of rocky dens on the
mountain side where we could shelter under a granite ledge, and be safer
than we'd be here in tent. Or we might come a-near our old log camp. I
guess, if that's standing yet, you'd like to see it. Say! we'll leave it
to Cyrus. He's boss, ain't he?"

Cyrus, desperately anxious to know whether it would be life or death for
the wounded moose, and regarding the signs of bad weather as by no means
certain, decided in favor of the expedition. The campers hurriedly
swallowed the remainder of their breakfast, and made ready for an
immediate start.

"In trailing a moose the first rule is: go as light as you can; that is,
don't carry an ounce more stuff than is necessary. Even a man's rifle is
apt to get in his way when he has to scramble over windfalls, or slump
between big bowlders of rock, which a'most tear the clothes off his
back. And we may have to do some pretty tall climbing. So leave all your
traps in the tent, boys; I'll fasten it down tight. There won't be any
human robbers prowling around, you bet! Bears and coons are the only
burglars of these woods, and they don't do much mischief in daytime."

The guide rapidly gave these directions, his breezy voice setting a
current of energy astir, like a wind-gust cutting through a quiet grove,
while he rolled his indispensable axe, some bread that was left from the
meal, and a lump of pork into a little bundle, which he strapped on his
back.

"Now," he said, "if that trail should give us a long tramp, or if you
boys should take a notion to go a good ways up Katahdin, or anything
turns up to hinder our getting back to camp till nightfall, I've our
snack right here. I can light a fire in two minutes, to toast our pork;
and we'll wash it down with mountain water, the best drink for climbers.
I could rig you up a snug shelter, too, in case of accidents. A woodsman
ain't in it without his axe."

To what strange work that axe would be put ere night again closed its
shutters over granite peaks and evergreen forest, Herb Heal little knew;
nor could he have guessed that the coming hours would make the most
heart-stirring day of his stirring life. If he could, would he have
started out this morning with a happy-go-