d himself exertion by hunting the
cow; but a bull, although apt to prove a dangerous adversary to an
inexperienced bear, was well enough for one who knew how to manage such
matters. He slipped over to the edge of the brook, and crouched behind a
huge stump which was veiled by a growth of vines.

Immediately before him was the narrow, grassy clearway occupied by the
brook at high water, and now threaded by a winding, loitering rivulet.
So narrow was the space that in one lunge of his long body and mighty
forearm he could reach almost all the way across it. This white-lit path
was fretted with black traceries of branch and leaf, but the shadow
behind the rock was so thick that even the furry bulk of the bear was
completely engulfed in it.

The lonely figure out by the lake-side kept repeating its harsh calls
from time to time, but neither the bear behind his brook-side rock nor
the woodsman in his willow thicket up the shore any longer heeded her.
Both were waiting for a third to answer her summons.

The third, indeed, was coming to answer; but with unwonted
circumspection. He was a small but sturdy young bull, his antlers not
yet perfect. It was he whom the hunter had heard thrashing the bushes in
challenge; and when his mate first sent her call across the lake, he had
stood silent behind the sheltering trees and watched her. But just as he
was about to start on the long detour round the foot of the lake to join
her, he had seen her sudden alarm and been puzzled by it.

Like the woodsman, he had rested for some time, motionless and watchful,
looking for what else might happen. The absence of happening had left
him vaguely apprehensive. When, therefore, he saw her reappear long
afterward on his own side of the lake and begin her calls again, he was
cautious about replying. Instead of hurrying straight down the shore
to meet her, he sank softly back, deeper and deeper, into the woods,
till her voice could scarcely reach his ears.

[Illustration: "THE MOOSE CAME IN SIGHT UP THE BROOK CHANNEL."]

Then he made a wide swing round, and came stealthily down the channel of
the little brook. In spite of his bulk, his spread of antlers, his broad
and loose-hung hoofs, no mink or weasel could have come more silently
than he.

As the moose came in sight up the brook channel, a moving shadow, the
muscles of the watching bear behind the rock grew tense, and a luminous
green film seemed to come over his small eyes. One powerful h