shing for you to find a moose
and you found one. You were not compelled to use the rifle!"

"No, the bow served, but I had to shoot two arrows where you would have
shot only one."

"It is no disgrace to you. The bow is not the white man's weapon, at
least not on this continent. You withdrew the arrows, cleaned them and
returned them to the quiver?"

"Yes. I didn't forget that. I know how precious arrows are, and now,
Tayoga, since it's important for you to get back your strength faster
than a wounded man ever got it back before, I think we'd better risk a
fire, and broil some of these fat, juicy steaks."

"It is a danger, but we will do it. You gather the dead wood and we will
build the fire beside the mouth of the cave. Both of us can cook."

It was an easy task for two such foresters to light a fire with flint
and steel, and they soon had a big bed of coals. Then they broiled the
steaks on the ends of sharpened sticks, passing them back and forth
quickly, in order to retain the juices.

"Now, Tayoga," announced Robert, "I have a word or two to say to you."

"Then say them quickly and do not let your eloquence become a stream,
because I am hungry and would eat, and where the moose steaks are plenty
talk is needed but little."

"I merely wished to tell you that besides being our hunter, I'm also the
family doctor. Hence I give you my instructions."

"What are they, O youth of many words?"

"You can eat just as much of the moose steak as you like, and the
quicker you begin the better you will please me, because my manners
won't allow me to start first. Fall on, Tayoga! Fall on!"

They ate hungrily and long. They would have been glad had they bread
also, but they did not waste time in vain regrets. When they had
finished and the measure of their happiness was full, they extinguished
the coals carefully, hid their store of moose meat on a high ledge in
the cave, and withdrew also to its shelter.

"How much stronger do you feel now, Tayoga?" asked Robert.

"In the language of your schools, my strength has increased at least
fifty per cent in the last hour."

"I've the strength of two men myself now, and thinking it over, Tayoga,
I've come to the conclusion that was the best moose I ever tasted. He
was a big bull, and he may not have been young, but he furnished good
steaks. I'm sorry he had to die, but he died in a good cause."

"Even so, Dagaeoga, and since we have eaten tremendously and have cooked
much