THE BIG MOOSE
“A bull moose, you say, Will?” echoed Bluff, his face lighting up with
sudden energy.
“That’s what I mean,” replied the other. “I know what you’re thinking,
Bluff, and that I wouldn’t know a bull moose if I saw one. But you’re
away off in your guess. I’ve so longed to meet up with one when I had
my camera with me that I’ve been picturing how he’d look. And, Frank,
believe me, it _was_ a beaut—a regular monster!”
“How did it happen, Will?” asked Frank.
“I was sitting as still as anything,” the other related, “after I’d
got two dandy snaps at that funny squirrel family playing around the
tree where they have their home, and was hoping for another whack at
them to complete the set, when all at once I heard a whiffing sound.”
“Gee! what wouldn’t I give to have been alongside, with my gun!”
sighed Bluff; “but go on, Will; what happened next?”
“Oh, I looked up to see what had made that queer sound, and there he
was, just standing and looking straight at me! I was nearly scared to
death at first, for he looked nearly as big as a barn. Then I knew it
must be a bull moose; and the next thing I found myself taking his
picture.”
“Did he run away then?” asked Frank.
“Turned and trotted off, as if he didn’t care whether school kept or
not,” Will continued. “I even had the nerve to shoot him again as he
was going. And don’t I hope that first picture turns out good! It was
a remarkable pose, if only the focus was right.”
He started toward the cabin door as though anxious to develop his roll
of film and discover what success his labor had resulted in. Bluff
caught him by the arm.
“Wait just a minute or two, Will,” he pleaded. “Tell us some more.
Where did all this happen?”
“Frank knows where that squirrel colony have their nest in the tree
that’s got a hole in the trunk about thirty feet up,” the other
replied.
“But you’re dead sure, are you, it wasn’t just a big buck deer you
saw?” continued Bluff, who apparently could not bring himself to
believe a mighty moose had wandered that near the camp.
“If only you’ll hold your horses until I can develop this film, you
shall see for yourself whether I know a stag from a bull moose,” he
was told by the indignant photographer, as the latter broke away and
vanished inside the cabin.
Bluff turned to Frank.
“Let’s all take a look,” he suggested.
“I was just going to say the same myself,” Jerry added, being
evidently quite as much interested as Bluff.
Frank was more than willing. He did not feel that they could entirely
depend on the evidence of Will, who may have been so startled by the
sudden coming of some animal that his imagination worked overtime.
“I hope it wasn’t just a mule that strayed away from some lumber
camp,” he told the others, as they hurried off; but not before Bluff
and Jerry had darted inside the cabin and reappeared, carrying their
guns.
“They do say a moose has the same sort of a head as a mule,” Bluff
admitted; “but then Will vows it had horns—terribly big horns—which
no mule I ever saw could boast of owning.”
“Well, chances are it was a bull moose,” Frank admitted; “but we’ll
soon know.”
“That light snow falling last night was in our favor, for the tracks
will show up well,” suggested Jerry.
“Here’s the place,” Frank told them, a short time afterward. “You can
see the tree with the hole in it over there, and I think I even saw a
squirrel frisk out of sight as we came up.”
“Yes, and here’s where Will made himself a seat,” added Bluff. “He
fixed it so he could sit comfortably, and not have to frighten the
family of bushy-tails by moving. Now, he didn’t say he turned his
head; just looked up when first he heard that queer noise.”
“Yes,” said Jerry, “which would make it over there that the thing
showed up. Let’s take a look at the ground, and see if Will was
dreaming or not.”
Before half a minute had passed, Frank was pointing to certain marks
plainly seen in the inch and more of snow that had fallen on the
previous night, perhaps as a sort of forerunner of the coming storm.
“There you are, fellows!” he announced.
All stared hard at the monstrous tracks. Bluff even got down on hands
and knees in order to see better.
“It was a moose, all right, Frank!” said Jerry.
“From the prints made by its big split hoofs, I’m pretty sure of
that,” Frank asserted; “I’m beginning to believe Will was not so far
out of the way, after all, when he said it might be the giant of all
Maine moose!”
Bluff got up again, shaking his head.
“Oh, the meanest luck that ever was!” he lamented. “Why couldn’t I
have taken a notion to step out here with Will, to watch the way he
took the pictures of that squirrel family? I’d have had my gun across
my knees, with buckshot in every shell, of course. Think how easy I
could have dropped him, with such a short distance between. It’s
cruel, that’s what it is!”
Jerry clapped him on the shoulder.
“Tell me what’s to hinder a couple of us going after the old chap,
Bluff?” he asked, in an eager voice.
“You’ll have to count me out of that deal,” Frank told them. “You
remember that I sprained my ankle yesterday, and a long walk would lay
me up. If anybody goes, it will have to be you two.”
Jerry looked at Bluff.
“I dare you!” he said.
“No need of that,” came the reply, “because I’d be willing to start
after that moose alone, and follow him for a week, if I thought I
could get a fair crack at him in the end.”
“Then it’s a go, Bluff?” cried Jerry, greatly pleased, for up to now
he had not been given much of a chance to bring down any big game on
this trip, and was secretly chafing.
They shook hands on the bargain, and so it was ratified.
“When ought we make the start?” asked Jerry impetuously.
“The sooner the better, so as to keep his lead cut down as much as we
can,” he was told by Bluff, after which they both turned toward Frank,
for, after all, it would be from this quarter that the signal to start
must eventually come.
“No need of rushing off as though you were crazy,” Frank told them.
“Will says the moose didn’t act as though it was badly frightened by
seeing him, so it isn’t likely it will cover a great many miles before
stopping again. Lunch must be nearly ready. You must stop long enough
to eat a lot, because there’s no telling when you may get another
square meal.”
Bluff glanced quickly at Frank.
“Oh, we won’t get lost!” he said loftily. “Both of us have been around
some in the woods; and, besides, I always carry a compass.”
“I wasn’t thinking so much of that as the chance of a blizzard coming
down on you,” Frank continued. “Be sure to take along an extra supply
of matches. I’ll see to it that each of you has something to help make
out a meal or so. It won’t weigh heavy; but if you do need it you’ll
thank me for it.”
Bluff and Jerry may have considered Frank a bit too old-womanish,
making all that fuss over just going off on a little chase after a
wandering moose.
Frank, however, understood what a blizzard meant up there in Maine. He
had been in one or two himself, and would not care to repeat certain
experiences that had come his way, unless well provided against hunger
and bitter cold.
The three soon reached the cabin. It chanced that just then the call
to the midday meal came. Will was too busy working at his developing
tank to sit down with the rest.
“Plenty of time when I get through with this,” he told them. “Give me
five minutes more to get this film in fresh water and then I’ll come.”
Bluff and Jerry were hurrying as fast as they could. Frank had
redeemed his promise to see that there was something put up in small
shape that would help out for supper, in case they were delayed. He
also thrust several small boxes of safety matches into each of their
coats, and made sure Bluff had his compass.
“Well,” said Will, stepping forward and holding up a dripping film,
“take a peep at this, will you, and tell me if I know what I’m talking
about or not!”
As soon as the boys saw the splendid negative, in clear-cut lights and
shadows, they burst into a chorus of cries.
“It’s a moose, all right, Will!” Frank told the proud photographer.
“And sure a whopper, just as you said!” added Bluff.
“We take it all back,” Jerry vowed. “After this, we’ll own up that you
know a bull moose from a mule or a buck deer every time.”
“That’s going to be a prize picture, all right!”
Those last words from Frank made Will very proud.
“I believe myself that I never got such splendid effects!” he
exclaimed. “Why, I warrant you can see every hair on his head. Just
look how I got him square in the middle of my plate! It’s better to be
born lucky than rich, any day.”
“I’m done eating,” announced Bluff.
“Couldn’t cram another bite down, after seeing that picture!” Jerry
proclaimed, as he darted over to the corner where his rifle stood, and
began to buckle on the webbed belt filled with cartridges.
“Wear your sweaters, and be sure your woolen gloves are in your
pockets,” cautioned weather-wise Frank.
He hovered about the pair, and constantly warned them against
carelessness.
“I hope you get that big moose,” he told them, as they all pushed
outdoors, “but don’t take too big chances. We would feel pretty sorry
if anything happened to mar our holiday up here.”
“Frank, you can depend on us to be careful,” Bluff told him earnestly.
“But for goodness’ sake don’t worry about us. We’re not the ‘Babes in
the Woods,’ you know. If I do say it myself, we’ve had our eyeteeth
cut for some time. There never was such a bully chance to get a big
moose, and we want to do our level best. Look for us when we come. If
we don’t show up by night, why, chances are we found ourselves so far
away that we concluded to make camp.”
Bluff and Jerry shook hands gravely all around, even with Teddy.
“Good luck, and I hope you get him!” said that individual, meaning
every word, for he had already come to care a great deal for these
jolly boys who had been the means of helping him over a very rough
place in the road.
“Got everything now?” asked Bluff.
“I should hope so,” grunted Jerry. “We’d be pack horses if we tried to
carry any more truck along.”
“Of course,” Frank told them, laughingly; “but if you should have to
stay over to-night you’ll miss your blankets the worst way. Well,
so-long, boys, and we all wish you success.”
Turning, Bluff and his chum started for the spot where the trail of
the big moose was to be taken up.