A MYSTERIOUS SOUND--TREED BY A MOOSE--ANGLING FOR A POWDER HORN--AN
UNHEEDED WARNING AND THE CONSEQUENCES.
As Spalding ceased speaking, there came from away off, over the forest
in the direction of the tall mountain peaks, a faint sound like the
boom of a cannon, so distant that it could scarcely be heard, and yet
it was distinct and palpable to the senses. I say that it came from
the direction of the mountains, seen dim and shadowy in the distance,
and yet none of us were quite sure of this. We all heard it, but not
one of us could assert that the direction from which it came was a
fixed fact in his mind.
"There, Judge" said Cullen, "I've hearn that sound often among the
mountains, and when I've been driftin' about on these lakes, it never
seems much louder or nearer. It always seems to come from the
mountains, and yet you'll hear it while shantyin' at their base, and
it sounds just as faint and far off as it did just now. What it is, or
where it comes from, I won't undertake to say. The old Ingins who,
five and twenty year ago, fished and hunted over these regions, told
of it as a thing to wonder at, and that it was handed along down from
generation to generation, as one of the mysteries of this wilderness.
I mind once I was out among the Adirondacks, trappin' martin and
sable. I shantied for a week with Crop, under the shadow of Mount
Marcy. It was twenty odd year ago, and that old mountain stood a good
deal further from a clearin' than it does now. Crop and I had a good
many hard days' work that trip; but we got a full pack of martin and
sable skins, and two or three wolf scalps, besides a bear and a
painter, and we didn't complain. Wal, one afternoon, we put up a
shanty in an open spot two miles from our regular campin' ground, and
built our fire for the night. There was no moon, and though the stars
shone out bright and clear, yet in the deep shadow of the forest it
was dark and gloomy enough. We had eaten our supper, and I was smokin'
my last pipe before layin' myself away, when all at once the forest
was lighted up like the day. It was all the more light from the sudden
glare which broke upon the darkness, and there, for an instant, stood
the old woods, lighted up like noon, every tree distinct, every
mountain, every rock, and valley, as perfect and plain to be seen as
if the sun was standin' right above us in the sky. Crop was as much
astonished as I was, and he crept to my feet and trembled like a
coward, as he crouched beside them. I looked up, and flyin' across the
heavens was a great ball of fire, lookin' for all the world as if the
sun had broke loose, and was runnin' away in a fright. A long trail of
light flashed and streamed along the sky where it passed. It was out
of sight in a moment, and the fiery tail it left behind faded into
darkness. A little while after, maybe ten minutes after it
disappeared, that boomin' sound came driftin' down the wind, and I
somehow tho't it was mixed up in some way with that great ball of fire
that flew across the sky. Maybe I was wrong, but I've always tho't it
was the bustin' into pieces of that fiery thing that lighted up the
old woods that night, that broke the forest stillness, like a far off
cannon. I never heard it so loud at any other time, and when I hear it
now, I always say to myself, there goes another of Nater's fireballs
into shivers. I've hearn it in the daytime, when the air was still,
and the forest voices were hushed, but I never at any other time, day
or night, saw what I suspicioned occasioned it. The Ingins used to say
it came from the mountains, but it don't. I've hearn some folks
pretend that it comes from the bowels of the airth, but it don't; its
a thing of the air, and I've a notion it travels a mighty long way
from its startin' place afore it reaches us.
"Talkin' about that trip among the Adirondacks, puts me in mind of an
adventer I had with a bull moose, on one occasion among them. There
are times when sich an animal is dangerous. I've hearn tell of
elephants gittin' crazy and breakin' loose from their keepers, or
killin' them, and makin' a general smash of whatever comes in their
way. I believe its so sometimes with a bull moose; and when the fit
is on the animal forgets its timid nater, and is bold and fierce as a
tiger. I've seen two sich in my day; one of 'em sent me into a tree,
and the other put me around a great hemlock a dozen or twenty times, a
good deal faster than I like to travel in a general way, and if I
hadn't hamstrung him with my huntin' knife, maybe he'd have been
chasin' me round that tree yet. Wal, as I was sayin' I was out among
the Adirondacks one fall, airly in November; I'd wounded a deer, and
sent Crop forward on his trail to overtake and secure him. It was a
big buck, with long horns, and Crop had a pretty good general idea of
what sich things meant. He was cautious about cultivatin' too close an
acquaintance with such an animal, unless something oncommon obligated
him to do so. I heard him bayin' a little way over a ridge layin' gist
beyond where I shot the buck. I warn't in any great hurry, for I knew
Crop would attend to his case, and I tho't I'd wipe out my rifle afore
I loaded it again. I was standin' by the upturned roots of a tall fir
tree that had been blown down, and in fallin' had lodged in a crotch
of a great birch, maybe twenty feet from the ground, and broke off. I
stepped onto the butt of the fallen spruce, and was takin' my time to
clean my gun, when I heard a crashin' among the brush on the other
side of the ridge, as if some mighty big animal was comin' my way. I
walked pretty quick along up the slopin' log till I was, maybe fifteen
feet from the ground, and I saw Crop comin' over the ridge, in what
the Doctor would call a high state of narvous excitement, with his
tail between his legs, lookin' back over his shoulder, and expressin'
his astonishment in a low, quick bark, at every jump, at something he
seemed to regard as mighty onpleasant on his trail. I didn't have to
wait long to find out what it was, for about the biggest bull moose I
ever happened to see, came crashin' like a steam-engine after him. He
wasn't more than two rods behind the dog, and if I ever saw an ugly
looking beast, that moose was the one. Every hair seemed to stand
towards his head, and if he wasn't in earnest I never saw an animal
that was. He was puttin' in his best jumps, and the way he hurried up
Crop's cakes was a thing to be astonished at. The dog didn't see me,
and seemed to be principled agin stoppin' to inquire my whereabouts.
He dashed under the log where I stood, and the moose after him like
mad. He seemed to be expectin' aid and comfort from me, as the papers
say, and was wonderin', no doubt, where me and my rifle was all this
time. I called after him, but he was in a hurry and couldn't stop, for
there was a thing he didn't care about shakin' hands with, not three
rods from his tail. He heard me, though, and took a circle round a
great boulder, and the moose after him, and as he got straightened my
way, I called him again, and he saw me. He leaped onto the log and
came runnin' up to where I stood, and was mighty glad to be out of the
way of them big hoofs and horns that were after him. He was safe now,
and he opened his mouth and let off a good deal of tall barkin' at his
enemy. The moose saw us, and his fury was the greater because he
couldn't get at us. He kept chargin' back and forth under the log we
were perched on, and if there wasn't malice in his eye, I wouldn't
say so.
"When I first saw him, I was standin' with the butt of my rifle on the
log, my hand graspin' the barrel, and as I caught it up suddenly to
load, the string of my powder-horn caught between the muzzle and the
ramrod, broke, and the horn fell to the ground. Here was a fix for a
hunter to be in. My rifle was empty, and every grain of powder I had
in the world was in the horn, fifteen feet below me, on the ground. To
go down after it was a thing I was principled agin undertaking
considerin' the circumstance of that bull moose with his great horns
and the onpleasant temper he seemed to be in. What to do I didn't
know. I hollered and shouted at the kritter, thinkin', maybe, that the
voice of a human might scare him; but it only made him madder, and
every time I hollered he charged under the log more furiously than
before. I threw my huntin' cap at him, but he pitched into it, and if
he didn't trample it into the ground, as if it was a human, you may
shoot me. After a while, he got tired of dashin' back and forth, under
the log, and took a stand two or three rods off, and as he eyed us,
shook his great horns and stamped with his big hoofs, as much as to
say, 'very well, gentlemen, I can wait, don't hurry yourselves, take
your time; but I shall stay here as long as you stay up there. And
when you do come down, we'll take a turn that won't be pleasant to
some of us.' Crop and I took the hint and sat still, thinkin' maybe
he'd get over his pet and move off; but he did'nt lean that way at
all. He seemed to've made up his mind to stay there as long as we
stayed on the log, be the same more or less. We'd sat there maybe an
hour, when I happened to think of a trollin' line and some fishhooks I
had in my pocket, and it came across me that possibly I might fish up
my powder horn. So tyin' half a dozen hooks to the end of my line, I
laid down on the log to angle for my powder-horn. When I laid down,
the old bull made a pass under the log, as if he expected me down
there, and charged back again, as if he was disappointed in not
runnin' agin me. But he saw 'twan't no use, and took his old stand
agin. I dropped down the grapnel, and after a great many failures, I
hooked into the string of the powder horn, and hoisted away. I hauled
it up mighty quick, for the old bull seemed to be suspicions that
something was goin' on that might have something to do with his futer
happiness, and when he got sight of it, the pass he made was a thing
to stand out of the way of. But he was too late; the powder-horn was
safe, and I notified him, as Squire Smith did the cats, to leave them
parts in just one minute by the clock. He did'nt pay any attention to
the warnin'. I loaded my rifle carefully, and while I was puttin' on
the cap, asked the gentleman if he calculated to move on, and let
peaceable people alone. He didn't condescend to answer a word, looking
for all the world like a tiger in savageness. 'Very well,' said I, as
I sighted him between the eyes, 'on your head be it,' and pulled. The
ball went crashin' through his skull into his brain, and he went down.
Crop knew what that meant. He didn't wait to run down the log, but
leaped to the ground, and had his teeth in the animal's throat before
the echoes of my rifle were done dancin' around among the mountains. I
loaded my gun before I came down, thinkin' maybe there might be
another bad tempered moose about, but there wasn't. Crop and I learned
what we ought to've know before, and that was that it's a safe thing
for a hunter to have an extra horn of powder in his pocket, and a
loaded rifle in his hand when a mad bull moose is on his trail, and
that a slantin' tree is a good thing to get onto at sich a time."