I would gladly have lingered at Tobeatic Dam. It was an ideal place,
wholly remote from everything human--a haunt of wonderful trout,
peaceable porcupines and tame birds. The birds used to come around the
tent to look us over and ask questions, and to tell us a lot about what
was going on in the back settlements--those mysterious dim places where
bird and beast still dwell together as in the ancient days, their round
of affairs and gossip undisturbed. I wanted to rest there, and to heal
up a little before resuming the unknown way.
But Eddie was ruthless--there were more worlds to conquer. The spirit of
some old ancestor who probably set out to discover the Northwest Passage
was upon him. Lower Tobeatic Lake was but a little way above. We pushed
through to it without much delay. It was an extensive piece of water,
full of islands, lonely rocks and calling gulls, who come to this inland
isolation to rear their young.
The morning was clear and breezy and we set on up the lake in the
canoes, Eddie, as usual, a good way in advance. He called back to us now
and then that this was great moose country, and to keep a sharp lookout
as we passed the islands. I did not wish to see moose. The expedition
had already acquitted itself in that direction, but Eddie's voice was
eager, even authoritative, so we went in close and pointed at signs and
whispered in the usual way. I realized that Eddie had not given up the
calf moose idea and was still anxious to shine with those British Museum
people. It seemed to me that such ambitions were not laudable. I
considered them a distinct mar to a character which was otherwise almost
perfect. It was at such times that my inclination to drown or poison
Eddie was stronger than usual.
He had been behind an island a good while when we thought we heard a
shot. Presently we heard it again, and were sure. Del was instantly all
ablaze. Two shots had been the signal for moose.
We went around there. I suppose we hurried. I know it was billowy off
the point and we shipped water and nearly swamped as we rounded. Behind
the island, close in, lay the other canoe, Eddie waving to us excitedly
as we came up.
"Two calf meese!" he called (meese being Eddie's plural of
moose--everybody knows that mooses is the word). "Little helpless
fellows not more than a day or two old. They're too young to swim of
course, so they can't get on the island. We've got em, sure!"
"Did you hit either of them?" I asked anxiously.
"No, of course not! I only fired for a signal. They are wholly at our
mercy. They were right here just a moment ago. The mother ran, and they
hardly knew which way to turn. We can take them alive."
"But, Eddie," I began, "what will you do with them? They'll have to be
fed if we keep them, and will probably want to occupy the tents, and
we'll have to take them in the canoes when we move."
He was ready for this objection.
"I've been thinking," he said with decision. "Dell and Charlie can take
one of the canoes, with the calves in it, and make straight for Milford
by the shortest cut. While they're gone we'll be exploring the upper
lake."
This was a brief, definite plan, but it did not appeal to me. In the
first place, I did not wish to capture those little mooses. Then, too, I
foresaw that during the considerable period which must elapse before the
guides returned, somebody would have to cook and wash dishes and perform
other menial camp labor. I suspected Eddie might get tired of doing
guide work as a daily occupation. Also, I was sorry for Charlie and Del.
I had a mental picture of them paddling for dear life up the Liverpool
River with two calf mooses galloping up and down the canoe, bleating
wildly, pausing now and then to lap the faces of the friendly guides and
perhaps to bite off an ear or some other handy feature. Even the wild
animals would form along the river bank to view a spectacle like that,
and I imagined the arrival at the hotel would be something particularly
showy. I mentioned these things and I saw that for once the guides were
with me. They did not warm to the idea of that trip up the Liverpool and
the gaudy homecoming. Eddie was only for a moment checked.
"Well, then," he said, "we'll kill and skin them. We can carry the
skins."
This was no better. I did not want those little mooses slaughtered, and
said so. But Eddie was roused now, and withered me with judicial
severity.
"Look here," he said, and his spectacles glared fiercely. "I'm here as a
representative of the British Museum, in the cause of science, not to
discuss the protection of dumb creatures. That's another society."
I submitted then, of course. I always do when Eddie asserts his official
capacity like that. The authority of the British Museum is not to be
lightly tampered with. So far as I knew he could have me jailed for
contempt. We shoved our canoes in shore and disembarked. Eddie turned
back.
"We must take something to tie their hind legs," he said, and fished out
a strap for that purpose. The hope came to me that perhaps, after all,
he might not need the strap, but I was afraid to mention it.
I confess I was unhappy. I imagined a pathetic picture of a little
innocent creature turning its pleading eyes up to the captor who with
keen sheath-knife would let slip the crimson tide. I had no wish to go
racing through the brush after those timid victims.
[Illustration: "I do not like to come upon snakes in that manner."]
I did, however. The island was long and narrow. We scattered out across
it in a thin line of battle, and starting at one end swept down the
length of it with a conquering front. That sounds well, but it fails to
express what we did. We did not sweep, and we did not have any front to
speak of. The place was a perfect tangle and chaos of logs, bushes,
vines, pits, ledges and fallen trees. To beat up that covert was a hot,
scratchy, discouraging job, attended with frequent escapes from accident
and damage. I was satisfied I had the worst place in the line, for I
couldn't keep up with the others, and I tried harder to do that than I
did to find the little mooses. I didn't get sight of the others after we
started. Neither did I catch a glimpse of those little day-old calves,
or of anything else except a snake, which I came upon rather suddenly
when I was down on my hands and knees, creeping under a fallen tree. I
do not like to come upon snakes in that manner. I do not care to view
them even behind glass in a museum. An earthquake might strike that
museum and break the glass and it might not be easy to get away. I wish
Eddie had been collecting snake skins for _his_ museum. I would have
been willing for him to skin that one alive.
I staggered out to the other end of the island, at last, with only a
flickering remnant of life left in me. I thought Eddie would be
grateful for all my efforts when I was not in full sympathy with the
undertaking; but he wasn't. He said that by not keeping up with the line
I had let the little mooses slip by, and that we would have to make the
drive again. I said he might have my route and I would take another. It
was a mistake, though. I couldn't seem to pick a better one. When we had
chased up and down that disordered island--that dumping ground of
nature--for the third time; when I had fallen over every log and stone,
and into every hole on it, and had scraped myself in every brush-heap,
and not one of us had caught even an imaginary glimpse of those little,
helpless, day-old meese, or mooses, or mice for they were harder to find
than mice--we staggered out, limp and sore, silently got into our canoes
and drifted away. Nobody spoke for quite a while. Nobody had anything to
say. Then Charlie murmured reflectively, as if thinking aloud:
"Little helpless fellows--not more than a day or two old----"
And Del added--also talking to himself:
"Too young to swim, of course--wholly at our mercy." Then, a moment
later, "It's a good thing we took that strap to tie their hind legs."
Eddie said nothing at all, and I was afraid to. Still, I was glad that
my vision of the little creatures pleading for their lives hadn't been
realized, or that other one of Del and Charlie paddling for dear life
up the Liverpool, with those little mooses bleating and scampering up
and down the canoe.
What really became of those calves remains a mystery. Nature teaches her
wild children many useful things. Their first indrawn breath is laden
with knowledge. Perhaps those wise little animals laughed at us from
some snug hiding. Perhaps they could swim, after all, and followed their
mother across the island, and so away. Whatever they did, I am glad,
even if the museum people have me arrested for it.