A minute later, and waving good-by to the others the two started forth.
CHAPTER VI
A QUARREL OVER THE GAME
"I"m getting to do first-rate at it, don"t you think, Phil?" asked X-Ray, after they had been moving along for an hour and more.
"Yes, you seem to have mastered the trick all right," he was told, "though you did take a few headers when you grew too confident.
Snow-shoes can only be successfully mastered through experience. They are clumsy things to a novice, and apt to play all sorts of sly tricks on him. I"ve seen a chap with both feet sticking up out of a drift; and unable to get out alone."
"Yes, I"d think they would act about the same as a life preserver fastened down around a fellow"s knees. The very thing you are depending on to save you turns out your worst enemy when you treat it the wrong way. Now watch me make a little speed, Phil."
"Take care. Pride goes before a fall, they say. There, that"s the time you did manage to tumble in good earnest."
"Help me up, that"s a good fellow, Phil. I guess I"ll feel my way after this. You may think you have mastered snow-shoes, but as you say they can spring a trick on you unawares. Your feet get twisted, and of course down you flop. But I"m satisfied with as far as I"ve gotten. The next thing is to learn to slide over a crust like the wind, climbing rises, and spinning down the other side like you were on skis. Say, it must be great sport; I hope it melts a little soon, and then freezes on top."
"Probably it will, now that you have expressed a wish that way,"
chuckled Phil, who was really having more or less fun observing the actions of the new beginner.
A short time later and Phil uttered an exclamation.
"What have you struck now?" asked X-Ray, eagerly.
Phil pointed to the snow close by.
"Some animal has gone along here, sure enough!" said X-Ray, bending over to examine the marks more closely. "A moose most likely, eh, Phil?"
"No, it was a caribou," the other a.s.sured him.
"A horse of another color, then; but it means game, all the same, Phil?"
"Yes, caribou are cla.s.sed in that list, and make pretty good eating, too," the other explained.
"Of course we might take a little turn after the old chap, just to give me my first snow-shoe hunt; say yes, Phil."
"There"s no reason that I can see why we shouldn"t, though we don"t want to get too far away from camp, because it"s heavy work dragging a pair of shoes after you, once you begin to feel tired."
"We can stop whenever you think it"s best," promised X-Ray.
Accordingly they began to follow the trail. It was so easy any novice could have done it; and yet there was a certain thrilling sensation about the whole matter that gave the new beginner much pleasure.
He had so often pictured himself in some such scene as this that the reality afforded him more genuine delight than words could describe.
Phil allowed him to take the lead, thinking that would satisfy X-Ray; who while not so fond of hunting as Ethan, at the same time was able to enjoy it to a certain extent.
With the trees all heavily laden with snow, some of the birches and pines bent almost double under the burden, it was a beautiful scene by which the two boys found themselves surrounded. Phil admired everything as he went along. X-Ray seemed to be thinking only of the chance they might have to come up with the caribou, and wondering if they would have the good luck to bring it down in case they did sight it.
He had never seen a caribou in his life, though he knew they were a species of deer inhabiting the barrens of New Brunswick and Canada, where they are often run across in herds of hundreds.
The snow was deep enough to give considerable trouble to the animal they were following, though it seemed that he kept persistently on. He was possibly heading for a certain rendezvous where he knew he would find others of his kind a.s.sembled, to pa.s.s the severe weather in company, as a protection against roving wolves that would soon bring a straggler down, yet dare not attack a herd.
X-Ray was more or less excited. Every little while he would in a whisper ask his companion what he thought about it, and if they were drawing up on the caribou.
"Seems to me the trail is getting a heap fresher," X-Ray suggested; though truth to tell that was put forward as a "feeler" to draw out an opinion from Phil, and not because he knew much about the tracks.
"Yes, it is getting fresher all the time," admitted Phil; "which shows that we are making much better time than the caribou. But it remains to be seen whether he can put on a burst of speed when he sights us that will leave us far in the lurch. He may be taking it easy along here."
"And what if he does flicker away and out of sight before we can drop him, Phil; do we keep up the good work, or drop out?"
"If he once gets going good and hard," Phil declared, "we might as well say good-day to him, and head back toward the camp."
"The camp! Well, if you asked me now, I couldn"t tell you which way we"d have to go to get there; but of course you know, Phil? You always were a great hand to keep tabs of things."
"Yes, I"ve been watching our course all the while," Phil told him, confidently.
"And whereabouts would you say the camp lay from here, then?" asked X-Ray.
Without the slightest hesitation Phil pointed straight into the southeast.
"If you started off and kept a bee-line that way I believe you"d come within pistol-shot of our shack," he affirmed. "When you struck the sh.o.r.e of the lake it would be easy to locate the camp by the smoke rising, if not from other landmarks that every wise hunter would have jotted down in his memory."
X-Ray did not continue the low conversation immediately; he was trying to remember if there was any such landmark that he might have noticed close to the camp, and on the ice-bound sh.o.r.e of the lake.
"Oh! yes, there was the odd-shaped tree that looked like an old man on his knees and saying his prayers!" he broke out with, a look of satisfaction crossing his face at being able to recollect; "that was near by, and I think I would know it from across the lake if I happened to strike in there."
"I"m glad you remembered," said Phil; "but suppose we stop whispering now."
"Oh, my, do you expect we"re as close to him as all that, Phil?"
demanded X-Ray, beginning to finger at the lock of his gun, in order to make sure it was in readiness for quick use in an emergency.
"He pa.s.sed along here just a bit ago, for a fact," Phil told him.
They continued to push on, with that trail always before them, though sometimes they turned aside on account of the barrier presented by a growth of bushes, through which the caribou had gone.
Phil had now come up alongside his companion, and noticing this X-Ray believed things must be quickly getting to a stage when something was liable to happen. He was expecting to see the caribou ahead of them at some little distance, and paid but small attention to points close at hand.
When without the least warning there was a sudden rattling sound heard, and a large brown animal was seen departing with great leaps, X-Ray gave utterance to a gasp of disappointment.
Even as the two young hunters threw their guns to their shoulders the fleeting caribou suddenly shifted its course, and turning abruptly to the right, sped on. It now presented a splendid mark, and the two shots rang out almost as one.
A remarkable thing happened just then. With the crash of their rifles the animal was seen to leap high in the air, just as deer often will when stricken in full flight. And to the astonishment of the boys another report sounded from the other side of the caribou!
"He"s down, Phil!" shrilled X-Ray, trembling with the excitement.