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 assured him.

"A horse of another color, then; but it means game, all the same, Phil?"

"Yes, caribou are classed 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 assembled, to pass 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 shore 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 shore 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 passed 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.

"Yes, come on!" replied the other, immediately starting forward as fast as he could go on his snow-shoes.

"But, Phil, wasn't that another shot we heard?" expostulated X-Ray Tyson, as he did his level best to keep close to the heels of his chum.

"Yes, it was a gunshot," snapped Phil, who seemed to be laboring under some sort of emotion, though X-Ray could not say what its character might be.

They could see where the caribou had struck when he fell. His antlered head was resting on the snow, showing that he had fallen with that last leap, with his legs under him.

Phil saw a figure advancing from the opposite quarter, and also on snow-shoes. He was pleased to note there was only one, for he anticipated that there was likely to be trouble of some sort around that locality before long.

"There the other hunter comes, Phil!" said X-Ray, wanting to be sure that his chum was made aware of the important fact.

"All right, but we're going to get up before he does," was all Phil replied.

The first thing he did on reaching the spot where the stricken caribou lay was to bend down and closely examine the right side. As said before the animal lay just as it had fallen, so that both haunches were in plain view, did any one take the trouble to step around.

Phil was gratified with what he saw in that hasty survey; but nevertheless he immediately leaned over to ascertain the condition of the animal's left side. By that time X-Ray had come up, and the stranger sportsman was also close at hand.

Up to that moment Phil had not taken the pains to give the other a look; but as he had found out all he wanted concerning the state of affairs in connection with the game, he now turned his attention on the advancing man.

He was a rather stout and exceedingly peppery looking individual, who was rather out of breath, and puffing from his exertions. His florid face did not impress Phil favorably at all; it seemed to sense the bully, and the overbearing man of millions, accustomed to lording it over others.

There was no question at all in Phil's mind but that this man was a member of the other party he had been told was in camp in that vicinity. He might have even thought him to be a beef-eating Englishman only that his information had been to the effect that they were all Americans from below the border.

"I don't like his looks!" muttered X-Ray.

"No more do I," added Phil, under his breath, for the stranger sportsman was getting close up by then, and might hear if words were spoken in an ordinary tone. "But the game is ours without a question, and we're going to have what we want to carry off, make up your mind to that."

"Bully!" muttered X-Ray, who was inclined to be pugnacious on occasion; and at any rate never disposed to allow himself to be "used as a door mat, for some other person to wipe his feet on," as he used to put it.

Perhaps Phil meant something when he calmly placed his foot on the fallen game. It was a significant move, at any rate, and could hardly be mistaken. It struck X-Ray as peculiarly defiant, and he felt like chuckling as he watched to see what that red-faced individual did when he arrived on the scene of action.

If anything his face took on a deeper tint until it looked almost purple. When he saw that he had only two boys to contend with the other hunter must have believed he could frighten them with his looks, for he scowled like a pirate.

Somehow neither of the Mountain Boys drew back and began to apologize for daring to rob him of any of the free air. And no sooner had he arrived than the domineering tactics, with which perhaps he had pushed himself through business so as to accumulate his million, began to make themselves manifest.

"Here, what are you doing with your foot on _my_ caribou, I'd like to know?" was what he jerked out, being still short of breath.

"Excuse me, sir, but you'll have to explain what you mean," said Phil, coolly. "I am not aware of taking any such liberties with your caribou. If it happens that you are referring to this animal here, you've made a big mistake, that's all. It is _our_ game; we saw it first, shot it first, and got here first. So you'll have to go to court and put in a claim. Possession in this case is nine points of the law!"

The man stared at the speaker. He evidently had seldom been spoken to in that manner before, certainly never by a mere boy. And yet something in Phil's face must have impressed him as worth observing. He saw that those eyes were fastened on him with a steady and keen look that did not falter under his scowl, or his muttering.

"I tell you it is my caribou, for I shot it," he proceeded to affirm, embellishing his assertion with certain strong words which he doubtless expected might make the boys hesitate before they went any further and incurred his ill-will. "I was just creeping up within easy gunshot when you came along and scared the beast. I claim it as my prize."

"And we have been trailing the same caribou for at least two hours," said X-Ray under the impression that since he was a party to the dispute he should at least be allowed to get a few words in.

"The matter is easily settled," said Phil, quietly.

"I am glad to see that you mean to act sensibly; for since you came up after I had started to stalk the caribou it put you in the wrong," the other said, as if rather relieved in his mind at the turn affairs had taken.

"Don't mistake me, sir," continued Phil; "what I meant was that we can easily prove which has the right to the game. There's a way to settle that question that neither of us can rightly deny. If you look over here at this side of the caribou, which was the side toward us, you remember, you will find that _two_ bullets entered his body, one directly in the region of his heart. That shot killed the animal instantly. He could only make one jump, and then collapsed as you see him."

"Humph!" grunted the stout red-faced sportsman, with one of his ugly frowns; "and I suppose then you'll make out that I missed him entirely?"

"I'm not making out anything, sir, for you can see from the red mark just where your lead cut a little section from his hind leg. I'm sure I heard it sing past me and hardly ten feet away. That hurt would never have crippled a strong beast like a young bull caribou. You would never have had the least chance to lay claim to any of the meat if you had depended on your shot. But we're not greedy, sir; and if you care to forget this little unpleasantness we'll gladly call it our combined trophy of the chase, and divide the meat with you!"

It was a generous offer, and did the boy credit; but apparently the quarrelsome sportsman with the purple face felt himself insulted by being patronized by a couple of boys, for he ground his teeth together, and looked daggers at Phil.