Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 155: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

seeps of dark purple, dead-fallen ever- * You wait, yo’ ol’ scoundrel!" He shook nis dark finger at the heavy gloom beneath the tree tops. ‘“ Come de time yet w’en I _feex yo’, a 30-30 in de lungs, maybe, or _ Worse yet, in the throat or haid' Yah' _ Put a good bullet in you an’ den w’at, ol’ Hang-Nose? Will you roar at me—eh— sh-h-h!”’ As if answering his challenge he heard the call of a moose. It did not seem so loud. It was not even exactly a heavy Sound. Yet it made the woods quiver, stir- ring the timber, and it seemed as though the masses of the cliffs and rubbed-down granite mountains trembled to that grand and rumbling wilderness music. French Louey rolled his eves, blinked and sucked in his breath; he stood by one of his white birch bark wigwams, cone- Shaped, and a beautiful salmon color with patches of pure white, which he had just built anew on an ancient camp site. He Saw On a topmost twig over his head a buck blue jay, a fine fellow, in whose feathers Shone the light of day. The instant the man’s black eyes discovered the bird, the jay dived from its perch and darted from view among the evergreen thickets. “Yeh! Yeh! Go tell dat ol’ feller I'm here!” the trapper shrieked after the bird, shaking his fist. ‘Some day I lose my temper, you tellin’ heem my business so mooch! Yeh! I feex you—-den heem! Sevum hunder poun’ of jerk—dat’s w’at I get! Sh-h! French Louey, yo’ keep yo’ ~ mout’ shut—con’ say nottin’! To-morrow ___ That night the big moose roared his chal- ye and uttered his love call. French ley listened to the sound. He knew that ce. He had heard it during other au- s. He knew that as yet the old bull xely, and that there had been no an- othe the wild longings, to assuage loneliness that made for misery. to the heights of love-lorn per, too, had sung songs: - had memories of » there had come ~ nse ~ ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. bal- uttered a tentative = a EO sam boughs, as he was w rabbit-skin blanket. hear you I think of morrow: I feex you to-mo © Wrapped in woven “Shut up! me, rrow!”’ When | You wait to- He meant it. Before dawn he was cook- ing a pair of grouse over He had his cup of tea. carbine over the fire and dr as at false dawn he issy a green birch fire. He warmed his glow of stars about to fade. He had in mind the killing of a great moose, to jerk the meat, to convert the skin into snowshoes and thon sell the horns and head west first. ew on his gloves, ed into the frosty 8s, and perhaps to for a hundred dol- lars at Port Arthur for the next fall rush of hunters seeking trophies. He left his trap line blazed through the wilderness, swung south into a burnin and skirted the tangle of briers to follow along a bog of moss with half-drowned trees, looking at the tracks there which told how truly he had found his way to the Scene of the lonely bull’s stamping ground, French Louey held his forefinger in his mouth for a minute, and when the tip was well wet and warmed, he held it in the air over his head. It grew cool toward the “ Hi-i!” the hunter grimaced. dat ol’ boy go? Le’s see!” He found where browse had been nib- bled, moss had been torn away in wads, brush broken by huge horns wrestling with it, ground pawed by big hoofs. He read the signs and tracks, found the heavy foot- Steps which showed the direction of the moose when he took his departure, and saw on the trees where massive horns had bumped the bark, rubbing it: with his rifle grasped in both hands, thumb on hammer, stepping with still moccasins, the hunter gave chase. * Were “I catch de ol’ scoundrel asleep!’’ he whispered exultingly to himself. by Gar, in two secon’s he wake up—an I don’ care—hi-i!” Ce Den, Sunrise was now at hand. The golden lights tipped the bare knobs of stony moun- tains, and made the tops of the evergreens gleam with silver and emerald. Waves of relief from the black night frost came in warmth across the landscape. A chickadee chirp, a wren made re c ‘S m b ee) Ww Wi