“‘Not by any means!’ I answered under my breath.

“‘Well, it ought to be,’ returned the professor.

“I replied that the voice, in my opinion, came from the dangerous Northern panther, or ‘Indian devil.’

“These animals, I went on to explain for H——’s comfort, were growing yearly more numerous in the Squatook regions, owing to the fact that the caribou, their favorite prey, were being driven hither from the south counties and from Nova Scotia.

“Just then the cry was repeated, this time a little nearer; and the professor began to inquire whether it was Indian or Indian devil about which we should have most call to concern ourselves. His hope, but half-expressed, was plainly for a ‘whack at both.’

“I assured him that so long as the Indian devil kept up his serenading we had little need to be troubled; but should the scent of our fried trout be blown to his nostrils, and divert his mind from thoughts of love to war, then would it behoove us to be circumspect.

“As we talked on thus in an undertone which was half-drowned by the washing of the waves, the panther’s cry was heard much nearer than before; and it was not again repeated. This put us sharply on our guard.

“Hour after hour passed, till we began to find it hard to keep awake. Only the weirdness of the place, the strange noises which stole towards us from the depths of the forest, dying out within a radius of a couple of hundred yards from the firelight, together with our anxiety concerning the movements of the panther, kept us from falling asleep.

“The professor told some stories of the skill of Western Indians in creeping upon guarded posts, and I retorted with examples of the cunning and ferocity of these Northern Indian devils.

“Once we were started into renewed vigilance by what seemed like a scratching or clawing on the bark of some tree near at hand; but we heard no more of it. When, as near as we could guess, it must have been well past midnight, we began to be concerned at the lowness of our fire. It had fallen to a mere red glow, lighting up a circle of not more than twenty yards around the camp. As for our covert, it was now sunk in the outer darkness.

“We considered the needs and risks of replenishing the fire, and concluded that the risks were so far greater than the needs, that our better plan was to stay where we were till morning.

“If our enemies were upon our tracks, then for either of us to approach the light would be to betray our stratagem, besides furnishing a fair and convenient target; while we felt tolerably sure that the panther was in some not distant tree, waiting to drop, according to his pleasant custom, upon any one that should come within his reach. These considerations made us once more satisfactorily wakeful, and with straining our sight through the blackness our nerves got painfully on the stretch.

“A bird stirred in the twigs above us, and the professor whispered, ‘What’s that?’

“Then there was a trailing rustle of the dry leaves near our feet; and, with a sharp click and a jump of the pulse, I brought my gun to full cock.

“But two little points of green light close together, which met my eyes for an instant, told me that it was only a wood-mouse which we heard scurrying away.

“The professor whispered, ‘What was it disturbed the mouse? He seemed in a hurry about something when he ran against us that way.’

“This was a point, and we weighed it. We were just about to hazard some guess, allowing for an owl, or polecat, or other night prowler, when the professor gripped my arm sharply, and whispered, ‘Look!’

“Just on the outermost verge of the dim circle, I could detect a human figure, creeping like a snake toward the rear corner of the tent.

“‘Shall we shoot—wound him?’ whispered the professor breathlessly.

“‘No; wait!’ I answered. ‘Look out for the other fellow. We’ll capture them both and take away their guns.’

“The words were scarce out of my mouth when there was a sort of mad rush, and a struggle, apparently close beside us, followed by an agonized shriek. We sprang to our feet in horror, and at once set our little beacon ablaze.

“There, not twenty yards off, beneath a tree, lay a twitching human form. Upon his breast crouched the Indian devil, with its jaws buried in his throat.

“With a cry we sprang to the rescue, and the beast, half-cowed by the sudden blaze, seemed at first disposed to slink off; but, changing its purpose, it set its claws deeper into its prey, and faced us with an angry snarl.

“The grove all around was now as bright as day. The professor rushed straight upon the beast; but for myself, turning at the moment to draw my sheath-knife, I caught sight of the other Indian, whom we had forgotten, in the act of deliberately drawing a bead upon me.

“He stood erect, close by the tent, his pig-eyed countenance lighted up by the red glare. I had just time to drop flat upon the ground, ere a report rang out, and a bullet went spat into a tree-trunk close above me. I returned the shot at once from where I lay, and my assailant fell.

“Without pausing to notice more, I turned to my companion’s assistance. He had just fired one charge into the animal, and then drawn his knife, afraid to fire a second time lest his shot should strike the Indian.

“As I reached his side the Indian devil sprang; but the ball had struck a vital spot, and snarling madly it fell together in a heap, while again and yet again went the professor’s knife between its shoulders right up to the hilt.

“As the dead brute stiffened out its sinewy length, we dragged it one side and made haste to examine its victim. The poor wretch proved to be Tobin; and we found him stark dead, his throat most hideously mangled, and his neck broken.

“Sickened at the sight we turned away. The other Indian we found still lying where he had fallen, with his right arm badly shattered by my heavy charge of buck-shot. After brightening up the fire we proceeded to dress his wounds. At this work we had small skill, and dawn broke before we got it accomplished.

“Then, digging with our paddles a grave in a sandy spot on the shore, we buried the Indian devil’s victim, and set out with our sullen prisoner for the settlements. Paddling almost night and day, we reached DÉtour du Lac, and there we delivered up our captive to the combined cares of the doctor and the village constable.

“As we afterwards learned, the doctor’s care proved effectual; but that of the constable was so much less so, that the villain escaped before he could be brought to justice.”

“Truly you keep your good wine for the last, Stranion,” said Ranolf.

“Can Sam do as well, I wonder?” inquired Queerman.

“No, he can’t!” said Sam positively. “But he can give you something humorsome, at least, to relieve this tragic strain. It’s about a bear, of course. I’m very glad my bears hold out so well. This story is called,—

‘BRUIN’S BOXING-MATCH.’

“It was a dreamy, sun-drenched September afternoon. The wide, shallow river was rippling with a mellow noise over its golden pebbles. Back from the river, upon both banks, the yellow grain-fields and blue-green patches of turnips slanted gently to the foot of the wooded hills. A little distance down stream stood two horses, fetlock-deep in the water, drinking.

“Near the top of the bank, where the gravel had thinned off into yellow sand, and the sand was beginning to bristle with the scrubby bushes of the sand-plum, lay the trunk of an ancient oak-tree. In the effort to split this gnarled and seasoned timber, Jake Simmons and I were expending the utmost of our energies. Our axes had proved unequal to the enterprise, so we had been at last compelled to call in the aid of a heavy mall and hardwood wedges.

“With the axes we had accomplished a slight split in one end of the prostrate giant. An axe-blade held this open while we inserted a hardwood wedge, which we drove home with repeated blows of the mall till the crack was widened, whereupon, of course, the axe dropped out.

“The mall—a huge, long-handled mallet, so heavy as to require both hands to wield it—was made of the sawed-off end of a small oak log, and was bound around with two hoops of wrought iron to keep it from splitting. This implement was wielded by Jake, with a skill born of years in the backwoods.

“Suddenly, as Jake was delivering a tremendous blow on the head of the wedge, the mall flew off its handle, and pounded down the bank, making the sand and gravel fly in a way that bore eloquent witness to Jake’s vigor. The sinewy old woodsman toppled over, and, losing his balance, sat down in a thicket of sand-plums.

“Of course I laughed, and so did Jake; but our temperate mirth quieted down, and Jake, picking himself up out of the sand-plums, went to re-capture the errant mall. As he set it down on the timber, and proceeded to refit the handle to it, he was all at once quite overcome with merriment. He laughed and laughed, not loudly, but with convulsive inward spasms, till I began to feel indignant at him. When mirth is not contagious, it is always exasperating. Presently he sat down on the log and gasped, holding his sides.

“‘Don’t be such an old fool, Jake,’ said I rudely; at which he began to laugh again, with the intolerable relish of one who holds the monopoly of a joke.

“‘I don’t see anything so excruciatingly funny,’ I grumbled, ‘in the head flying off of an old mall, and a long-legged old idiot sitting down hard in the sand-plum patch. That mall might just as well as not have hit me on the head, and maybe you’d have called that the best joke of the season.’

“‘Bless your sober soul!’ answered Jake, ‘it ain’t that I’m laughing at.’

“I was not going to give him the satisfaction of asking him for his story, so I proceeded to fix a new wedge, and hammer it in with my axe. Jake was too full of his reminiscence to be chilled by my apparent lack of interest. Presently he drew out a short pipe, filled it with tobacco, and remarked—

“‘When I picked up that there mall-head, I was reminded of something I saw once up in the Madawaska woods that struck me as just about the funniest I ever heard tell of. I ’most died laughing over it at the time, and whenever I think of it even now it breaks me all up.’

“Here he paused and eyed me.