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When all was done he concealed the signs of his work under a covering of snow, blazed two trees with his ax, and resumed his journey. "There is thirty dollars for each of us if there's a cent," he mused softly, as he hurried toward the Ombabika. "That ground won't thaw out until June. A moose-head and eight scalps at fifteen dollars each isn't bad for one day's work, Rod, old boy!"
"I'm pretty sure it would, old man," said Cyrus. "And I minded the loss of the furs a sight less than I minded losing that moose-head," continued Herb, taking his perch again upon the "deacon's seat." "The hound took 'em all. Every woodsman in Maine was riled about it at the time, and turned out to ketch him; but he gave 'em the slip. Now, boys, I've got to feeling pretty chummy with you.
But I hoped that in the lonely woods where we trapped he wouldn't get a chance to see the stuff. He did, though, and when I wasn't there to make a fight against his swallowing it. "It happened that one week he got back to our camp on Togue Ponds, where most of our stuff was stored, and where I kept that moose-head, waiting for a chance to take it down to Greenville, a day or two sooner'n me.
The man told me about it afterwards, and that he was kind o' scared when the boy for he wasn't much more swallowed it with two gulps, and then followed him into the woods, howling, capering, and offering to sell him my grand moose-head, and all the furs we had, for another drink of the burning stuff. I guess that stranger felt pretty sick over the mischief he had done. He refused to buy 'em.
If you can only manage to nab that moose-head, you'll get two hundred dollars for it at Greenville, sure! And mighty few cents I had jest then. "I could a'most have cried over my tough luck in not having one dose of lead left. But the bull's back was towards me. The water filled his ears and nose, so that he couldn't hear or smell. And he was having a splendid tuck-in.
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