"Well, if that doesn't beat all creation!"
What did he see?
The whole ten musk oxen scampering in the opposite direction, apparently in as great a panic as himself.
The truth of it is the musk ox is one of the most cowardly animals in existence. All the pawing of dirt, the bellowing, and threatening advance upon an enemy is simply "bluff." At the first real danger he takes himself off like the veritable booby that he is.
As soon as Fred could recover his wind he broke into laughter at the thought of his causeless scare. He might as well have stood his ground and fired into them at his leisure.
"I'm glad Rob didn't see me," he reflected as he came from behind the rock and set out to regain his lost weapon and mitten; "he would have had it on me bad—"
A shiver ran through him, for he surely heard something like a chuckle that had a familiar sound.
He looked around, but could discover no cause for it.
"No; it wouldn't have done for him or Jack to have had a glimpse of me running away from the oxen that were going just as hard from me—"
"Hello, Fred, where's your gun?"