She raced forward in a mad hope of finding foothold for descending the cliff that led down to the lake’s shore. She caught the magnificent picture of dark waters white with racing foam, a path of gold that was moonlight, and beyond that, limitless night. Then a strange thing happened. The giant moose, having given vent to a second roar, took one more step forward; then stumbling, fell upon his knees.
Strangest of all, he did not rise at once. Instead, as if the great weight of his towering antlers were too much for him to bear, he allowed his head to drop forward until his broad nose rested on the ground. For one full moment he remained thus.
As for Jeanne, she raced on to the edge of the precipice. Instantly she shrank back. Surely here was no way of escape. A sheer drop of fifty feet, and beneath that, up-ended fragments of ice standing like bayonets waiting for one who might drop. This was what met her gaze.
Strangely enough, in the midst of all this terror, the glorious scene—limitless water, golden moon and night, so gripped her that for the instant her mind was filled with it.
“The heavens declare the glory of God,” she murmured.
Perhaps it was just this consciousness of the nearness of God and the glory of His world that quieted her soul and gave her the power to see things as they truly were.
As she turned back from the precipice, she saw the moose struggling to regain his feet. “Until he is up again, he is harmless,” she assured herself. Having thrown her light full upon him, she cried out in surprise.
“Why! The poor fellow! He is like a walking skeleton! He must be starving!”
Like a flash all was changed. Fear gave way to pity and desire to aid. She recalled the moose-trapper’s words: “We think they are underfed—perhaps starving.” Here was one who had failed to find food. How could she help him?
For a moment she could not think. Then it came to her that the food in the moose-trap was branches of white birch, mountain-ash and balsam. Close to the moose, who still struggled vainly to rise, was a clump of birch trees.