The Mountain Sheep 191 



for some member of the party who has fallen be- 

 hind ; and no matter how silent you keep your- 

 selves, four people are sure at some wrong 

 moment to prove conspicuous; better hunt alone, 

 unless circumstances make it wise that there 

 should be two of you — steep country does make 

 this wise — but assuredly never go after game in 

 fours, as we two white men and two Indians went 

 now. We labored and we labored and we finally 

 were upon the top instead of at the bottom of 

 something. It was no more than a ridge, not 

 high, that everywhere dropped off into our own 

 valley or the next one ; but two sweating hours 

 had gone in getting merely here, and here our 

 eight eyes discerned sheep, quite a band of them. 

 Not, however, before the sheep had discerned us 

 four wily hunters. We did not know this then, 

 because they stayed still where they seemed to be 

 grazing. It was a great way off in a straight line 

 through the air, for the sheep were small dots 

 upon the mountain ; and there was no straight 

 line for us to reach them by. We labored and we 

 labored down to a new bottom and upward on a 

 new slope, and made a most elaborate " sneak," 

 crouching, and stopping, and generally manoeu- 

 vring among stones, gravel, and harsh tufts of 



