Big Game in the Rockies 
much disappointed to find that if I was to get 
a shot it would have to be in the dark; so as 
soon as I found I could not see to shoot with 
any degree of safety, I got up in a pine-tree 
that commanded the road and was just over 
the bait. It was weary work watching, and 
to make it still more uncomfortable, a heavy 
thunder-storm swept by, first pelting one with 
hail, then with a deluge of rain and snow. 
It was pitch-dark, except when the black 
recesses of the forest seemed to be rent asun- 
der during the vivid lightning. The whole 
effect was weird and uncanny, and I wished 
myself back under my soft, warm blankets. 
I could not well repress thinking of the early 
admonition of “Never go under a tree during 
a thunder-storm.”’—But what ’s that? One 
swift surge of blood to the heart, an involun- 
tary tightening of the muscles that strongly 
arippedi the ite: ) L.seemed: to. feel, rather 
than see, the presence of three strange ob- 
jects that appeared to have sprung from the 
ground under me. 
I had not heard a sound; not a twig had 
snapped, and yet, as I strained my eyes to 
penetrate the gloom, there, right at my feet, 
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