278 ADVENTURES OF DR. ALLEN. 



I went first and found the place I had seen him give the last 

 bound. Blood was in his trail and on both sides. I followed 

 and about fifty yards beyond found a fine young buck, lying 

 in the top of an old pine. I took out my knife, opened him 

 and found him perfectly fresh. We packed the two deer on 

 the pony and started. Whitcomb and Dick returned to camp, 

 while the remainder of our party, started out after elks. We 

 put in a hard afternoon on the elk trail, following it for miles, 

 without finding them. Returning to camp at last, tired and 

 hungry, we resolved to try another part of country on the 

 next day. In order to change our luck, we made medicine 

 that evening. I think all of us were adorned with feathers. , 



Early in the morning, before the sun was up, Cal set 

 out to look for the horses, but soon came down the hill like 

 a race horse, saying there were thirty-five elks in the park. 

 The expression on his face was serious, so each of us darted 

 for his gun, cartridge belt and knife. Some of us were only 

 partially dressed, but we lost no time in answering the sum- 

 mons. We were soon where the elk had crossed. In the 

 white and crisp morning's frost were tracks of cows and 

 calves. A large bull had brought up the rear and the trail 

 led toward the large body of timber which was miles in 

 width. After following to this point we held a council. It 

 was decided that Cal and I were to make a circle to the north, 

 and if we came on the band, we were to wait for the others. 



When we had gone a mile we came to the south end of 

 a park, where the whole band had turned and started north- 

 ward, and, to our surprise,, we found no hunters in pursuit. 

 After a close survey, we could see that the band was heading 

 toward Ten Sleep lake, far above timber line. The other 

 boys had gone to get breakfast, but Cal and I decided not to 

 eat until we partook of elk steak. 



We started over dead timber, windfalls, and rocks, slip- 



