THE SAME LUCK. 43 



deer in this opening. I paid little attention to any- 

 thing, but just wanted to breathe the fresh air and 

 smell the fir trees. Just at sundown I reached the 

 edge of that clump of willows and stalked carefully 

 through it, as it seemed a likely place to find game. 

 Away across on the other side I saw something 

 move. Watching carefully I soon made out that it 

 was a deer, and stood perfectly still, while the ani- 

 mal walked out into the opening and began nibbling 

 grass. It was a long way to shoot, over two hundred 

 yards, but I knew if I moved the animal would see 

 me and be off like a shot. I set the sights on 'Old 

 Reliable ' at three hundred yards, took the best aim 

 possible, and pulled trigger. When the smoke cleared 

 away I went over and found the old doe with her 

 back broken." 



But Dyche was after bear this year and had no 

 time to spend at the ranch. Three days later, with 

 a string of burros hired from Harvey, the natural- 

 ists started over an old trail to a point higher in the 

 mountains, where man had rarely been. A chapter 

 might be written on the haps and mishaps of that trip. 

 The trail was almost obliterated and the hunters were 

 unused to carrying packs, and the trials and tribula- 

 tions of that journey were quite enough to discourage 

 a man of less persistence. It might be told how the 

 packs would slip, and how the donkeys would go the 

 wrong way at the wrong time ; how they would refuse 

 to cross streams at critical moments, and how one ob- 

 stinate old jenny had deliberately broken through the 

 crust of snow and almost frozen her legs before they 

 could tunnel her out of the deep drift. But bears 



