ANOTHER WILD-GOOSE CHASE. 287 



not rest until that time, and so he took his gun and 

 went for a short hunt. As he returned he recognised 

 the judge's familiar form seated by the fire. The 

 judge said he had been out in the woods listening to 

 a bull elk bugling. 



" I went to the top of the peak, and after taking a 

 good look at the country started back to camp. I 

 got on the wrong side of the ridge and went about 

 three miles northeast, when I should have gone north- 

 west. About the time I discovered that I was going 

 wrong I heard a bull elk blowing his bugle down in 

 the valley, and this made me forget everything else. 

 I followed the noise but failed to obtain a glimpse of 

 the animal, and by that time it was growing dark. I 

 was in a deep spruce forest, and you know how easy it 

 is to get mixed up in such a place. My feet were in 

 such a condition that I did not propose to go wander- 

 ing around in the dark. I was not lost, but just too 

 tired to go to camp. I made me a bed and kept the 

 owls company for the rest of the night. That elk 

 was bugling all night long. When daylight came 

 I went back to the top of the peak and soon located 

 camp." 



"That's a good story," said the doctor, "but he 

 don't tell all of it. Jim and I started out for Pagoda 

 Peak this morning, thinking we might find the judge. 

 We had gone but a little way when we saw a man 

 crawling along. We at once thought that the judge 

 had been badly hurt and had been crawling back to 

 camp all night. We soon found, however, that the 

 man was making a stalk on one of the horses, and if 

 we had not rushed up just in time he would have 



