Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



to hesitate; he, the leader, must act. He 

 wheeled to the edge, and leaped— down— down, 

 not to the bottom, not blindly. Thirty feet 

 downward, across the dizzy chasm, was a little 

 jut of rock, no bigger than his nose— the only 

 one in sight, all the rest smooth, sheer, or over- 

 hanging. But Krag landed fairly, poised just 

 a heart-beat. In a flash his blazing eyes took in 

 another point, his only hope, on the other side, 

 hidden under the overhanging rocks he had 

 leaped from. His supple loins and corded 

 limbs bent, pulsed, and floated him across, there 

 got fresh guidance to his flight, then back, some- 

 times to a mere roughness of the rock, on which 

 his hoofs, of horn and rubber built, gripped 

 for an instant, and took fresh ricochet to another 

 point. Then sidewise fifteen feet, and down, 

 down with modulated impact from point to 

 point, till, with a final drop of twenty feet, he 

 reached a ledge of safety far below. 



And the others, inspired by his example, fol- 

 lowed fast— a long cascade of Sheep. Had he 

 failed at one point all must have failed. But 

 now they came down headlong. It was splen- 

 did, it was inspiring! Hop, skip, down they 



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