WILLIE WHISPER 19 



" We have the evening to v^hile aw^ay ; dip into 

 your memory library and let us have yarns or 

 pictures — I don't mind w^hich. A man v^ho lives 

 alone with nature ought to have a lot to tell." 



" No," said Willie, looking into the fire, " I can't 

 talk about the life I lead now. A solitary life leaves 

 no record. It is enough for me to live it — I don't 

 want to talk it. What I amuse myself by recalling 

 — and I don't mind telling all I remember about 

 that — is my experience as an ordinary hunter. 

 As I told you, I wasn't always a solitary ; and before 

 I abandoned civilisation I went one or two trips 

 with a friend ; we took servants and gillies, and 

 did it in comfort." He smiled whimsically. " Go 

 back to that sort of thing I couldn't — but it's 

 amusing to remember." 



And it was thus that we came to talk about 

 Colorado and about life in the woods and on the 

 plains. What was spoken by the fire on those 

 nights has long gone into the silence that engulfs 

 all human speech ; but the substance of it as I 

 afterwards wrote it, and the memory of those far- 

 off days, are preserved in the following pages. 



