WITHIN RANGE. 217 



After turning over in his mind several alter- 

 natives, the Captain was still undecided, when, all 

 at once, his eye rested upon a clay-coloured line 

 running across the prairie where the animals were 

 feeding. It was a break in the plain, a buffalo 

 road, or the channel of a water-course ; in either 

 case the very cover that was wanted, for the ante- 

 lopes were not a hundred yards from it, and were 

 approaching towards it as they fed. 



Creeping back out of the thicket, the eager 

 huntsman now ran along the side of the slope to- 

 ward a point where he had noticed the ridge was 

 depressed to the prairie level. Here, to his sur- 

 prise, he found himself on the banks of a broad 

 streamlet, whose water, clear and shallow, ran 

 slowly over a bed of sand and gypsum. The banks 

 were low, not more than three feet above the sur- 

 face of the water, except where the ridge advanced 

 over the stream. Here there was a high bluff, and 

 hurrying round its base he entered the channel, 

 and commenced wading upward. As he anticipated, 

 he soon came to a bend, where the stream, after run- 

 ning parallel to the ridge, swept round and passed 

 through it. At this place he stopped, and peeped 

 cautiously over the bank. The antelopes had ap- 

 proached within less than rifle reach of the stream, 

 but they were still far above the position he had 

 gained, and again bending down he waded on. 



