TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 223 



and, in lofty isolation, groups of rams, in threes and 

 fours. All completely out of range. Gummidge, in 

 unusually hopeful mood, said that the way of the wind 

 did not matter in the least, that sheep could not scent 

 a human being at a greater distance than a hundred 

 yards or so. I afterwards found that this fallacy was 

 held by a great many natives. We did not stop to 

 argue the point, but laid our plans without consult- 

 ing our hunter. We thought out the ways and means 

 of a careful stalk, a really masterly stroke. 



Cecily was to get much higher, and then, by creep- 

 ing to the very edge of the place, cover as much as 

 she could with her rifle, whilst I did a big detour down 

 a water course, and come up, a Nemesis in khaki, just 

 below the feeding sheep. We proposed, but the 

 elements disposed. I dived down and climbed up as 

 carefully and silently as I could, but I took an uncon- 

 scionable time over it, and by the time my quarry 

 should have been at my mercy the clouds had crept 

 like a protective barrier around them. I could hear 

 the stones falling in showers as the agile feet dis- 

 turbed them, hear the moving, hear the bleating; 

 and, oh, how I prayed that the mist would lift for one 

 instant, just one little instant ! 



I sat ever so still on a boulder waiting and hoping, 

 for I did not dare to move, and perhaps spoil the 

 possibility of a shot. I grew numb with cold. A 

 sheep at very close quarters would have been fairly 

 safe with me just then. Rain began to fall, indeed, 

 the mist itself seemed a heavy drizzle of most wetting 

 variety. 



