TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 303 



thing, sauntering alongside. Then wonderful, and 

 yet again most wonderful a few steps behind came 

 a grand old bull. He walked to the edge of the 

 lake and pushed into it, deep, deep, until the water 

 almost covered him. " Big horns," whispered Pitka 

 laconically. 



Big ! They seemed to us the most magnificent 

 specimens we had ever gazed upon. Excited imagin- 

 ation did much, but calm reason told us that the 

 antlers were unusually fine. 



Anything more sinuous than the movements of our 

 hunter as we prepared to get within fair range of our 

 quarry cannot well be imagined. He passed between 

 low-lying bushes, through rushes, over hummocks of 

 grass with feline grace. The very undergrowth held 

 buoyant beneath his agile feet, instead of giving way 

 with resounding cracks as it was so often wont to do 

 with Cecily and me. 



We crept along in as faithful an imitation of our 

 henchman as we could muster. Ever and again we 

 dropped and lay still awhile to disarm suspicion. 

 Once for nearly ten minutes we lay thus, and raising 

 myself carefully my survey told me that the cow, the 

 calf with her, had gone, perhaps to lie down in the 

 forest behind. We could hear the bull grunting with 

 pleasure, breathing deeply as he pushed his nose into 

 the cool waters. As we lay prone, waiting for the 

 chance King Circumstance might deign to accord us, 

 the giant deer emerged from the water We could not 

 see, but we could hear him. Breathlessly we waited, 

 and across the flume of open country ahead of us, some 



