110 ADVENTURES IN THE WILDERNESS. 



as motionless as though embedded in ice ; and as 

 the sharp crack of the other barrel sounded, the 

 loon was knocked flat over upon her back. 



"There, you old — " 



I don't know exactly what John was about to 

 say, for he did not say it ; for as he spoke the loon, 

 with a mighty splash, went down, leaving a hun- 

 dred feathers around her wake. The bullet had 

 rasped along her side, shearing off the speckled 

 plumage, but had not penetrated sufficiently deep 

 into her body to disable her. By this time the 

 heavens, toward the west, even to the zenith, were 

 black as ink. The red lightning darted its zig- 

 zag course this way and that, amid the gloom; 

 white, fleecy clouds raced athwart the dark expanse, 

 and ever and anon a fierce whirlwind, in minia- 

 ture, would settle down upon the water, and spin 

 across the glassy bosom of the lake; while the 

 thunder, peal on peal, crashed above the moun- 

 tains, until the very air and water shook and quiv- 

 ered at the shock. To a looker-on the. scene would 

 have been grand in the extreme. Amid the gath- 

 ering gloom, now dense as twilight, the light boat 

 went moving hither and thither, now gliding straight 

 ahead, now swerving in lessening circles around the 

 spot of the anticipated rising, while above the crack- 

 ling thunder rose the clear report of the rifle, whose 

 barrels, choked with smut, and dangerously hot 

 from rapid firing, rang fiercely sharp, as if in angry 



