PREPARING TO FIRE. 59 



The ground was soft and much encumbered with 

 rotten sticks, the cracking of any one of which beneath 

 the incautious foot would at once startle the wary 

 game. Pierre, however, advanced with the noiseless 

 stealth of an Indian, and in a very few minutes he 

 had the satisfaction of finding himself behind the bush 

 which he had marked as his final cover. 



Peering cautiously through the shimmering, waving 

 branches of the willows, he could see the moose still in 

 the same position, with the exception of the one which 

 he had noticed browsing on the bushes along the bank. 

 That animal had vanished. The hunter did not specu- 

 late upon this, but singled out the largest head and 

 antlers among the others as his trophy. 



The huge beasts had ceased to feed, and stood up 

 to their necks in the cool element, occasionally shaking 

 a head, or twitching an ear, as they were annoyed by 

 the flies which continually torment the Cervidse. One 

 immense beast towered above his comrades and stood 

 immersed to his throat, facing the hunter at a distance 

 of scarcely fifty yards. This individual Pierre immedi- 

 ately selected as his victim, and he accordingly raised 

 his rifle to fire. 



The breeze, which had hitherto befriended his ap- 

 proach, now eddied round suddenly, and bore upon its 

 treacherous wings the taint of the trapper's presence. 

 In an instant the apparently unwieldy beasts plunged 

 towards the bank with mighty splashings and floun- 

 derings, throwing showers of mud and water high into 



