THE TRAIL OF THE SANDHILL STAG 



was surely near* Next day a strange, 

 unreasoning guess sent him east 

 across the creek in a deerless-looking 

 barren land* Within half a mile he 

 came on dim tracks made lately in 

 the storm. He followed, and soon 

 found where six deer had lain at 

 rest, and among them a great, broad 

 bed and a giant track that only one 

 could have made* The track was 

 almost fresh, the sign unfrozen stilL 

 "Within a mile/' he thought* But 

 within a hundred yards there loomed 

 up on a fog-wrapped hillside five 

 heads with ears regardant, and at that 

 moment, too, there rose up from the 

 snowy top a great form like a blasted 

 trunk with two dead boughs still on* 

 But they had seen him first, and be- 



76 



