surely tiring out, he must throw off 

 the hunter now, or he is lost* 



He often mounted a high hill to 

 scan the white world for his foe, and 

 the after-trail was a record of what 

 he learned or feared* At last his 

 trail came to a sudden end. This 

 was a mystery until long study 

 showed how he had returned back- 

 ward on his own track for a hun- 

 dred yards, then bounded aside to fly 

 in another direction* Three times 

 he did this, and then passed through 

 an aspen thicket and, returning, lay 

 down in this thicket near his own 

 track, so that in following, Yan must 

 pass where the Stag could smell and 

 hear him long before the trail 

 brought the hunter over-close* 



81 



