166 HUNTING CAMPS. 



Peder was clearly far from holding the same opinion, for 

 he broke out into a rising tide of Norsk narrative. 

 Meantime Mathias had been supplied with hot tea, 

 and to its comforting effects I attributed the almost 

 seraphic smile which, as he listened, slowly overspread 

 his weather- wilted features. Then he in his turn began 

 to speak, while Peder translated after his own fashion, 

 and I learned the signification of that breadth of smile. 

 I gathered that Mathias prophesied smooth things ; it 

 appeared that he had a boat upon the lake into which 

 the elk had plunged, and he predicted that we should 

 get the animal, and that he and his should yet eat the 

 meat thereof. At length he took his departure, it 

 having been arranged that he and his boat should be at 

 my disposal a little before dawn. 



The hour found us at the rendezvous. We stood 

 high on the side of a hill and watched the mists coiling 

 in the valleys below us. At first the summits which 

 rose all round showed like giants wading shoulder-high 

 in a foggy sea, but as the sun mounted higher into the 

 sky the mists began to uncurl and heave and finally to 

 drain away into the warmth of the upper air. We 

 descended quickly to the lake-side, and the woods sweet 

 with dew and dawn seemed still and listening as we 

 pushed out upon the bosom of the water. In the boat 

 I found a cast antler of great size and beauty, over 

 which I sighed, and which I suspect Mathias had placed 

 there as a spur to my enthusiasm. Tyr knows it needed 

 none ! Before long we arrived at the spot where the 

 elk had taken to the water ; there we landed and began 

 our search in a new direction. We had not gone far 

 when Bismarck suddenly bounded forward on his leash. 

 Mathias crowed in his delight, and in another instant 





