A PARTRIDGE ON THE ROAD 



business, but I did not want to spoil sport by 

 speaking: so I contented myself by wishing that 

 I had Eskimo eyes for the time being. Johannes 

 handed the gun to Julius. He raised it to his shoulder 

 and fired. 



Then I saw a fluttering in the snow, not five 

 yards away : a little red stain broke out, and some- 

 thing red and white rolled down the bank towards 

 us. Julius's hand was up for silence again, and 

 the gun went to his shoulder. 



Another bang, another stain, another something 

 rolling. 



Then I saw two partridges, white as the snow 

 on which they were walking. They looked from 

 side to side in a dazed manner ; walked a few steps, 

 and then took wing and flew leisurely over the 

 bank out of sight. Perhaps they had never seen 

 a man before, or a dog, for that matter; and pro- 

 bably our dogs were too hard at work to notice 

 them ; and so the sledge was close beside them 

 before we knew it. 



Julius picked up the two he had shot, and tucked 

 them under the bearskin at the front of the sledge. 

 " We shall have a fine supper to-night," he said ; 

 and then, with a great roar of " Hu-it " to the dogs, 

 he drove on. 



Once it was the tracks of reindeer that crossed 

 our path. We stopped, and the drivers had a 

 consultation. 



"Hu-it," they said, and on went the dogs. 

 Johannes looked wistfully at the reindeer tracks 

 as we left them. "Twelve hours old/' he said, 

 "gone a long way now. No good," and he filled 



his stumpy pipe to solace him. 



168 



