HUNTING A CHRISTMAS DINNER. 355 



bent half round to the near stirrup (a position, mark, which 

 will secure any horse to the spot you leave him), we left them 

 in the ravine, and hurried along it to a point that should, we 

 had noted, bring us almost within range. After a moment to 

 regain wind (anxiety and meat-hunger combining with the quick 

 movement to render a recovery of breath a matter of difficulty) 

 we peeped cautiously over the bank. Not a sign of our game 

 already in fancy half eaten ! Ye gods, it was all too 

 dreadful ! No notice of our approach could have scared him, 

 for the wind blew right in our faces, and our movements had 

 been absolutely noiseless in the snow. Shuffling towards the 

 spot where we felt confident we had seen him feeding, we 

 searched in vain for track or sign of deer. A hoofmark, that 

 to all appearance belonged to a two-year old steer or heifer, 

 was visible and recent, but no trace of buck or doe. The 

 whole thing seemed uncanny. We had sighted no cattle ; but 

 on the other hand we could stake our existence that that long 

 neck seen from a distance belonged to a deer, and only to a 

 deer. Bronson gave it up, and strode back for the horses, 

 while I wandered up and down in perplexity and disappoint- 

 ment, looking again at the large deep imprints in the snow, 

 and hunting vainly for a smaller trail. 



Holloa ! by all that's holy, the beast has been pawing ! No 

 cow ever got at her food through snow by means of her foot ! 



" Hi, Bronson ! " (who came up at that moment) " it's an 

 elk!" 



"Elk! not much!" replied Bronson, laconically; "there 

 ain't no elk within a hundred miles." 



" Well, what else could have been pawing to feed ? " I 

 argued and the answer burst upon our sight as the words 

 oame from my lips. Between two and three hundred yards 

 away a pair of enormous ears sprung up over the edge of the 

 gulch, and for several seconds quivered over the bank, while 

 we crouched motionless beside our horses. Up now rose a 

 graceful head, then a supple neck (carrying a thick heavy 

 mane almost as pronounced as that of an African lion), and 



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