UP THE MOUNTAIN. 257 



getting nearer : it will however be a long shot in any 

 case. Shall we try?" 



"Yes, of course, come along." 



And we went to where the ridge dipped some- 

 what, but yet advanced thitherwards where the chamois 

 stood. Now came the latschen, — those dreadful latschen 

 through whose thick branches it is so difficult to creep 

 without a rustling noise. We stepped with breathless 

 caution. " Hush \" said Neuner with a long drawn-out 

 breath ; " Hush — sh — sh ! — silently, silently ! no noise, 

 for heaven's sake i" And holding back the stubborn 

 branches for each other, we proceeded slowly to the 

 brink. Before us was a wilderness of latschen, growing 

 up from the abrupt steep, and there was a deep hollow 

 between the brink where I stood and the tower-like 

 rock where the chamois was first seen. But now we 

 looked and we saw him not. Between us and the rock 

 on which my every hope was centred there rose another, 

 hiding a part of the first from view. I fancied the buck 

 might be just behind that rock, and whispered it to 

 Neuner. " If so," I said, " he will for certain come in 

 sight again on one side of it or the other ;" for the nearer 

 crag, being less broad than the further one, hid just the 

 middle part from our sight. 



" How far is it from here to yonder bare rock on the 

 left ?" I asked ; " it is there I expect he will come." 



" A hundred and forty yards ; not more I think, but 

 quite as much certainly." 



For a long, long time we waited, but in vain. At last 

 Neuner proposed to return to the ridge whence we first 

 saw the buck, and look if he was still there. After 

 awhile I saw him standing motionless on the crest of 

 the mountain, and gazing steadily into the depth below. 

 He made a sign that nothing more was to be seen. This 



s 



