quite hulf-an-hour after breakfast had been dished up and 

 disposed of. Even my tent companion — the best of 

 fellows when at 94 Piccadilly, and especially between the 

 hours of 8 and 12 P.M. — was hardly joyous. One and all 

 sat smoking their pipes with a grim philosophy in which 

 was no sign of humour — no sense of the ridiculous. 

 Saddling-up is a much briefer process in prairie-land than 

 it is in Eastern regions ; and, " anyway," about 5 a.m. we 

 rode out towards the dawn. 



John (the chef) and I wended our way eastward and 

 upward, to gain the main divide close above, he leading 

 the pack mule as we rode, I moving quietly ahead amid 

 the scattered pines and peeping stealthily round each 

 dusky corner. Grouse flew at our feet ; and deer, chiefly 

 does and fawns, were browsing in every glade. Our pro- 

 gress was naturally slow, and thus we could scarcely have 

 been two miles from camp when, as I rode from the 

 shadowy timber to emerge in the bursting sunshine, a pair 

 of grand, great antlers waved athwart the rising sun, and 

 no further from me than perhaps 150 yards ! 



I rolled quietly off little Ute on the instant, leaving 

 him contentedly to fill himself with the good bunch grass. 

 John reined up as he saw me slip off, and held back his 

 saddle and pack animals in the shade — his excitement, as 

 he described afterwards, being every bit as intense as my 

 own. I should have fired then and there, but for reasons — 

 (i) I felt I had a momentary attack of " buck-fever " upon 

 me, (2) I saw a chance of creeping nearer, and (3) with 

 the low bright rays of the sun right in my eyes I had no 

 faith in my power of either judging the distance or drawing 

 a bead correctly. Besides, the big buck (surely a royal 

 stag elsewhere) was now feeding away from me, and so 

 rapidly I could gain but little ground, while I kept a young 

 spruce fir between him and me, and trembled as I crossed 

 the sunlight to put it before me. And the dry weeds 

 crackled underfoot. His feeding hours were nearly over ; 

 and he was working back into the timber, snatching his 

 last morsels as he went. Very grand and massive and 

 unconcerned he looked, raising his head now and again 

 as if, like myself, to take in the glories of the mountain 



