THE BIG BULL ELK OF COLORADO 365 



How it comes to pass that I have spent an hour of 

 this Sunday morning in cleaning that old bull's scalp, and 

 that last evening found me almost the best pleased man 

 in America, must be left for another entry. Meanwhile 

 a messenger has been sent from camp to store for a saw 

 to divide the massive skull, and render the wide-stretching 

 antlers more portable. 



CHAPTER LVII 



THE BIG BULL ELK OF COLOKADO {coiitiuiied) 



AxD yet through this September afternoon I could not 

 persuade myself I had really lost all sight and chance of that 

 glorious head. Had I not travelled more than 5000 miles 

 to secure such trophy ? Had I not searched and inquired 

 and enlisted the help of sympathetic friends to discover 

 ground where such a sample might still be found ? And 

 having at last encountered him in full magnificence — 

 apparently in my very hand — was I to lose him thus 

 contemptibly through over-haste, through underrating his 

 strength ? It was the work of a " tenderfoot," and shame 

 entered into my very soul. To think that he — such 

 specimen of the grandest of the deer tribe — should be 

 left to die in the forest, or at best to fall a maimed and 

 easy prey to the next hunter who should happen to en- 

 counter the band, of which he would be found a sickly 

 hanger-on rather than a proud chieftain as I had seen him 

 that morning. The thought was humiliating, and I felt as 

 if I could never handle rifle again. The shadows were 

 lengthening under the pine-trees and athwart my soul as, 

 alter hunting out several more of the upper parks by the 

 mountain's base, we turned our horses' heads campwards, 

 intending to pick up the little spike buck that had formed 

 the preface of the morning. 



" Here is the very spot where we shot at the big bull ! 

 I don't believe it possible, Judge, that he can have gone 

 far. I will have one more look among the timber, if you 

 are not in a hurry." " Right, captain," replied my com- 



