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RECREATION MAGAZINE 



"I am afraid my father was not very 

 considerate, but you might have put 

 your case more pleasantly," she said. 

 "Wait a little and then approach him 

 differently when you come back again." 



She left us slightly mollified, but 

 when we reached the bush Jack turned 

 to me. "It's the condemned bull I'm 

 hoping to approach," he said. "You 

 are a nice kind of a stuffed image to 

 help any man out of a difficulty." 



"You were not very brilliant your- 

 self, and you had not fallen into a bush 

 of club-thorn," said I. 



It was, I think, a week later when 

 Jack and I found Sarsfield Heldar sit- 

 ting upon a fallen fir with a rifle upon 

 his knees. He was very muddv and it 

 was tolerably evident he had fallen 

 among thorns. I knew him for an Eng- 

 lishman from Esquimault at a glance, 

 and his appearance pleased me. There 

 was no unnecessary starchiness about 

 Heldar. 



"Been fortunate?" said I. 



Heldar laughed. "Not especially, 

 though I suppose a stranger occasion- 

 ally gets maimed for life," he said, 

 glancing at his tatters. "I have, how- 

 ever, shot a pig, though I did not rec- 

 ognize the quadruped, and am willing 

 to compensate his owner. Could you 

 arrange it for me ? I am staying with 

 Major Appleby." 



Jack glanced at me. Ours was a 

 pretty grim struggle and the man was 

 likely enough fairly rich ; while it oc- 

 curred to me that if Major Appleby 

 could keep a bull of distinguished an- 

 cestry, there was no reason why his 

 neighbor should not keep a pig of pedi- 

 gree. A good deal depended upon Hel- 

 dar's next observation. 



"I think we could," said Jack. 



"Then," said Heldar, "you'll see him 

 yonder in the fern, and afterwards we 

 could talk it over pleasantly." 



He flung a cigar-case down upon the 

 fir, and when we came back Jack 

 glanced at me deprecatingly. "Five 

 dollars will cover it," said he. 



Heldar smiled. "Here they are," 

 said he. "I have made similar mis- 



takes before in other parts of this coun- 

 try where, however, they cost me con- 

 siderably more." 



We both laughed, knowing that the 

 ranchers who subsist largely upon veni- 

 son sometimes made mistakes of that 

 nature, too, and that was the beginning 

 of a pleasant comradeship, though Tom- 

 son was not enthusiastic when we gave 

 him the five dollars for his pig. 



"I always did think you didn't know 

 very much," said he. 



"That's all right," said Jack, smiling 

 broadly. "You wait a bit and see. The 

 man who shot your pig has capabilities." 



We had presently reasons for sup- 

 posing that Heldar had not come up 

 there for the mere pleasure of shooting, 

 or the company of Major Appleby. 

 Miranda met us one morning and 

 smiled at Jack very prettily. 



"If you could show Captain Heldar 

 where to shoot a deer I should think it 

 very nice of you," she said. 



It also happened that, as we floun- 

 dered along the lake shore one moonlit 

 evening, we saw Heldar and Miranda 

 drift by in a canoe. Great pines tow- 

 ered black and solemn above the silver- 

 shining of the lake, and beyond them 

 rose a fretted line of ethereal snow. 

 There were, however, reasons for con- 

 cluding that neither Heldar, who was 

 not paddling, nor Miranda Appleby saw 

 much of the scenery. Affairs progressed 

 in this fashion for a while because in 

 that country the bush cattle wander at 

 will and only the crops are fenced ; the 

 bull continued his depredations and not 

 only shoved over or uprooted our split 

 fences with Satanic ingenuity, but led 

 his whole harem to the feast through 

 the gap, until one night Heldar ar- 

 ranged to come over to be instructed 

 in pit-light shooting — a form of sport 

 made necessary at that time because of 

 the lack of time during the day and the 

 need of meat. Then the wood deer 

 were unusually shy that season, and the 

 great wapiti, which sometimes swam 

 the river, considerably shyer still, which 

 rendered the disreputable method abso- 

 lutely necessary. 



