204 



RECREATION 



and being the son of a mountain man, 

 Pete affected the old-fashioned, dime- 

 novel style of hero in his costume, but 

 his weapons, with the exception of his 

 rifle, were of the latest and most ap- 

 proved pattern. His clothing - consisted 

 of a hunting shirt of dressed deer skin, 

 smoked to the softness of finest flan- 

 nel. He wore it belted in at the waist, 

 but open at the breast and throat, where 

 it fell back like a sailor's collar into a 

 short cape covering the shoulders. 

 Underneath was the undershirt of 

 dressed fawn skin ; his leggins and moc- 

 casins were of the same material as his 

 hunting shirt, and on his head he wore 

 a fox skin cap ; the fox's head, adorned 

 with glass eyes, ornamented the front 

 and the tail hung like a drooping plume 

 over the left shoulder. 



Big Pete Darlinkle was a blonde, and 

 his golden hair hung in sunny curls 

 upon his massive shoulders ; a ligiit 

 moustache, soft yellow beard, with a 

 pair of the deepest, clearest, most inno- 

 cent baby-like blue eyes all made a face 

 such as that of the angel Gabriel might 

 be after years of exposure to sun and 

 wind. 



Not only are "Big Pete's" revolvers 

 gold mounted, but the shaft of his 

 keen-edged knife is rich with figures, 

 rings and stars filed from gold coins 

 and set in the horn. The very stock of 

 his long single-barrelled rifle is inlaid 

 like an Arab's gun, and, as for his 

 buckskin hunting suit, it is a mass of 

 embroidery and colored quills from his 

 beaded moccasins to the fringed cape 

 of his shirt. 



"Big Pete" was a dandy, fond of 

 color, fond of display ; yet in spite of all 

 this he wore absolutely nothing for 

 decoration alone, although every article 

 of use about his person was ornamented 

 to an oriental degree. Gaudy and rich 

 as his costume is when viewed in detail, 

 as a whole it harmonized not only with 

 Pete, his hair, his complexion, his 

 weapons, but with whatever natural 

 objects surrounded him, and now, as 

 he crouched beside me on the "run 

 way" all his finery and trumpery so 



partook of the color of surrounding 

 objects and so blended with the sticks, 

 grass, stones and foliage, that it would 

 require eyes as well-trained and sharp 

 as his own to detect his presence. We 

 were looking for meat and suspected 

 the presence of elk. "Big Pete" had 

 set the dogs on some deer tracks down 

 the gulch and then taken a cross-cut 

 through the woods and over the spur of 

 a mountain to our present position. He 

 said that whatever game the dogs found 

 would pass this way and break cover 

 within easy shot of our present am- 

 bush. 



With the confidence bred of a 

 month's experience of my stalwart 

 companion's wonderful skill' in wood- 

 craft and his unerring knowledge of 

 animal nature, I quietly crouched be- 

 side him and waited — waited until my 

 legs were cramped, waited until the 

 dampness, from the moss under me 

 struck through the heavy soles of my 

 shoes and chilled my feet ; waited until 

 my arm had "gone to sleep" and was 

 so numb that it felt like a piece of lead 

 — then, in spite of the danger of in- 

 curring "Big Pete's" displeasure and 

 in spite of my dread of being thought a 

 tenderfoot, I changed my position, rub- 

 bed life into my arm and assumed an 

 easier pose. 



In front of us was a small lake, deep, 

 dark and unruffled. All around the 

 edge was a natural wharf made from 

 the gigantic trunks of trees which had 

 fallen for ages into the lake and been 

 washed by wind and waves into such 

 regular order and position along the 

 shore that their arrangement looked 

 like the work of man. Back of this 

 wharf and all about was a wilderness 

 of silent wood ; a wilderness enclosed 

 by a wall of mountains, whose lofty 

 heads were lifted far above the soft 

 white clouds that floating in the blue sky 

 overhead were mirrored in the lake be- 

 low. An eagle, on apparently immov- 

 able wings, soared over the lake in a 

 spiral course and, as I watched the bird, 

 its wings seemed suddenly endowed 

 with life. At the same instant a pecu- 



