320 THE BED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
At night they built a huge fire, and encamped in the 
open air, near the brook. All three were terribly cold 
before morning, but they ate their pemmican and resumed 
their march. It was no boy's-play in which they were 
engaged. It was life or death to themselves and those 
they had left behind. 
By ten o'clock they had reached the gulch, and, with- 
out stopping, turned into it. Their route now lay up-hill, 
and was much more difficult. They managed to cover 
four miles, however, before they stopped to lunch. 
While they were silently munching their dried meat, a 
twig cracked not far away. 
The suddenness with which all three pairs of jaws 
ceased to move was almost comical. 
Three right hands cautiously grasped the stocks of as 
many guns, and the hunters watched the woods like so 
many panthers waiting for their prey. 
While they looked, a magnificent animal emerged from 
the spruce growth and stood an instant by the brook. 
Before a muzzle could be raised, he had caught both scent 
and sight of the strangers, and bounded forward into the 
cover like an arrow. It was a full-sized buck caribou. 
The men looked at each other for a moment in blank 
silence. 
Then Solomon issued his orders. 
" You creep raound that way/' said he to Joe, indi- 
cating the circuitous route he wished him to take, " and 
you, Jim, go raound the other side of the valley. I'll 
