a man's shoulders, but
also stooping to the waist line, and even down to the knees. An animal
is just as suspicious of legs as of heads; and much more likely to see
them.

The shoulder of the mountain here consisted of a series of steep grass
curves ending in short cliff jump-offs. Scattered and stunted trees and
tree groups grew here and there. In thirty minutes we had made our
distance and recognized the fact that our goats must be lying at the
base of the next ledge. Motioning Harry to the left and Fisher to the
front, I myself moved to the right to cut off the game should it run in
that direction. Ten seconds later I heard Fisher shoot; then Harry
opened up; and in a moment a goat ran across the ledge fifty yards below
me. With a thrill of the greatest satisfaction I dropped the gold bead
of my front sight on his shoulder!

The bullet knocked him off the edge of the cliff. He fell, struck the
steep grass slope, and began to roll. Over and over and over he went,
gathering speed like a snowball, getting smaller and smaller until he
disappeared in the brush far below, a tiny spot of white.

No one can appreciate the feeling of relaxed relief that filled me. Hard
and dangerous climbs, killing work, considerable hardship and discomfort
had at length their reward. I could now take a rest. The day was young,
and I contemplated with something like rapture a return to camp, and a
good puttery day skinning out that goat. In addition I was suffering now
from a splitting headache, the effects of incipient snow-blindness, and
was generally pretty wobbly.

And then my eye wandered to the left, whence that goat had come. I saw a
large splash of blood; at a spot _before_ I had fired! It was too
evident that the goat had already been wounded by Fisher; and therefore,
by hunter's law, belonged to him!

I set my teeth and turned up the mountain to regain the descent we had
just made. At the knife-edge top I stopped for a moment to get my breath
and to survey the country. Diagonally across the basin where the wolves
were howling, half way down the ridge running at right angles to my own,
I made out two goats. They were two miles away from me on an air line.
My course was obvious. I must proceed along my ridge to the Citadel,
keeping always out of sight; surmount that fortress; descend to the
second ridge; walk along the other side of it until I was above those
goats, and then sneak down on them.

I accomplished the first two st