cared up a brace
of grouse that seemed half benumbed, and hopped about in a melancholy
manner under the pines, or a magpie, drawing in its head and ruffling up
its feathers against the cold, until it looked frowsy and disreputable.

"Biceps," whispered Ralph, who had suddenly discovered something
interesting in the snow, "do you see that?"

"Je-rusalem!" ejaculated Albert, with thoughtless delight, "it is a
hoof-track!"

"Hold your tongue, you blockhead," warned his friend, too excited to be
polite, "or you'll spoil the whole business!"

"But you asked me," protested Albert, in a huff.

"But I didn't shout, did I?"

Again the report of a shot tore a great rent in the wintry stillness and
rang out with sharp reverberations.

"We've got them," said Ralph, examining the lock of his rifle. "That
shot settles them."

"If we don't look out, they may get us instead," grumbled Albert, who
was still offended.

Ralph stood peering into the underbrush, his eyes as wild as those of
an Indian, his nostrils dilated, and all his senses intensely awake. His
companion, who was wholly unskilled in woodcraft, could see no cause for
his agitation, and feared that he was yet angry. He did not detect the
evidences of large game in the immediate neighborhood. He did not see,
by the bend of the broken twigs and the small tufts of hair on the
briar-bush, that an elk had pushed through that very copse within a few
minutes; nor did he sniff the gamy odor with which the large beast had
charged the air. In obedience to his friend's gesture, he flung himself
down on hands and knees and cautiously crept after him through the
thicket. He now saw without difficulty a place where the elk had broken
through the snow crust, and he could also detect a certain aimless
bewilderment in the tracks, owing, no doubt, to the shot and the
animal's perception of danger on two sides. Scarcely had he crawled
twenty feet when he was startled by a noise of breaking branches, and
before he had time to cock his gun, he saw an enormous bull-elk tearing
through the underbrush, blowing two columns of steam from his nostrils,
and steering straight toward them. At the same instant Ralph's rifle
blazed away, and the splendid beast, rearing on its hind legs, gave a
wild snort, plunged forward and rolled on its side in the snow. Quick
as a flash the young hunter had drawn his knife, and, in accordance with
the laws of the chase, had driven it into the breast of the an