tly forward he drew his
right foot back, and with eyes fixed steadily on the little patch
amidst the fern, trusted to them and the balance as he flung the long
barrel up. Few men can use the rifle as the Canadian bush rancher can,
and there was a flash from the muzzle as the heelplate touched his
shoulder. Alton had not glanced along the barrel, but the curious thud
which he heard in place of the explosion told him that the heavy bullet
was smashing through bone and muscle. Then thin smoke drifted into his
eyes, and there was a crackling amidst the thicket.

When he floundered forward the deer had gone, but something was
smashing through the undergrowth up the face of the hill, and the weary
man prepared for a grim effort as he saw the red trail it left behind.
He fell headlong in a thicket where the splashes were warm upon the
withered leaves, staggered up again, and presently reeled against a
cedar on the crest of a depression. There was nothing visible, but he
could hear a confused rattle and snapping of twigs, and shook himself
as he remembered the speed with which even a badly-wounded deer can
make downhill. He had his choice of a long and possibly fruitless
chase or another supperless night that would be followed by a very
scanty breakfast on the morrow. Alton did not care to anticipate what
might happen after that, because he had discovered on previous
occasions that green tea will not unassisted sustain vigorous animation
very long.

In place of it he went downhill, falling into bushes, floundering to
the shoulders through withered fern, and now and then stumbling over
rotting trees, but the splashes grew closer, and he fancied the sound
before him a little nearer. It was significant that there was any
sound at all, because a deer usually clears every obstacle in its
almost silent flight, and the gasping man took heart again. The
quarry's strength was evidently failing as its life drained away, but
darkness was also close at hand, and Alton knew that he could not hold
out very long. Already there was a horrible pain in his left side and
his sight was growing dim.

He went on, stumbling, gasping, falling now and then, for any man not
accustomed to the bush in that country would find it sufficiently
difficult to walk through, until once more a grey patch of something
showed up in a thicket. Again the rifle flashed, a dim shape reeled
out of the bushes, and, while the man savagely smashed through those