e back trail, where so long his
enemy had been, but never dreaming of that enemy in ambush ahead. Then
the breeze set the coat on the sapling a-fluttering. The Stag quickly
quit the hillock, not leaping or crashing through the brush,--he had
years ago got past that,--but silent and weasel-like threading the
maze, he disappeared. Yan crouched in the willow thicket and strained
his every sense and tried to train his ears for keener watching. A
twig ticked in the copse that he was in. Yan slowly rose with nerve
and sense at tightest tense, the gun in line--and as he rose, there
also rose, but fifteen feet away, a wondrous pair of bronze and ivory
horns, a royal head, a noble form behind it, and face to face they
stood, Yan and the Sandhill Stag. At last--at last, his life was in
Yan's hands. The Stag flinched not, but stood and gazed with those
great ears and mournful, truthful eyes, and the rifle leaped but sank
again, for the Stag stood still and calmly looked him in the eyes, and
Yan felt the prickling fading from his scalp, his clenched teeth
eased, his limbs, bent as to spring, relaxed and manlike stood erect.

'_Shoot, shoot, shoot now! This is what you have toiled for_,' said a
faint and fading voice, and spoke no more.

[Illustration]

But Yan remembered the night when he, himself run down, had turned to
face the hunting wolves, he remembered too that night when the snow
was red with crime, and now between him and the other there he dimly
saw a vision of an agonizing, dying doe, with great, sad eyes, that
only asked, 'What harm have I done you?' A change came over him, and
every thought of murder went from Yan as they gazed into each other's
eyes--and hearts. Yan could not look him in the eyes and take his
life, and different thoughts and a wholly different concept of the
Stag, coming--coming--long coming--had come.

* * * * *

"Oh, beautiful creature! One of our wise men has said, the body is the
soul made visible; is your spirit then so beautiful--as beautiful as
wise? We have long stood as foes, hunter and hunted, but now that
is changed and we stand face to face, fellow-creatures looking in each
other's eyes, not knowing each other's speech--but knowing motives and
feelings. Now I understand you as I never did before; surely you at
least in part understand me. For your life is at last in my power, yet
you have no fear. I knew of a deer once, that, run down by the hounds,
sou