rder, for a try in the pool below the falls.

"Shall we send the horses out to tote it in?" he asked, after the usual
fashion of greeting greenhorns when they come back from a hunt
apparently unattended by success.

"Did you hear me shoot?" asked Bluff carelessly.

"Why, yes, twice; and some time apart. What was it--a crow or a
jack-rabbit?"

Bluff only smiled as Mr. Mabie came out of the tent and glanced at him.

"What would you say that was, sir?" he asked, thrusting something in
front of the old stockman.

Starting back, Mr. Mabie looked hastily at the hairy object.

"An elk's tail, as sure as you live!" he remarked, his face relaxing in
a smile.

"What's that?" roared Jerry, springing to his feet.

"Oh, you needn't get excited about it. Do you see the dull spots on my
knife? Well, I bled my game, all right, just as I wanted to do with that
bully good blade that was left behind; and if Reddy will only go back
with me, we can bring the old fellow in on a horse," said Bluff coolly.

"Count me in on that!" exclaimed Will, rushing out of his impromptu
dark-room, and waving the bottle in which he was making a solution of
hypo.

"I think I'll go along, too," remarked Frank, appearing from some other
place.

When the party started forth presently, there were six of them with the
horse--the chums, Reddy, and Mr. Mabie himself.

"I am beginning to believe you boys will corral everything in sight if
you keep on the way you've started. A grizzly, a sheep, and now an elk;
and only thirty hours with me! H'm! Perhaps I may not be able to show
you as much about big-game hunting as I expected," said the stockman,
who seemed vastly amused at the energy shown by his young guests at the
ranch.

"Oh, we can pull a trigger, all right, sir, but there are a thousand
things we want to know about these natives that books never teach. I'm
like a sponge, and can keep on soaking up information all the time,"
laughed Frank.

Incautiously, Bluff let fall certain words that gave Jerry a clue as to
the true situation.

"A tree! Shot him downward from a tree, eh? Now, since you've so frankly
confessed that much, why not tell the whole blooming story, Bluff?" he
cried.

"There isn't much to it. I saw the elk. Then I shot him, and he fell
over. After that the elk saw me. He chased me about a tree. I remembered
how fast Jerry said he ran around when those wild dogs were after him,
and I wanted to go him just one better. Then I fo