uck along a narrow gulley, which evidently
connected the two valleys at the end of the range.

The walking was worse than ever there, and Steve was beginning to lag
and wish that some one else would carry his heavy gun, when Jakobsen,
who had passed out of sight behind a chaotic mass of rocks, suddenly
came hurriedly back.

"He has seen deer," whispered Johannes, who was close beside Steve, and
seemed to look upon himself as the boy's bodyguard.

Jakobsen held up his hand to make the party stop, and the next minute he
was close up.

"Reindeer," he whispered. "Four just round the point yonder feeding on
the moss. Come."

"Stay back, the rest of you," said the captain in a low voice. "You can
come, Steve, my lad, and you, Johannes, be cautious."

Then the novel kind of deer-stalking commenced, Jakobsen leading and
taking advantage of every block of stone, turning round at times to make
sure that his companions were keeping out of sight, and at last coming
to a stand at where the defile they were threading opened out into a
plain.

He was behind a mass of rocks whose hollows were filled up with ice; and
when all were together he whispered to them to be ready, and then
clambered up till he was high enough to peer over cautiously before
descending.

"They are very wild and cautious," he whispered; "but they have not
moved. Go forward now, creeping from rock to rock, and you are sure of
one or two."

"Come, Steve," whispered the captain. "Don't fire unless I tell you.
Be ready to hand me your gun if I miss."

He went off to the right of the pile of rocks, and the doctor took the
left, all stooping and sheltering themselves till the end of the stones
was reached; and upon raising himself a little so as to peer round the
last, there, not fifty yards away, and grazing or tearing up the moss
with their feet, were four deer, with their peculiarly shaped, branching
antlers, and all apparently in perfect ignorance of danger being so
near.

"Can you see Mr Handscombe?" whispered the captain, drawing back to
speak.

"No, he is not in sight."

"I'll wait, then, so as to give him a chance of getting within shot as
well. It will steady my hand, too."

"What's that?" whispered Steve, as a sound like one stone being thrown
against another reached his ear.

The captain reached forward again, and uttered an exclamation which
brought Steve close up just in time to see the four deer bounding away,
and to have his ea