s left side.

Quickening his pace, he neared the bluff. It looked very black and
shadowy against the snow, which now was fading to a curious, lifeless
gray. The trees were stunted and scattered; that made it possible for
him to get through, though there were half-covered, fallen branches
which entangled his big snowshoes. He could see no tracks of any
animal, and hardly expected to do so; but, in a savage mood, he held
on, without much caution, until he entered a belt of broken ground
strewn with rocky hillocks. Here he could not see where he was going,
and it was almost dark in the hollows; but he had learned that chance
sometimes favors the hunter as much as careful stalking. Stopping for
breath a moment, halfway up a steep ascent, he started, for a shadowy
object unexpectedly appeared on the summit. It was barely
distinguishable against the background of trees, but Blake saw the
broad-tined horns in an opening and knew it for a caribou.

There was no time to lose; the swift creature would take flight in an
instant; and, almost as he caught sight of it, the rifle went up to his
shoulder. For a moment the foresight wavered across the indistinct
form, and then his numbed hands grew steady, and, trusting that nothing
would check the frost-clogged action, he pressed the trigger. He felt
the jar of the butt, a little smoke blew in his eyes, and he could make
out nothing on the crest of the ridge. It seemed impossible, however,
that he had missed, and the next moment he heard a heavy floundering in
the snow among the rocks above. He went up the slope at a savage run,
and plunged down a precipitous hollow, on the farther side of which a
half-seen object was moving through the gloom of the trees. Stopping a
moment, he threw up the rifle, and after the thin red flash the deer
staggered and collapsed.

Running on in desperate haste, he fell upon it with his hunting knife;
and then stopped, feeling strangely limp and breathless, with the long
blade dripping in his hand. Now that the caribou lay dead before him,
the strain of the last few minutes made itself felt. Surprised by a
sudden and unexpected opportunity when he was exhausted and weak from
want of food, he had forced upon himself sufficient steadiness to
shoot. It had cost him an effort; the short, fierce chase had tried
him hard; and now the reaction had set in. For all that, he was
conscious of a savage, exultant excitement. Here was food, and food
me