lso, with exactly the same pace and pause of their leader.
What steppers they were! How sure-footed! What leaps they made! It
was thrilling to watch them. Gale forgot he had a rifle. The Yaqui
pressed a heavy hand down upon his shoulder. He was to keep well
hidden and to be quiet. Gale suddenly conceived the idea that the sheep
might come clear across to investigate the puzzling red thing
fluttering in the breeze. Strange, indeed, would that be for the
wildest creatures in the world.

The big ram led on with the same regular persistence, and in half an
hour's time he was in the bottom of the great gulf, and soon he was
facing up the slope. Gale knew then that the alluring scarf had
fascinated him. It was no longer necessary now for Gale to use his
glass. There was a short period when an intervening crest of lava hid
the sheep from view. After that the two rams and their smaller
followers were plainly in sight for perhaps a quarter of an hour. Then
they disappeared behind another ridge. Gale kept watching sure they
would come out farther on. A tense period of waiting passed, then a
suddenly electrifying pressure of Yaqui's hand made Gale tremble with
excitement.

Very cautiously he shifted his position. There, not fifty feet distant
upon a high mound of lava, stood the leader of the sheep. His size
astounded Gale. He seemed all horns. But only for a moment did the
impression of horns overbalancing body remain with Gale. The sheep was
graceful, sinewy, slender, powerfully built, and in poise magnificent.
As Gale watched, spellbound, the second ram leaped lightly upon the
mound, and presently the three others did likewise.

Then, indeed, Gale feasted his eyes with a spectacle for a hunter. It
came to him suddenly that there had been something he expected to see
in this Rocky Mountain bighorn, and it was lacking. They were
beautiful, as wonderful as even Ladd's encomiums had led him to
suppose. He thought perhaps it was the contrast these soft, sleek,
short-furred, graceful animals afforded to what he imagined the barren,
terrible lava mountains might develop.

The splendid leader stepped closer, his round, protruding amber eyes,
which Gale could now plainly see, intent upon that fatal red flag.
Like automatons the other four crowded into his tracks. A few little
slow steps, then the leader halted.

At this instant Gale's absorbed attention was directed by Yaqui to the
rifle, and so to the purpose of