n
along a deer path and circled down ahead of them to a thicket of cedar,
where I thought they might pass the night.

Presently I heard them coming--_Whit-kwit? pr-r-r, pr-r-r, prut,
prut!_--and saw five or six of them running rapidly. The little leader
saw me at the same instant and dodged back out of sight. Most of his
flock followed him; but one bird, more inquisitive than the rest, jumped
to a fallen log, drew himself up straight as a string, and eyed me
steadily. The little rifle spoke at his head promptly; and I stowed him
away comfortably, a fine plump bird, in a big pocket of my hunting
shirt.

At the report another partridge, questioning the unknown sound, flew to
a thick spruce, pressed close against the trunk to hide himself, and
stood listening intently. Whether he was waiting to hear the sound
again, or was frightened and listening for the call of the leader, I
could not tell. I fired at his head quickly, and saw him sail down
against the hillside, with a loud thump and a flutter of feathers behind
him to tell me that he was hard hit.

I followed him up the hill, hearing an occasional flutter of wings to
guide my feet, till the sounds vanished into a great tangle of
underbrush and fallen trees. I searched here ten minutes or more in
vain, then listened in the vast silence for a longer period; but the
bird had hidden himself away in some hole or covert where an owl might
pass by without finding him. Reluctantly I turned away toward the swamp.

Close beside me was a fallen log; on my right was another; and the two
had fallen so as to make the sides of a great angle, their tops resting
together against the hill. Between the two were several huge trees
growing among the rocks and underbrush. I climbed upon one of these
fallen trees and moved along it cautiously, some eight or ten feet above
the ground, looking down searchingly for a stray brown feather to guide
me to my lost partridge.

Suddenly the log under my feet began to rock gently. I stopped in
astonishment, looking for the cause of the strange teetering; but there
was nothing on the log beside myself. After a moment I went on again,
looking again for my partridge. Again the log rocked, heavily this time,
almost throwing me off. Then I noticed that the tip of the other log,
which lay balanced across a great rock, was under the tip of my log and
was being pried up by something on the other end. Some animal was there,
and it flashed upon me suddenly