er down his
side, as if it were a shining belt thrown across his shoulder.

[Illustration: "SOMETHING GLEAMED SILVER DOWN HIS SIDE."]

With a sort of hiss from between his teeth Jabe shot out his long arm
and knocked up the barrel of the rifle. In the same instant the
Hunter's finger had closed on the trigger. The report rang out,
shattering the night; the bullet whined away high over the treetops,
and the great bull, springing at one bound far back into the thickets,
vanished like an hallucination.

Jabe stood forth into the open, his gaunt face working with suppressed
excitement. The Hunter followed, speechless for a moment between
amazement, wrath and disappointment. At last he found voice, and quite
forgot his wonted courtesy.

"D--n you!" he stammered. "What do you mean by that? What in----"

But Jabe, suddenly calm, turned and eyed him with a steadying gaze.

"Quit all that, now!" he retorted crisply. "I knowed _jest_ what I was
doin'! I knowed that bull when he were a leetle, awkward staggerer. I
brung him up on a bottle; an' I loved him. He skun out four years ago.
I'd most ruther 'ave seen _you_ shot than that ther' bull, I tell
ye!"

The Famous Hunter looked sour; but he was beginning to understand the
situation, and his anger died down. As he considered, Jabe, too,
began to see the other side of the situation.

"I'm right sorry to disapp'int ye so!" he went on apologetically.
"We'll hev to call off this deal atween you an' me, I reckon. An'
there ain't goin' to be no more shooting over _this_ range, if I kin
help it--an' I guess I kin!--till I kin git that ther' white-slashed
bull drove away back over on to the Upsalquitch, where the hunters
won't fall foul of him! But I'll git ye another guide, jest as good as
me, or better, what ain't got no particular friends runnin' loose in
the woods to bother 'im. An' I'll send ye 'way down on to the Sevogle,
where ther's as big heads to be shot as ever have been. I can't do
more."

"Yes, you can!" declared the Famous Hunter, who had quite recovered
his self-possession.

"What is it?" asked Jabe doubtfully.

"You can pardon me for losing my temper and swearing at you!" answered
the Famous Hunter, holding out his hand. "I'm glad I didn't knock over
your magnificent friend. It's good for the breed that he got off. But
you'll have to find me something peculiarly special now, down on that
Sevogle."

WHEN THE BLUEBERRIES ARE RIPE

THE steep, rounded