uent. An almost unbroken
forest sweeps away in every direction, and everywhere there is cover for
the still-hunter. And when the ground is carpeted with snow an inch and
a half deep, as it was then, and at every step a deer must leave behind
him a trail as plain as a turnpike road, then it is not strange if he
feels that he has run up against a decidedly tough proposition. Eyes,
ears, and nose are all on the alert, and all doing their level best, but
what eye can penetrate the cedar swamp beyond a few yards; or what ear
can always catch the tread of a moccasin on the moss and the snow before
it comes within rifle range; or what nose, no matter how delicate, can
detect anything but what happens to lie in its owner's path, or what the
wind chooses to bring it? Many a foe had crossed the Buck's trail in the
course of his life; but none had ever followed him like this--silently
and relentlessly--slowly, but without a moment's pause. A few leaps were
always enough to put the judge out of sight, and half an hour's run left
him far behind; but in a little while he was there again, creeping
cautiously through the undergrowth, and peering this way and that for a
glimpse of a plump, round, blue-gray body. Once he fired before the deer
knew that he was at hand, and if a hanging twig had not turned the
bullet a trifle from its course, the still-hunt would have ended then
and there.

But late in the afternoon the Buck thought that he had really shaken his
pursuer off, and the judge was beginning to think so, too. They had not
seen each other for two or three hours, the day was nearly over, and
there were signs of a change in the weather. If the Buck could hold out
till nightfall, and then the snow should melt before morning, he would
be comparatively safe.

In his fear of the enemy lurking in the rear, he had forgotten all other
dangers; and without quite realizing what he was doing he had come back
to the Glimmerglass, and was tramping once more up and down the old
familiar runways. Presently he came upon a huge maple, lying prostrate
on the ground. He walked around its great bushy head and down toward its
foot; and there he found a broad, saucer-shaped hollow, left when the
tree was torn up by the roots in some wild gale. On one side rose a mass
of earth, straight as a stone wall and four or five feet in height; and
against its foot lay one of the most tempting beds of dead leaves that
he had ever seen, free from snow, dry as a w