-s-h! Lie low!" he whispered. "Give me the rifle!"

Macgregor passed the weapon to him, and then he and Fred wriggled
forward to look.

Eighty yards away Fred saw the light-brown flank of a doe, and beside
her, partly concealed by the underbrush, the head and large,
questioning ears of a fawn. The animals were evidently excited, for as
Horace lowered his rifle, not wishing to kill a mother with young, they
bounded a few steps nearer, and stood gazing back at the thicket from
which they had come. The wind blew toward the boys, and the roar of
the cataract had drowned the noise of their approach.

Suddenly there was a commotion in the thicket, and two young bucks
burst from the spruces and dashed past the doe and fawn toward the
boys. At the same instant the lithe, tawny form of a lynx leaped out.
It struck like lightning at the fawn, but the little fellow sprang
aside and bounded after its mother. The lynx gave a few prodigious
leaps and then stood, with tufted ears erect, glaring in
disappointment. It had all happened within a few seconds, and the deer
were disappearing behind some rocks and stunted spruces fifty yards to
the right before the boys thought again of their need of meat.

At that moment, one of the bucks wheeled at the edge of the tangle
behind which the other deer had passed. For an instant he presented a
fair quartering shot.

"Shoot quick!" whispered Macgregor, excitedly.

As the repeater in Horace's hands cracked, the buck whirled round in a
half-circle, leaped once, and fell.

Fred uttered a wild shout, slipped the tumpline from his head, and ran
forward. He was carrying the shotgun and held it ready; but the buck,
shot behind the shoulder, was virtually dead, although he was kicking
feebly.

The lynx had vanished; there was no sign of the other deer. Only the
rush of the water in the river-bed now disturbed the forest stillness.

The dressing of the game was no small task. It was late in the
afternoon when the boys had finished it and had brought up the rest of
their outfit to the head of the cataract. "Buck Rapids" they named the
place. There was enough meat on the deer to last them for the next
week at least. The slices they cut and fried that night, although not
tender, were palatable and nourishing.

The weather had been warmer that day, and for the first time mosquitoes
troubled them. The boys slept badly, and got up the next morning
unrefreshed and in no mood to "buck