yards, then came to the open, sloping
shore, with the river forty yards wide of level shining ice, all in
plain view of the deer; how was this to be covered?

There is a well-known peculiarity of the white tail that the Indian was
counting on; when its head is down grazing, even though not hidden, the
deer does not see distant objects; before the head is raised, its tail
is raised or shaken. Quonab knew that if he could keep the tail in view,
he could avoid being viewed by the head. In a word, only an ill-timed
movement or a whiff could betray him.

The open ice was, of course, a hard test, and the hunter might have
failed, but that his long form looked like one of the logs that were
lying about half stranded or frozen in the stream.

Watching ever the alert head and tail, he timed his approach, working
hard and moving East when the head was down; but when warned by a
tail-jerk he turned to a log nor moved a muscle. Once the ice was
crossed, the danger of being seen was less, but of being smelt was
greater, for the deer was moving about, and Quonab watched the smoke
from the cabin for knowledge of the wind. So he came within fifty yards,
and the buck, still sniffing along and eagerly champing the few red
cranberries it found above the frozen moss, was working toward a
somewhat higher cover. The herbage was now fully eighteen inches high,
and Quonab moved a little faster. The buck found a large patch of
berries under a tussock and dropped on its knees to pick them out, while
Quonab saw the chance and gained ten yards before the tail gave warning.
After so long a feeding-spell, the buck took an extra long lookout,
and then walked toward the timber, whereby the Indian lost all he had
gained. But the browser's eye was drawn by a shining bunch of red, then
another; and now the buck swung until there was danger of betrayal by
the wind; then down went its head and Quonab retreated ten yards to keep
the windward. Once the buck raised its muzzle and sniffed with flaring
nostrils, as though its ancient friend had brought a warning. But soon
he seemed reassured, for the landscape showed no foe, and nosed back and
forth, while Quonab regained the yards he had lost. The buck worked now
to the taller cover, and again a tempting bunch of berries under a low,
dense bush caused it to kneel for farther under-reaching. Quonab glided
swiftly forward, reached the twenty-five-yard limit, rose to one knee,
bent the stark cedar bow. Rolf saw