it. No
bull, however, was to be seen.

"Now where can the old grunter have gone to?" again inquired Caspar of
himself. "Is he off by himself, or along with some other herd? Surely
there is but the one family in this valley. Yaks are gregarious
animals: Karl says so. If there were more of them, they would be all
together. The bull must be ranging abroad by himself, on some business
of his own. After all, I suspect he's not far off. I dare say he's in
yonder thicket. I'd wager a trifle the knowing old fellow has a trick
in his head. He's keeping sentry over the flock, while he himself
remains unseen. In that way he has the advantage of any enemy who may
assail them. A wolf, or bear, or any preying beast that should want to
attack the calves where they now are, would be certain to approach them
by that very thicket. Indeed, I should have done so myself, if I didn't
know that there _was_ a bull. I should have crouched round the timber
and got under cover of the bushes, which would have brought me nicely
within range. But now I shall do no such thing; for I suspect strongly
the old boy's in the bushes. He would be on me with a rush if I went
that way, and in the thicket there's not a tree big enough to shelter a
chased cat. It's all brush and thorn bushes. It won't do; I shan't
stalk them from that direction; but how else can I approach them?
There's no other cover. Ha! yonder rock will serve my purpose!"

Caspar was not half the time in going through this soliloquy that you
have been in reading it. It was a mental process entirely, and, of
course, carried on with the usual rapidity of thought. The interjection
which ended it, and the allusion to a rock, were caused by his
perceiving that a certain rock might afford him the necessary cover for
approaching the game.

This rock he had observed long before--in fact, the moment he had seen
the herd. He could not have failed to observe it, for it lay right in
the middle of the open ground, neither tree nor bush being near to hide
it. It was of enormous size, too--nearly as big as a hovel,
square-sided and apparently flat-topped. Of course, he had noticed it
at the first glance, but had not thought of making it a stalking-horse--
the thicket seeming to offer him a better advantage.

Now, however, when he dared not enter the thicket--lest he might there
encounter the bull--he turned his attention to the rock.

By keeping the boulder between him and the