perched that they had not seen it. No doubt,
reflected they, it had been near enough, but its colour had rendered it
undistinguishable from the snow.

"What a pity!" exclaimed Francois.

While making these reflections, and sweeping their glances around, an
object caught their eyes that caused some of them to ejaculate and
suddenly raise their guns. This object was near the centre of the summit
table, and at first sight appeared to be only a lump of snow; but upon
closer inspection, two little round spots of a dark colour, and above
these two elongated black marks, could be seen. Looking steadily, the
eye at length traced the outlines of an animal, that sat in a crouching
attitude. The round spots were its eyes, and the black marks above them
were tips of a pair of very long ears. All the rest of its body was
covered with a soft white fur, hardly to be distinguished from the snow
upon which it rested.

The form and colour of the animal, but more especially its long erect
ears, made it easy for them to tell what it was. All of them saw it was
a hare.

"Hush!" continued Norman, as soon as he saw it, "keep still all of
you--leave it to me."

"What shall we do?" demanded Basil. "Can we not assist you?"

"No," was the reply, uttered in a whisper, "stay where you are. Keep the
dog quiet. I'll manage puss, if the owl hasn't scared her too badly.
That scream has started her out of her form. I'm certain she wasn't that
way before. Maybe she'll sit it out. Lucky the sun's high--don't move a
step. Have the dog ready, but hold him tight, and keep a sharp look out
if she bolts."

After giving these instructions, that were all uttered quickly and in an
under tone, Norman moved off, with his gun carried across his arm. He
did not move in the direction of the hare, but rather as if he was going
_from_ her. His course, however, bent gradually into a circle of which
the hare was the centre--the diameter being the full breadth of the
summit level, which was about three hundred yards. In this circle he
walked round and round, keeping his eye fixed upon the crouching animal.
When he had nearly completed one circumference, he began to shorten the
diameter--so that the curve which he was now following was a spiral one,
and gradually drawing nearer to the hare. The latter kept watching him
as he moved--curiosity evidently mingling with her fears. Fortunately,
as Norman had said, the sun was nearly in the vertex of the heavens, and
his