ft the rock and pursued his way through dwarf pines and
cedars along the edge of the chasm in which the torrent boiled
and foamed, intending to go down to the lake. Halfway he
stopped, startled by a long, shrill, whistling sound that bore
some resemblance to the shriek of a distant locomotive. The
wilderness had been so silent before that the sound seemed to
fill all the valley, the ridges taking it up and giving it back
in one echo after another until it died away among the peaks. In
a minute or so the whistling shriek was repeated and then two or
three times more.

Dick was not apprehensive. It was merely a new wonder in that
valley of wonders, and none of these wonders seemed to have
anything to do with man. The sound apparently came from a point
two or three hundred yards to his left at the base of the
mountain, and turning, Dick went toward it, walking very slowly
and carefully through the undergrowth. He had gone almost the
whole distance seeing nothing but the mountain and the forest,
when the whistling shriek was suddenly repeated so close to him
that he jumped. He sank down behind a dwarf pine, and then he
saw not thirty feet away the cause of the sound.

A gigantic deer, a great grayish animal, stood in a little open
space, and at intervals emitted that tremendous whistle. It
stood as high as a horse, and Dick estimated its weight at more
than a thousand pounds. He was looking at a magnificent specimen
of the Rocky Mountain elk, by far the largest member of the deer
tribe that he had ever seen. The animal, the wind blowing from
him toward Dick, was entirely unsuspicious of danger, and the boy
could easily have put a bullet into his heart, but he had no
desire to do so. Whether the elk was whistling to his mate or
sending a challenge to a rival bull he did not know, and after
watching and admiring him for a little while he crept away.

But Dick was not wholly swayed by sentiment. He said to himself
as he went away among the pines: "Don't you feel too safe, Mr.
Elk, we'll have to take you or some of your brethren later on.
I've heard that elk meat is good."

He resumed his journey and was soon at the edge of the lake,
which at this point had a narrow sandy margin. Its waters were
fresh and cold, and wold duck, fearless of Dick, swam within a
few yards of him. The view here was not less majestic and
beautiful than it had been from the rock, and Dick, sensitive to
nature, was steeped in all it