han we can use handy."

With the report of the rifles the animals had begun to move restlessly
about. Some of the bucks were snorting, but because the wind was blowing
down from the herd toward the hunters, no smell of their enemies reached
the caribou. The sound of shooting and even the view of the hunter will
often fail to startle a herd, unless they get the smell. But something
had happened to some of their number, and the sentinels were on the
alert.

Skipper Zeb, with Toby and Charley, stepped out from cover and
approached their victims. Suddenly panic seized the herd. It is
probable that in their sudden terror the animals did not see or realize
that these were the enemies that had attacked them, but with one accord
they started forward. Slowly at first the great herd moved, and then, in
an instant, were in a wild stampede.

The three hunters stood directly in the pathway of the fear-blinded
animals. On they came, the thousands of hoofs beating upon the frozen
snow with an ominous roar like that of a great wind, and smashing
everything before them.

"Run! Run! They'll trample us down!" yelled Skipper Zeb.

They turned and ran, but they could not run with half the speed of
deer.

XXII

THE STRANGER

On came the caribou like a brigade of charging cavalry, tramping all
before them. Forward they swept in blind panic, as relentlessly
destructive as an avalanche, and no more easily stopped or turned aside.

Skipper Zeb and the two boys ran as they had never run before. Once
Charley slipped and fell, but was on his feet in an instant. It was an
uneven race, and there was no hope of outdistancing the sea of animals
in mad flight.

Skipper Zeb knew this, but he hoped to find refuge for himself and the
boys behind a boulder large enough to protect them in its lee. Such a
boulder caught his eye, and yelling at the boys at the top of his voice,
that he might be heard by them above the roar of the pounding hoofs, he
directed them to follow him. The foremost caribou were at their heels,
when they crouched, breathless with their running, behind the boulder,
and not an instant too soon. Here in safety they watched the herd sweep
past them like ocean waves.

Nearly as quickly as the stampede began it ended. The herd swung to the
northeast, began to slow its pace, and presently the three hunters saw
the rear of the herd in the distance, no longer running, but still
moving around restlessly before the animals r