ext morning, Lisle concluded that it would be wise
to risk a day looking for a deer, so he invited Nasmyth to take his rifle
and the two set out. It cost them some trouble to climb the low bluff
above the river through a horrible tangle of fallen trunks. The trees
were getting larger and the branches of those the wind had brought down
lay spread about them or were resting on the standing growth in networks
which Nasmyth would have thought it impossible to traverse had he been
alone. Lisle scrambled through, however, and he had no choice except to
follow. Where the timber was thinner, the slope was covered with
sharp-edged stones which further damaged his already dilapidated boots;
and when at last they came out upon a comparatively bare, rocky
tableland, a bitter wind met them in the teeth. It drove a little fine
snow before it, but Lisle plodded steadily on, explaining that any deer
which might be in the neighborhood would have gone down into the
sheltered valleys. He had no doubt they would find one of the valleys,
for they were generally numerous.

It was an hour before they reached one, and Nasmyth was conscious of an
unpleasant pain in his side and a headache which he supposed resulted
from want of food. For all that, he scrambled after his companion down an
almost impossible descent, where trees of increasing size grew up among
outcropping rock and banks of stones. When he reached the bottom he found
himself in a deep rift filled with densely-matted underbrush, through
which a swift stream flowed. Its banks promised a slightly easier road,
though now and then they had to wade through the water, which was icy
cold. Noon came and they had seen no sign of life, except two or three
willow-grouse which they failed to dislodge from cover; but Lisle held
on, his course running roughly in a line with the river.

It was toward three o'clock, and a little snow was sifting down between
the somber branches overhead, when Lisle, stopping, raised a warning hand
and pointed to an opening in the trees. The light was dim among the rows
of trunks, and for a few seconds Nasmyth gazed down the long colonnade,
seeing nothing. Then Lisle pointed again, impatiently, and he made out
something between a gray trunk and a thicket. Sportsman as he was, he had
not the bush-man's eye, and he would never have supposed that formless
object to be a deer. It moved, however; a prong of horn appeared; and
waiting for nothing further he pitched up hi