Part 17 (2/2)

He was calculating that they would be found in soht Fritz, instead of trying to stalk them, when all at once the herd ca out in a stretch of open ground--the young calves, as on the for about over the ground, biting one another, and uttering their tiny grunts, like sounconcernedly-- occasionally raising their heads and looking around, but not with any signs of uneasiness or fear The bull was not in sight!

”Where can he be?” inquired Caspar of himself ”Perhaps these may be a different herd; 'one, two, three;'” and Caspar went on to tell over the individuals of the flock

”Yes,” he continued,to his--the calves--exactly the number--all except the bull--Where can the old rascal have concealed himself?”

And with his eyes Caspar swept the whole of the open space, and looked narrowly along the selvedge of the tirew around it No bull, however, was to be seen

”Nohere can the old grunter have gone to?” again inquired Caspar of hi with some other herd? Surely there is but the one faarious animals: Karl says so If there were ether The bullabroad 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 hie of any ene 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 tiht ; 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 servethrough 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 a before--in fact, the moment he had seen the herd He could not have failed to observe it, for it lay right in thenear to hide it It was of enor as a hovel, square-sided and apparently flat-topped Of course, he had noticed it at the first glance, but had not thought ofto offer hie

Noever, when he dared not enter the thicket--lest he ht there encounter the bull--he turned his attention to the rock

By keeping the boulder between him and the yaks, he could approach behind it, and that would bring him within distance of the one or two of the herd that were nearest Indeed, the whole flock appeared to be inclining towards the rock; and he calculated, that by the tih, and he est

Up to this time he had remained under cover of the tiht of the yaks Still keeping in the bushes, he made a circuit, until the rock was put between hi as the boulder was, it hardly covered the whole flock; and et up to it without alar them He saw that if he could once pass over the first one hundred yards, the rock, then subtending a larger angle of vision, would shi+eld hiht walk fearlessly forward But the first hundred yards would be aard stalking Crawling flat upon his breast appeared to be his only chance But Caspar had often stalked chamois on his native hills; and ravel, and ice and snow

He thought nothing, therefore, of progression in this way, and a hundred yards would be a atelle

Without farther hesitation, therefore, he dropped to his marrow-bones, and then flat upon his breast, and in this attitude coantic salaht, and that concealed hiun before hi his eyes cautiously above the sward to note the position of the herd When it changed, he also deflected slightly from his course-- so as always to keep the centre of the rock aligned upon the bodies of the animals

After about ten , the hunter found hireat boulder Its broad sides now appeared sufficient to cover the whole flock; and as crawling along the ground was by no ive it up, and take oncenimbly forward, in another moment he stood behind the rock

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

CASPAR RETREATS TO THE ROCK

Caspar now perceived that the rock was not all in one piece In other words, there were two rocks--both of theest, as already observed, was of the size of a sht be coer than the wagon They lay aluous to each other, with a narrow space, about a foot in width, for a sort of alley between them This space resembled a cleft, as if the two blocks had once been united, and solanced at these peculiarities as he ca for the best point of the rock to shelter hia at theether a very aard cover--the rock was square-sided as a wall, with no jutting point that he could crawl behind and rest his gun over In fact, at the corners it rather hung over, resting on a base narrower than its diarass to accoround was quite bare, and had the appearance of being much tra-stone” for the yaks It was their tracks Caspar saw around it--so the rest were some that by their size ht of these large fresh tracks conducted Caspar, and very suddenly too, into a train of reflections that were anything but agreeable

”The bull's tracks!” muttered he to himself ”Quite fresh, by thunder!

Why he o! What if--”

Here Caspar's heart thuainst his ribs, that he could scarce finish the interrogation

”_What if he be on the other side of the rock_?”

The hunter was in a dileht of the probability of the bull being behind the rock He had taken it into his fancy, that the thicket ood reason did he fancy this It was assigningto the anihts Caspar perceived that it was farhireat boulder! There he would be near to the herd,--and likely enough there he _was_

”By thunder!” et back to the tiht of it

He could run me down in half a minute There's no place to escape to