For a moment the foresight wavered across the indistinct form, and then his numbed hands grew steady, and, trusting that nothing would check the frost-clogged action, he pressed the trigger.

He felt the jar of the butt, a little smoke blew in his eyes, and he could make out nothing on the crest of the ridge.

It seemed impossible, however, that he had missed, and the next moment he heard a heavy floundering in the snow among the rocks above.

He went up the slope at a savage run, and plunged down a precipitous hollow, on the farther side of which a half-seen object was moving through the gloom of the trees.

Stopping a moment, he threw up the rifle, and after the thin red flash the deer staggered and collapsed.
Running on in desperate haste, he fell upon it with his hunting knife; and then stopped, feeling strangely limp and breathless, with the long blade dripping in his hand.