but with caution.

"Reckon I've spotted him, but I ain't sartin," he whispered. "See thet
hollow yonder? I think he's back of them bushes an' rocks. We had better
spread out a bit."

The others understood, and while Dave went to the right, Henry moved to the
left, leaving Barringford to advance as before. The hollow mentioned was
nearly quarter of a mile away, yet so sharp were the old frontiersman's
eyes that he had noted a peculiar moving of the upper branches of the
brushwood before him, as if some large animal was tramping around, browsing
on such tender shoots as the snow had not covered.

"If the elk don't go off like a streak, Henry shall have the first shot,"
Barringford had said, and it was arranged that, all things being favorable,
Dave should shoot next, if a second bullet was required. Barringford would
hold himself in readiness for the unexpected.

There was a cleared spot to cover, and at a signal from the old
frontiersman they advanced across this, being all of a hundred yards from
each other, and in something of a semicircle.

They made no noise, and the elk, for such it really was, did not notice
them until they were within easy gunshot of where he was feeding. Then up
went his head, to scent the air, and with a snort of sudden fear he started
away, straight ahead of them.

Bang! it was Henry's weapon that spoke up, the instant he had the game out
of range of the bushes. The bullet lodged in the elk's flank and he
immediately began to limp. But he did not drop, and now it was Dave's turn