As Oscar said this, he turned into a deep gorge that opened into the valley, and began picking his way carefully over the snow-covered bowlders toward the hill which had served as a lookout station for the sentinel big-horn.
All that the young hunter knew of the habits of these animals he had gained from conversation with his guide.
He had learned that, like the antelope, they always put out sentinels when they were feeding; that those sentries invariably stationed themselves on the highest hills in the vicinity of the flock; that their eyes were keen, and their noses so sharp that they had been known to detect the presence of the hunter while he was yet more than half a mile away; that they were to be found on their feeding-grounds only in the morning or late in the afternoon; that when they had satisfied their appetites they retreated to the most inaccessible ledges, to which no enemy could follow them without their knowledge; and that, owing to their timidity and vigilance, it was almost impossible to bring one of them to bay, except under the most favorable circumstances.
Oscar thought of all these things as he toiled slowly up the gorge, stopping every few feet to examine the ground before him, and making use of every bush and bowlder to cover his advance; and the difficulties he saw in his way made him all the more determined to succeed.
“Big Thompson doesn’t think much of my abilities as a hunter,” said he to himself, “and I don’t know how I could surprise him more than by shooting a big-horn, unless I were to shoot a panther or a grizzly, and that is something I don’t expect to do. In fact, I have no desire to attempt it. The wind is in my favor, and that is something upon which I can congratulate myself.”
For nearly an hour Oscar continued to work his way along the ravine; and, when he believed that he had arrived at a point opposite the pinnacle on which he had seen the sentinel big-horn, he turned into the bushes and began clambering slowly up the cliff.
As it was almost perpendicular, his progress was necessarily slow, but he reached the top at last; and, cautiously raising his head, looked over it.
He had no sooner done so than he uttered an exclamation under his breath, and drew his head quickly back again.
He crouched behind the cliff long enough to cock his gun, and then he straightened up, at the same time drawing the weapon to his shoulder.
Before him was a level plateau, containing perhaps ten or fifteen acres. On the right, and in front, it was bounded by the gorge that Oscar had been following; and on the left was the valley in which the camp was located.