But how had the deer got over it? Surely it had not leaped that fearful chasm?
But surely it had. Close by the edge its tracks were traced in the snow, and there, upon the lower side of the cleft, was the spot from which it had sprung. On the opposite brink the disarrangement of the snow told where it had alighted, having cleared a space of sixteen or eighteen feet! This, however, was nothing to a musk-deer, that upon a deal level often bounds to more than twice that length; for these animals have been known to spring down a slope to the enormous distance of sixty feet!
The leap over the crevasse, therefore, fearful as it appeared in the eyes of our hunters, was nothing to the musk-deer, who is as nimble and sure-footed as the chamois itself.
“Enough!” said Karl, after they had stood for some minutes gazing into the lye. “There’s no help for it; we must go back as we came—what says Ossaroo?”
“You speakee true, Sahib—no help for we—we no get cross—too wide leapee—no bridge—no bamboo for makee bridge—no tree here.”
Ossaroo shook his head despondingly as he spoke. He was vexed at losing the game—particularly as the buck was one of the largest, and might have yielded an ounce or two of musk, which, as Ossaroo well knew, was worth a guinea an ounce in the bazaars of Calcutta.
The Hindoo glanced once more across the lye, and then turning round, uttered an exclamation, which told that he was beaten.
“Well, then, let us go back!” said Karl.
“Stay, brother!” interrupted Caspar, “a thought strikes me. Had we not better remain here for a while? The deer cannot be far off. It is, no doubt, up near the end of the ravine; but it won’t stay there long. There appears to be nothing for it to eat but rocks or snow, and it won’t be contented with that. If there’s no outlet above, it must come back this way. Now I propose we lie in wait for it a while, and take it as it comes down again. What say you to my plan?”
“I see no harm in trying it, Caspar,” replied Karl. “We had better separate, however, and each hide behind a boulder, else it may see us, and stay back. We shall give it an hour.”