The girl wheeled about to stare at him in blank surprise. Then, as surprise and fear left her, she exclaimed:
“The beast is surely charmed! I’ve shot him, and yet he does not stir!”
Suddenly the shining black antlers sank low. The whole head of the caribou disappeared in the brush. Still his body remained erect.
“Mystery here!” Johnny sprang forward.
The girl, as if in fear of losing the prize, started forward.
“It’s all right,” said Johnny. “He’s yours. I missed him fair enough.”
“You—you missed?” The girl’s tone showed surprise.
Johnny did not hear.
“Mystery solved!” he shouted back a moment later. “When he made that last leap he landed so squarely on the tops of a half dozen young fir trees that they did what his legs no longer could. They supported him.
“But say!” he called. “It’s queer. Come here, please.”