"Well, that depends pretty much on you," laughed Bob. "If you have any choice be sure to pick out a yearling, and leave the old chaps alone."
"Yes," grumbled the other, shaking his head as he spoke; "that's all very nice, Bob; but you know that sometimes the old bull refuses to be let alone."
"Now you're thinking of that time you were treed by a buffalo you had wounded, and kept up in the branches for hours. Only for that bright thought that came to you, and which led you to fish for your gun with some yarn secured from unravelling your stocking, you might have stayed there all night."
"But I didn't, you remember, Bob!" grinned Sandy, looking up archly. "The doubled yarn held first-rate, and brought me my gun. After that it was easy to send a bullet back of the bull's shoulder; and I even had the pleasure of toting some of his carcass home; but mother said it was only good for soup, it was so tough."
"Well," remarked Bob, rising to his feet, and picking up his gun, "I'm ready to make a fresh start, if you say so. And here's hoping that we have better luck than the morning brought us."
"I wonder how far he is on his way now?" sighed Sandy.
They had not been speaking of Mr. Armstrong at all; but Bob could understand readily enough whom his brother meant, for was not that beloved father in their minds pretty much all the time?
"Oh! he can hardly be a great way off," Bob made answer. "You know how slow they must travel when crossing the mountains. Still, they have no women and children along to hold them back. However, weeks must pass before we can hope to see him again. Why, it will be almost in the winter I fear, though mother refuses to say as much."
Sandy gulped something down as he strode after his brother. He could not control his feelings as well as the stronger Bob, and the thought of that father perhaps never coming home again always unmanned him.
Presently, however, in the excitement of the hunt, he managed to forget his anxieties; for Sandy dearly loved the chase, and everything connected with the great forest appealed to his nature.