The Argosy — page 321: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

296 By the Vulture’s Nest. oft-trodden and favourite grounds, led the way, and after a few noise- less and cautious steps, the whole party paused again under the cloak of some dark, thick growing shrubs of the Alpenrosen kind, the wild rhododendron of the Alps, to peer over into the broken gorge below. The gentlemen and the two attendant foresters adjusted each of them the ready telescope, and now with the utmost precision and care, each gully, each single out-jutting stone, and especially each smallest patch of bright inviting verdure, on which a chamois might possibly be still engaged in his morning repast, was eagerly scanned throughout the gorge. For had a single such outlying animal chanced to be left unperceived whilst the hunters a few minutes later descended to their destined post, the warning whistle of the startled game would have re-echoed and reverberated from rock to rock, and from hill to hill, reaching to almost incredible distances, till every head of chamois on the whole chasse would have been placed upon the qui vive, and all hope of sport for that day must have been abandoned. The keen eyes, however, gazed in vain on every side, and the Count was on the point of rising to his feet and giving the order to advance, when a hand rested lightly and cautiously on his shoulder, and with a silent motion of the eye, but without daring to make the slightest sound or further gesture, the forester next to him pointed to a narrow ledge on the opposite side of the gully. Crouching still lower under the cover of the shrubs, each man holding his very breath from eagerness and excitement, each hunter fixed his anxious sight upon the spot indicated. The head, neck, and shoulder of a chamois, that had apparently that instant risen from his lair, were now plainly distinguishable, and a second later, issuing from behind a solitary out-jutting rock, a splendid chamois paced leisurely out. For a moment he paused and gazed around him—for a moment seemed to question the passing breath of air—then, apparently reassured, as leisurely resumed his course; reaching the grassy brow of the ad- joining hill, he scaled it, and disappeared, evidently in fancied security. ‘‘ Graham,” said the Count, ‘‘ we may thank our stars that the wind was so favourable to us whilst that stupendous fellow was making his morning reconnaissance. Did you ever see so wary a creature? How anxiously he snuffed the tell-tale air! But we have not a moment to lose.” With that the whole party shouldered their rifles again, and set out —the Count himself, an experienced climber, leading the way. They reached their post in safety, and in good time. The attendant foresters stretched out plaids for the gentlemen to sit upon, and then themselves retired to a nook a pace or two behind, whence they could overlook the entire scene, and give timely notice of every incident. Suddenly, after Graham had been patiently straining eyes and ears for two long hours, one of the foresters lightly touched his shoulder, Gomicbooks (El) aS