What a
princely fellow! but he has probably been alarmed this morning, and is
very uneasy. Now we must go through the woods till we come to the lee
of him on the other side of the dell. You see he has led the does
close to the thicket, and we shall have a better chance when we get
there, if we are only quiet and cautious."
"What startled him, do you think?" said Edward.
"I think, when you were crawling through the fern after me, you broke
a piece of rotten stick that was under you. Did you not?"
"Yes, but that made but little noise."
"Quite enough to startle a red deer, Edward, as you will find out
before you have been long a forester. These checks will happen, and
have happened to me a hundred times, and then all the work is to be
done over again. Now then to make the circuit--we had better not say a
word. If we get safe now to the other side, we are sure of him."
They proceeded at a quick walk through the forest, and in half an hour
had gained the side where the deer were feeding. When about three
hundred yards from the game, Jacob again sunk down on his hands and
knees, crawling from bush to bush, stopping whenever the stag raised
his head, and advancing again when it resumed feeding; at last they
came to the fern at the side of the wood, and crawled through it as
before, but still more cautiously as they approached the stag.
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