Donald, whose experience in hunting was much less than Jack's, was anxious to try to approach the first bunch of antelope they saw; but Jack pointed out to him that this could not be done, because there was little or no cover. He explained further that if they started the antelope running along this valley, they would put every animal there on the alert, and their hunting later in the day would be just so much the more difficult. "If we ride along close to the rocks here," he said, "the antelope will pay little attention to us. Some of them will stand and look, and perhaps walk off a little way, but when they see us go on about our business they will begin to feed again. Along toward the middle of the day, if we keep our eyes well open, we are pretty sure to find some of these big bucks lying down close to the hills, and then we'll give you a chance to see what you can do with your six-shooter." "All right," agreed Donald; "all right; you're the hunter, and I am perfectly willing to follow along behind and do what you tell me to." "Oh, it's not that. But I've had more experience than you, and I know better than you what animals will do under certain circumstances. Why," Jack laughed, "don't I remember the first antelope I ever killed! How crazy I was to get up to it, and how I fell down two or three times on the way to the top of the hill, and how I finally scared the antelope out of the country! I believe that was one of the best lessons in hunting I ever learned. I made such a complete fool of myself, that I even saw it myself, and it humbled me and made me ask Hugh to put me on the right road, and to keep me traveling there." Donald was interested in all hunting matters, and he was anxious to have Jack tell him the whole story of that hunt in detail. Somewhat reluctantly, Jack told him something of his adventures during his first visit to his uncle's ranch, when he was known as "Jack, the Young Ranchman." As the boys rode up the valley, new vistas of its yellow surface and of the side ravines that came into it were constantly opening up, and distant animals were often seen which Donald could not always identify, and which he took for deer, or elk, or even cattle. Jack assured him, however, that they were all antelope. "How do you know?" Donald asked. "Now there's a beast far off that looks black, and looks as if it had big horns. How do you know that that's an antelope?" "I can't tell you how I know, but I do know that it's an antelope. You say it looks black; well, so it does, but on the other hand, look where the sun is, and you'll see that the reason it looks black is because the part of it that we see is mostly in the shadow, while everything around about is in that bright sunlight. You say it looks as if it had big horns, and I'll acknowledge that it does--but look at it now. Can you see its horns?" "No," said Donald; "it seems to have lost its horns."