"Well," replied Jack, "there are a great many elk up here, and very few people come here to hunt them. A few of the ranch people round about, when they need fresh meat, come here and kill it, and that is all the hunting that is done here. But I'm afraid the place is getting talked about. I heard last year of three or four settlers from down in Colorado who came up to the Hole, where most of the elk winter, and loaded up their wagons with their winter's meat. If three or four people from Colorado did that last year, it's likely that a dozen or twenty will do it this year, and two or three times that number the year after. If they do that, that will be the end of the elk here; and I guess they'll do it." The boys sat there for an hour or two looking over this lovely mountain prospect, and then Jack Danvers stood up. "Well, I really hate to do it," he said, "but I suppose we've got to go down and kill something, and take it back to the ranch." They climbed down the steep hill and untied their horses. "Now," Jack cautioned the boys, "we ought to go more carefully. Donald, I expect you'd like to kill an elk, wouldn't you?" "You bet I would!" "All right then; let's go on and do it." On the return they took a valley a little to the west of the one they had followed up, and it was not very long before Jack halted and called a council. "Now it seems to me that just beyond this point of timber we saw from the hill a little bunch of elk, and among them there's likely to be the animal we want--a fat yearling. I don't suppose there'll be any trouble in getting up to it--not half as much as there'd be in getting up to a range cow on foot--but let's go on. We can ride until we see the elk, and then get off to shoot." They entered the green timber in single file, Jack in the lead and Jack Mason bringing up the rear with the pack animal. It was all very simple. Before they reached the edge of the timber on the other side, Jack, who had been looking carefully, stopped and craned his neck to one side and then slipped off his horse and beckoned to Donald. [Illustration: GENTLING A WILD ONE.--_Page 44_ _Photo. by the Morris Art Studio, Chinook, Mont._] Very quietly the two proceeded on foot, and before they reached the edge of the timber Jack pointed out to Donald two or three elk lying near the opening, but he motioned to him to wait before shooting. After a little study Jack fixed on a fat yearling that lay slightly apart from the others, and told Donald to shoot it behind the shoulder and low down. When the shot rang out all the elk sprang to their feet, except the one Donald had hit. This one partly raised itself and then lay down again, and after a moment put its head on the ground. The other elk stood about looking. The boys went back for their horses, and when they came out from the timber toward the dead animal, the other elk were hardly a hundred yards away and were walking up the little park without showing any alarm.