Already I had flung my crutches away, and three weeks later we were after the deer in good earnest. I had lost all account of time; but winter was upon us, with a wealth of laurestinus flower upon the _macchia_ and a sense of stillness in the air such as we feel at home on windless sunny mornings in December after a night of frost. We had started before dawn, and crossed the valley by the track leading past our deserted hut and up between the granite pinnacles on which, when the sunset touched them, I had so often gazed. We had followed it up beyond the pines and over a pass leading out among a range of undulating foot-hills, which seemed to waver and lose heart a dozen times before making up their minds to unite and climb, and be a snowcapped mountain. But they mounted to the snows at length, and the snows had driven down the stag which, under Marc'antonio's guidance, I stalked for two hours, and shot before noon-day. We left him in the track, to be recovered as we returned, and very cautiously made our way to the crest of the next ridge. I chose a granite boulder for my shelter, gained it, crawled under its lee, and, peering over, had whipped my gun to my shoulder and very nearly pulled the trigger--was, in fact, looking along the sight--when I found that I was aiming at a man; and not only that, but at Billy Priske! I believe, on my faith that thenceforward he owed his life to the shape of his legs--so unlike a deer's. He was picking his way across the dry bed of a torrent in the dip not fifty yards below us, leaping from slab to slab of outcropping granite as a man crosses a brook by stepping-stones; and upon a slab midway he halted, drew off his hat, extracted a handkerchief, and stood polishing his bald head while he took stock of the climb before him. "Billy! Billy Priske!" He tilted his head still higher, towards the ridge and the rock on which I stood against his skyline, frantically waving. "HOO-ROAR!" "And to think, lad," he panted, ten minutes later, as he stretched himself on the heath beside me--"to think of your mistaking me for a deer!" "Did I say so, Billy? Then I lied. It was for a _mufro_ I took you. Marc'antonio here had as good as promised me one." His beaming smile changed on the instant to a look of extreme gravity. "See you, lad," he said, "have you ever come across one of these here wild sheep?" "Not yet." "I thought not. Well, I have; and I advise you not to talk irreligious about 'em." "I will talk about nothing," said I, "until you tell me how my father is, and of all your adventures." "He's well, lad--hearty, and well, and thriving. And he sends you his love, and a paper for your friend here. 'Tis from the Princess; and the upshot is, you're released from your word and free to come back with me."