Breathlessly I stood and listened, Heard the crunching of his hoof, Saw the branches of one antler. Softly then among the boulders I crept forward on my belly. Crouched in the moraine I peered up;— Such a buck, so sleek and fat, You, I’m sure, have ne’er set eyes on. ÅSE. No, of course not! PEER. Bang! I fired. Clean he dropped upon the hillside. But the instant that he fell, I sat firm astride his back, Gripped him by the left ear tightly, And had almost sunk my knife-blade In his neck, behind his skull— When, behold! the brute screamed wildly. Sprang upon his feet like lightning, With a back-cast of his head From my fist made knife and sheath fly, Pinned me tightly by the thigh, Jammed his horns against my legs, Clenched me like a pair of tongs;— Then forthwith away he flew Right along the Gendin-Edge! ÅSE. [_Involuntarily._] Jesus save us——! PEER. Have you ever Chanced to see the Gendin-Edge? Nigh on four miles long it stretches Sharp before you like a scythe. Down o’er glaciers, landslips, screes, Down the toppling grey moraines, You can see, both right and left, Straight into the tarns that slumber, Black and sluggish, more than seven Hundred fathoms deep below you. Right along the Edge we two Clove our passage through the air. Never rode I such a colt! Straight before us as we rushed ’Twas as though there glittered suns. Brown-backed eagles that were sailing In the wide and dizzy void Half-way ’twixt us and the tarns, Dropped behind, like motes in air. On the shores crashed hurtling ice-floes, But no echo reached my ears. Only sprites of dizziness[23] sprang, Dancing, round;—they sang, they swung, Circle-wise, past sight and hearing! ÅSE. [_Dizzy._] Oh, God save me! PEER. All at once, At a desperate, break-neck spot, Rose a great cock-ptarmigan, Flapping, cackling, terrified, From the crack where he lay hidden At the buck’s feet on the Edge. Then the buck shied half around, Leapt sky-high, and down we plunged, Both of us, into the depths! [_ÅSE totters, and catches at the trunk of a tree. PEER GYNT continues_: