With which words he took to his heels, and, catching sight of the deer, followed him up through the dense undergrowth, without being able to get a shot at him. This went on for about twenty minutes, during which, his rifle at full cock, he never looked to the right or left. Suddenly the moose deer stood still, as if he sniffed another enemy in the direction in which he was going. The American lost no time, but took steady aim for a second or two and fired. The stricken deer bounded into the air, and then once more took to its heels. But the hunter was determined not to lose him. Unhappily, however, in his eagerness, he did not look before him, and just as he thought the deer began to droop, while he increased his speed his foot slipped and he went head over heels, falling a height of about fifteen feet, to alight upon a kind of pavement of hard flint stones. The fall was so heavy that the American not only was bruised all over, but fainted. A feeling of coolness suddenly came over him, and caused him to open his eyes. He looked wildly around him, and saw a young man of about seven-and-twenty, in the costume of a trapper, his handsome face bent over him with a look of deep solicitude, while he bathed his face with a handkerchief soaked with water. "Are you better, Mr. Samuel?" said the other. "Hem!" cried the American; "Am I mad?" "Not in the least, Master Samuel, at least, that I am aware of," was the reply. "But what has happened?" cried the other, with an awful grimace. "A very simple thing: you shot a deer, and in your eagerness to catch him you did not notice that you were on the summit of an eminence, and so rolled over, to the detriment of your bones." "A very simple thing!" groaned the other; "You speak very complacently, Master George. Is anything broken?" "Nothing. I examined you carefully--nothing but bruises, of that I am sure." "Cursed deer! If I only had secured it. But the brute escaped me after all." "No, my friend. You are too good a shot to miss your aim. There lies your game, quite dead." "Thank goodness! That is lucky. But oh! Oh! I feel as if I had received a severe beating. Help me up." "But had you not better rest a while?" "Go to the deuce. I am not a whining sniggler, like my niece," he began; "by the way," he added, "that puts me in mind! Young man--" "Allow me to help you up--take my arm. I am strong; so lean as heavily as you like. There, you are all right. Your rifle will serve you as a staff." Thanks to the assistance of the young man, the American contrived to stand on his legs, making horrible grimaces and groaning all the time. "I wish my brother had been anywhere, with his mad notion of emigration," he said, grumbling; "but that is not the immediate question. Will you answer me?" "I am quite ready. You cannot carry the deer--shall I hang it up in safety until you send for it?" "Will you answer me?" cried Samuel, ferociously.