firmly and lightly on his feet. He told him that when on the fissures of the
rocks he could find no place for his feet, he must support himself on his
elbows, and cling with his legs, and even lean firmly with his back, for this
could be done when necessary. He told him also that the chamois are very
cunning, they place lookers-out on the watch; but the hunter must be more
cunning than they are, and find them out by the scent.
One day, when Rudy went out hunting with his uncle, he hung a coat and
hat on an alpine staff, and the chamois mistook it for a man, as they
generally do. The mountain path was narrow here; indeed it was scarcely a
path at all, only a kind of shelf, close to the yawning abyss. The snow that
lay upon it was partially thawed, and the stones crumbled beneath the feet.
Every fragment of stone broken off struck the sides of the rock in its fall, till
it rolled into the depths beneath, and sunk to rest. Upon this shelf Rudy’s
uncle laid himself down, and crept forward. At about a hundred paces
behind him stood Rudy, upon the highest point of the rock, watching a great
vulture hovering in the air; with a single stroke of his wing the bird might
easily cast the creeping hunter into the abyss beneath, and make him his
prey. Rudy’s uncle had eyes for nothing but the chamois, who, with its
young kid, had just appeared round the edge of the rock. So Rudy kept his
eyes fixed on the bird, he knew well what the great creature wanted;
therefore he stood in readiness to discharge his gun at the proper moment.
Suddenly the chamois made a spring, and his uncle fired and struck the
animal with the deadly bullet; while the young kid rushed away, as if for a
long life he had been accustomed to danger and practised flight. The large
bird, alarmed at the report of the gun, wheeled off in another direction, and
Rudy’s uncle was saved from danger, of which he knew nothing till he was
told of it by the boy.
While they were both in pleasant mood, wending their way homewards,
and the uncle whistling the tune of a song he had learnt in his young days,
they suddenly heard a peculiar sound which seemed to come from the top of
the mountain. They looked up, and saw above them, on the over-hanging
rock, the snow-covering heave and lift itself as a piece of linen stretched on
