Show STUDENT LTFE A New York naturalist visiting the Cliftrock Basin for the purpose of enlarging his cabinet and museum offered the reward of five hundred dollars for the horns and head of Pronghorn the famous stag of the Meteache For this task no one was better fitted than Wolver Bob who was known all over the basin to be a hunter seldom surpassed in skill He was not to be daunted by the many cowboys who laughingly told him the old stag had outwitted many expert hunters and that it was folly to undertake the capture of Pronghorn whose veiy name caused many an old hunter to scratch his head look at his listener in a weird manner and prophesy that the Meteache Stag had a charmed life and that no one could rob him of those massive antlers until the spell was broken It did seem that Pronghorn lived under a charmed spell Often had his pursuer’s heart beat fast as the great stag seemed within his reach often had hound strained every muscle to gain the few yards between himself and the black-tail’- s jugular but each time that Spirit which seems to guard wild animals saved him Some dark ravine where horse could not follow or dizzy chasm over which the brutal hound could not leap appeared at the critical moment Yet Bob was undaunted He too was an exception among men and with few words but with a cold irony determination he swore that the famous stag should die by his hand £ The next morning was very cold the full moon and twinkling stars seemed to lend a deeper chill to the freezing air Yet Bill was out and with a blanket and a knapsack filled with dried venison coffee and tobacco fastened to his back he started for a deer lick in the hills to the west where a T O A cowboy told him he had seen the deer a fewr days before and wrhere it would doubtless return to obtain salt Though veary from hours of travel Bob doggedly pushed forward until he arrived at his destination Here he built a small hut of boughs and sticks wdiich was more like a beaver’s home than of |