WITHIN RANGE. } 917°

After turning over in his mind several alter- |
natives, the Captain was still undecided, when, all |
at once, his eye rested upon a clay-coloured line
running across the prairie where the animals were -
feeding. It was a break in the plain, a buffalo.
road, or the channel of a water-course ; in either
case the very cover that was wanted, for the ante- |
lopes were not a hundred yards from it, and were
approaching towards it as they fed. .

Creeping back out of the thicket, the eager
huntsman now ran along the side of the slope to-
ward a point where he had noticed the ridge was
depressed to the prairie level. Here, to his sur-
prise, he found himself on the banks of a broad
streamlet, whose water, clear and shallow, ran_
slowly over a bed of sand and gypsum. The banks
were low, not more than three feet above the sur-
face of the water, except where the ridge advanced
over the stream. Here there was a high bluff, and
hurrying round its base he entered the channel,
and commenced wading upward. As he anticipated,
he soon came to a bend, where the stream, after run-
ning parallel to the ridge, swept round and passed
through it. At this place he stopped, and peeped
cautiously over the bank. The antelopes had ap-
proached within less than rifle reach of the stream,
but they were still far above the position he had
gained, and again bending down he waded on. _