It was a glorious morning.  A cool breeze came from the north and west, and about nine o’clock Langdon fastened Muskwa to his tree, saddled a horse, and rode down the valley.  He had no intention of hunting.  It was a joy merely to ride and breathe in the face of that wind and gaze upon the wonders of the mountains.

He travelled northward for three or four miles, until he came to a broad, low slope that broke through the range to the westward.  A desire seized upon him to look over into the other valley, and as his knee was giving him no trouble he cut a zigzag course upward that in half an hour brought him almost to the top.

Here he came to a short, steep slide that compelled him to dismount and continue on foot.  At the summit he found himself on a level sweep of meadow, shut in on each side of him by the bare rock walls of the split mountains, and a quarter of a mile ahead he could see where the meadow broke suddenly into the slope that shelved downward into the valley he was seeking.

Halfway over this quarter of a mile of meadow there was a dip into which he could not see, and as he came to the edge of this he flung himself suddenly upon his face and for a minute or two lay as motionless as a rock.  Then he slowly raised his head.

A hundred yards from him, gathered about a small water-hole in the hollow, was a herd of goats.  There were thirty or more, most of them Nannies with young kids.  Langdon could make out only two Billies in the lot.  For half an hour he lay still and watched them.  Then one of the Nannies struck out with her two kids for the side of the mountain; another followed, and seeing that the whole band was about to move, Langdon rose quickly to his feet and ran as fast as he could toward them.

For a moment Nannies, Billies, and little kids were paralyzed by his sudden appearance.  They faced half about and stood as if without the power of flight until he had covered half the distance between t hem.  Then their wits seemed to return all at once, and they broke in a wild panic for the side of the nearest mountain.  Their hoofs soon began to clatter on boulder and shale, and for another half-hour Langdon heard the hollow booming of the rocks loosened by their feet high up among the crags and peaks.  At the end of that time they were infinitesimal white dots on the sky-line.

He went on, and a few minutes later looked down into the other valley.  Southward this valley was shut out from his vision by a huge shoulder of rock.  It was not very high, and he began to climb it.  He had almost reached the top when his toe caught in a piece of slate, and in falling he brought his rifle down with tremendous force on a boulder.

He was not hurt, except for a slight twinge in his lame knee.  But his gun was a wreck.  The stock was shattered close to the breech and a twist of his hand broke it off entirely.