THE STILL HUNT. 125 



wound among the meadow paths far away on the 

 plains ! 



Again I watched, and this time more successfully, for 

 over the knoll I could see a pair of horns coming slowly 

 forward, though the deer was still out of sight. They 

 advanced like a rower in a boat, with measured but irre- 

 gular speed, and once in a while stopped altogether. 

 Then my heart beat like a drum, but when the horns 

 advanced again I felt more composed. At length the 

 head appeared above the brow of the hill, then the 

 shoulders, then the full length and height of the animal ; 

 there was no more doubt it was the sockdolager of a 

 buck described by Mike. When it reached the hill it 

 seemed to halt for a survey, and viewed the whole extent 

 of the woods and savannah. Trees, and waters, and 

 waving grass, the cool retreats of low hanging bushes, 

 all appeared to his eye like the pleasant meadows to the 

 monarch bull, when released from his winter's stall, he 

 looks over the farm in the spring. All kinds of nervous 

 apprehensions arose in my mind. I feared lest he might 

 turn back, and almost called out in my anxiety. I 

 dreaded lest he should see me, and crouched to the 

 earth to prevent it. Presently, apparently satisfied with 

 his examination, he marched down the hill to where I lay 

 in ambush. His head high up, his great horns back, his 

 step like the step of a race-horse, he looked like a march- 

 ing king. I could not see any part of his body but his 

 breast, and did not like to take a front shot, but waited 

 until he should present some other view. But the stag 



