A *TTOT AT A BEER. " IT'S MIGHTY QUEER." 99 



after all valiant anil dangerous, leismvly turned to depart. 

 At that instant Ilalsey pulled the trigircr and the old muz- 

 xle-loader roared and volleyed like a round half do/en 

 thunder holts. There was a irrcal splashing' and dashing of 

 water for a inoincnt. We thought the lively animal was 

 down and that all we now had to do was to advance in 

 good order and piek up our inline. lint as the smoke 

 lifted we saw. to our dismay, the creature spring ashore 

 with two or three \ igorous hounds and disai)]tear. Scarcely 

 had we reali/ed \\hal had occurred, when, a few rods 

 above, this deer or another ran across the stream to the op- 

 posite shoiv and plunged into the thicket. 

 " Great guns!" said 1, "Ilalsey. is \\\\^ country full of 



deer'.' 



"Well. 1 can't say about that," replied lie, "but 1 do 

 think what there are of 'em are about the liveliest fellows 1 

 ever did see 1 .lust think of it, now' This old trim \\a< 

 loaded with buck-shot to kill. That chap nuM have got 

 some of 'em under his skin. 1 wouldn't have given ten 

 cents to IK- insured on him I'd 'ave bet my last dollar that 

 lie was mine. And to think that in less than a minute he 

 or another fellow hove in sight! [t's mighty queer." And 

 the guide relapsed into a mournful, meditative silence. 



Chris, now approached and insisted that he had plainly 

 seen the buck shot strike the water, falling short of the aim, 

 and that these caused the splashing and not the deer. ITow- 

 e\er. both uuides went ashore and searched for blood, but 

 it was n,.\v growing dark and if there were such traces they 

 were unable to discover tin-in. 



